A study on english set expressions containing the word “BLUE” and the vietnamese equivalents

The purpose of my study is to describe the syntactic and semantic features of color expressions, especially concentrates on blue color, show some similarities and differences between Eng

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

A STUDY ON ENGLISH SET EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING

THE WORD “BLUE” AND THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU NGỮ CỐ ĐỊNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH CÓ

CHỨA TỪ “BLUE” VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

ĐINH THỊ THU HƯƠNG

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

A STUDY ON ENGLISH SET EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING THE WORD “BLUE” AND THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU NGỮ CỐ ĐỊNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH CÓ CHỨA TỪ

“BLUE” VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

ĐINH THỊ THU HƯƠNG

Field: English Language Code: 60.22.02.01

Supervisor: Dr Nguy ễn Thị Vân Đông

Hanoi, 2017

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

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

entitled A study on English set expressions containing the word “BLUE” and the Vietnamese equivalents submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for

the degree of Master in English Linguistics Except where the reference is indicated,

no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Dinh Thi Thu Huong

Approved by SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)

Nguyen Thi Van Dong, PhD

Date:………

My sincere acknowledgement also goes to all my lecturers and officers of Faculty of Graduate Studies, Hanoi Open University, who have facilitated me with the best possible conditions during my whole course of studying

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my friends for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work

ABSTRACT

The title of my thesis is a study on syntactic and semantic features of English color expressions and the Vietnamese equivalents The purpose of my study is to describe the syntactic and semantic features of color expressions, especially concentrates on blue color, show some similarities and differences between English color expressions and the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features, and propose the implications for teaching and learning these English expressions at high school

To carry out this research, I use descriptive, analytical and contrastive methods.The author combines descriptive research method and comparative analysis method, in which survey questionnaires, the comparative method, the statistic method and the analytical method are included Being the result of survey, the author has pointed out the similarities and differences of English BLUE set expressions Hopefully, the finding of this study can, to some extent, be suggested

as a referential material for Vietnamese students and teachers in studying and teaching color expressions

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

e.g.: for example etc.: et cetera CEx: Color expressions ECEx: English color expressions VCEx: Vietnamese color expressions

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Functions of adjective 11

Table 3.1 Syntactic features of BLUE set expressions ……….24

Table 3.2 Semantic meaning of BLUE set expressions in English………42

Table 3.3 Semantic fields of the word “XANH” in Vietnamese summarized

from collected data ………44

Table 3.4 The similarities and differences of semantic meaning of BLUE set expressions in English and “XANH” in Vietnamese ………44

Table 4.1 Subjects in use ……… 53

Table 4.2 Key to the exercise ………55

Table 4.3 The result of the survey ……… 55

Table 4.4 The result of the survey ……… 58

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES v

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the research 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the research 2

1.3 Research questions……… ………3

1.4 Methods of the study……… …….3

1.5 Scopes of the research 4

1.6 Significance of the research 5

1.7 Design of the research 5

Chapter 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Review of previous studies 7

2.2 Review of theoretical background 9

2.2.1 Theoretical framework 9

2.2.2 Theory of syntax……… …… …9

2.2.3 Theory of semantics……… ……… ….10

2.2.4 Theory of color set expressions……… … …11

2.3 Theoretical background 13

2.3.1 Definition of expressions 13

2.3.2 Classifications of expressions 15

2.3.3 Features of color expressions 16

2.3.4 An overview of blue color 19

2.4 Summary 22

Chapter 3 : A STUDY ON ENGLISH SET EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING THE WORD “BLUE” AND THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 23

3.1 Syntactic features of blue set expressions 23

3.2 Semantic features of blue set expressions 26

3.3 Comparison between the Semantic Features of the Word “BLUE” in English and “XANH” in Vietnamese 43

3.3.1 In terms of similarities 44

3.3.2 In terms of differences 46

3.4 Summary 47

Chapter 4: COMMON ERRORS MADE BY LEARNERS OF ENGLISH WHEN USING ENGLISH “BLUE” SET EXPRESSIONS 49

4.1 Survey questionnaires 50

4.1.1 The subjects……….… 51

4.1.2 Questionnaires (predictions) 51

4.1.3 Procedure 52

4.2 Common errors made by learners of English when using English BLUE set expressions in English and in Vietnamese 57

4.2.1 Common errors made by learners of English 57

4.2.2 Causes of committing errors 57

4.3 Suggestions for teaching and learning English BLUE set expressions in English and in Vietnamese 58

4.4 Summary 60

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 61

5.1 Recapitulation 61

5.2 Concluding remarks……….……… 61

5.3 Limitations of the research 62

5.4 Suggestions for future research 62

REFERENCES 63

APPENDICES 66

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the research

Nowadays, the globalization has become a wide-spread trend in the world, therefore, communication with high requirements has become an urgent trend in the world than ever That is the reason why English is the most popular and flexible language in the world However, in spite of the fact that English has been the most common language, there stand challenges existing for foreign learners to overcome Those difficulties derive from special factors such as culture, context or even speaker’s implication They affect on foreign learners’ understanding as well as using the language

In studying English, especially for the Vietnamese, it is really a shortcoming if

we do not take English color expressions into consideration, English color expressions are not only a part of language, but also one of the components creating traditional culture of a nation Through these expressions, we can learn more clearly and deeply about English people, their country as well as their culture

According to Rod Ellis, one way to help foreign learners of English overcome their language related problems is to teach them formulaic and figurative expressions such as proverbs, idioms, metaphors, phrasal verbs etc which are a crucial part of natural language production (Rod Ellis, 2008) Therefore, color expressions are selected as the focus of this study because it is seen as specific characteristics of culture, and each color English expression has its own features It lies in the fact that, colors have taken an important role in the living and each color also has its own meaning Therefore, there have been a lot of studies involved in the meaning of colors expressions in order to know how to use them

It is said that the “color terms” have been used to show differences in color

of each language all over the world While we might readily expect differences for words relating to things in environment such as animal and plants, or for cultural system like governance or kinship terms, it might seem surprising that terms for colors should vary The investigation claims that languages vary in the number and

range of their basic color terms (Berlin and Kay, 1969) As a result, knowledge of color expressions can increase comprehension of texts and using them can make learners’ verbal and written communication more effective (Iron, 1986; Vanyushkina-Holt, 2005)

Being aware of the importance of color expressions in daily interaction as well

as in learning language, many researchers have made efforts to study issues and aspects in this field Many researchers have concentrated on analyzing semantic and cultural features, as well as psychological factors of color expressions Nevertheless, a study of English and Vietnamese color expressions has not been dealt with so far

For the reasons above, I decided to choose the thesis entitled “A study on English set expressions containing the word “blue” and the Vietnamese equivalents”

as the topic of the master graduation thesis with a view of helping Vietnamese learners

of English understand more clearly about the way of using and translating them from English to Vietnamese and vice-versa Hopefully, it will somehow help Vietnamese learners enrich their knowledge and have a deeper insight into English color expressions As for the learners of English or Vietnamese, a contrastive analysis of semantic features of color expressions in this thesis will help them improve the ability

of using and understanding Especially, the study of all kinds of color expressions are expected to provide the translators with fresh thinking of culture, lifestyle, custom, notions, which brings their works to perfection to some extent

1.2 Aims and objectives of the research

This study is conducted to aim at finding out the typical semantic features of English color expressions, especially investigating BLUE set expressions in English and the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features, thus helping Vietnamese learners of English to have better understanding of these expressions and be able to use them effectively in daily communication

With a view to achieving the mentioned-above aims, some specific objectives have been put forward as the following:

- Identify, describe the syntactic, semantic features of English color expressions and the BLUE set expressions in English

- Point out the similarities and differences of these English expressions containing the word BLUE and the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features

- Make some suggested applications for teaching and learning English expressions containing the word BLUE

1.4 Methods of the study

This study is planned to identify and describe some syntactic and semantic features of the English color expressions BLUE with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, from these findings, some similarities and differences would be shown

To achieve this purpose, a large number of color expressions, and BLUE color has been collected and treated differently at various time After that, the data has been collected and analyzed in a careful consideration with the combination of contrastive analysis in qualitative and quantitative approaches, which are used in the arguments and discussions

Comparative and contrastive methods help us to set up similarities and differences in the way of using color expressions by English and Vietnamese people

in both spoken and written language by doing the survey

Besides, descriptive, analysis and contrastive methods are used as the major methodology of this study The method as descriptive research is utilized to

describe and demonstrate linguistic features of expression containing the word Blue

in English and the Vietnamese equivalents, the methods are also used to describe

the syntactic and semantic feature of the word Blue Some typical examples and

statistic tables of classification these ones are given to make a clearance The method contrastive research is utilized to find out similarities and differences of these expressions in terms of syntactic and semantic features

Besides, some of the research techniques are used and combined such as statistics and observation methods to draw out necessary findings

Last but not least, setting up a regular consultancy with supervisor for a guidance and academic exchange is a critical technique to get the right direction to

1.5.2 Social scope

In the process of completing this research thesis, all the material collection of English color expressions and the equivalents in Vietnamese with illustration examples are collected and considered before being used with the hope that the outcome of this thesis, to some extent, would be able to make a certain contribution

to enhancing the quality of communication for Vietnamese learning English

1.6 Significance of the research

In terms of theoretical significance, the research is expected to contribute an in-depth description of English expressions containing the word BLUE byanalyzing their syntactic and semantic features in comparison with Vietnamese equivalents

In terms of practical significance, English color expressions have been studied

in many aspects such as culture, custom, and even psychology but there have been

no studies dealing with the syntactic and semantic features of English color expressions, especially BLUE color set expressions with reference to the Vietnamese equivalent Thus, this research is conducted in attempt to provide Vietnamese learners of English with better mastering these color expressions in sensible ways, and naturally use them in receptive and productive skills In describing the syntactic and semantic features of English color expressions, especially BLUE color set expressions will be taken into consideration as the ground for my study with the hope of making a contribution in to the process of overcoming some difficulties met by the Vietnamese learners of English

1.7 Design of the research

This study includes five main chapters as follows:

Chapter 1, “Introduction”, provides an overview of the issues to be covered and the situations in which the study is carried out The aims, the specific objectives, the research questions, the methods of the study, the scope, the significance and the design of the study are also presented in this chapter

Chapter 2, “Literature Review”, discusses the previous studies on proverbs relating to the area of the research and presents some theoretical preliminaries that could be used as foundation for the process of conducting the research

Chapter 3, describes and analyses the syntactic and semantic features of English expressions, especially the expressions containing the word BLUE with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents to find out and discuss the similarities and

dissimilarities in terms of these features expressed through English and Vietnamese English expressions containing word BLUE set expressions

Chapter 4, mentions the errors that students are easy to make by some methods (survey questionnaires, trap students by giving the wrong answers for them to do, therefore, help them realize their errors and they will know the uses of the expressions

Chapter 5, The conclusions, summarizes the major findings resulted from the investigation and data analysis, presents the limitations of the study, provides some suggestions for further research and proposes some possible applications for using these expressions containing the word BLUE from English into Vietnamese

Chapter 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review serves two main purposes The first part, gives a review

of previous studies related to English color expressions in general The second part presents and discusses the theoretical background which guide and inform this research

2.1 Review of previous studies

It could be seen that English color expressions considerably play an important part in linguistic treasure of all nations in the world That is one reason that there have been many studies on English color expressions in terms of psychological and cultural factors but few of them concentrates on various fields of language such as syntax, semantics and translations, etc Therefore, this caused some difficulties for the writer in the process of researching materials

• In English

In 1953, Lenneberg made an often-cited “strong version” of the claim, firstly given to the readers who showed concerns to the theory, proposes that language structure determines how we perceive the world In this claim, Lenneberg and his colleague – Roberts presented their paper “The Denota of Color Terms” at the Linguistic Society of America In this paper, they reported their findings on color recall in Zuni speakers Zuni has one color term for yellow and orange, and Lenneberg and Roberts’ study reported that Zuni speakers encountered greater difficulty in color recall for these colors than English speakers, who have available terms to distinguish them On the contrary to Lenneberg and Roberts’ study, a

“weaker version” of this claim posits that language structure influences the world view of speakers of a given language but does not determine it

After that, Brown and Lenneberg published “A Study in Language and Cognition” in 1954, where they discussed the effect of cod ability on recognition Brown and Lenneberg attributed this effect to the property of cod ability Linguistic cod ability is the ease with which people can name things and the effects of naming

on cognition and behavior In their experiment, they used a series of Munsell chips

to test color recall and recognition in English speakers Their findings suggested

that the availability of a basic color term in a given language affected the retention

of that color in recall testing In other words, Brown and Lenneberg linked their study to Lenneberg and Roberts’ 1953 findings on color recall in Zuni speakers

In 1969, Berlin and Paul Kay carried out a research named “Basic color terms: their universality and evolution” (published by University of California Press) This

is one important area of discussion has been the differences in color terms in languages and raised a new theory of differences for words relating to things in environment such as animals and plants, or for cultural systems like governance or kinship terms, it might be surprising that terms for colors should vary Berlin and Kay investigated the fact that languages vary in the number and range of their basic color terms

The conclusion seems to be that the perception of the colors is the same for all human beings but that language lexicalizes for different naming; and certainly, all

of the previous studies on perception of colors have raised the issue that there are universals in color naming and thus forms a critique of the hypothesis of linguistic relativity

• In Vietnam:

As a matter of fact, there have been a lot of studies on expressions which have attracted learners of English such as Bùi Phụng (2003), Thành ngữ Anh Việt, Nxb Văn hóa thông tin, Hà Nội or Nguyễn Lực, Lương Văn Đang with “Thành ngữ tiếng Việt” in which a large amount of expressions, their variants are collected with examples Besides, “Từ điển Thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam” by Đặng Hồng Chương

is a collection of expressions and proverbs with explanations of them

The relativity between colors and languages is not a newly- debated issue; however, some of these only concentrates on some focal colors, such as Trần Thị Thu Huyền with “Hoa cỏ và màu sắc trong thành ngữ tiếng Việt” (2001)

Another study is “Tính biểu trưng của từ ngữ chỉ màu sắc trong tiếng Việt” by Trịnh Thị Minh Hương at Ho Chi Minh Pedagogical University (2009) In this paper, she also described, analyzed and compared linguistic and cultural features between English and Vietnamese color words

I have also researched the thesis of Phạm Thị Kim Chuyên at Da Nang University, the research is on the linguistic features of the words “Green” in English and “Xanh” (lá cây) in Vietnamese, Phan Thị Lệ Huyền marked a new trend with

contrastive analysis in both semantic and pragmatic of “black” in English and

“Đen” in Vietnamese Together with the study on semantic features of English color expressions with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents (nghiên cứu đặc trưng ngữ nghĩa của các thành ngữ Tiếng Anh chỉ màu sắc trong sự liên hệ với tương đương Tiếng Việt) Nguyễn Thị Hòa (Hanoi Open University) The research makes clear the semantic features of color expressions, especially Red and Green, with the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese as well

After examining the studies mentioned above, it could be seen that so far there have found no studies engaged in the semantic features of English color expressions with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents in English although many linguists, grammarians, compilers and researchers have dealt with color words in Vietnamese Therefore, these materials have made a suggestion about the subject of color expressions with the reference in Vietnamese equivalents that still is open subject

2.2 Review of theoretical background

2.2.1 Theoretical framework

In this part, some concepts and the uses of the theory of syntax have been mentioned in a very clear way with semantics and color set expressions that will help people find out the similarities and differences of syntactic and semantic

features of English set expressions containing the word Blue and the Vietnamese

equivalents

2.2.2 Theory of syntax

Until now, there are many definitions to adjectives but the core one is:

Syntax is the grammar, structure or order of the elements in a language statement (semantics is the meaning of these elements) Syntax applies to computer languages

as well as to natural languages Usually, we think of syntax as “word order” However, syntax is also achieved in some languages such as Latin by inflectional case endings In computer languages, syntax can be extremely rigid as in the case of most assembler languages or less rigid in language that make use of “keyword” parameters that can be stated in any order

Syntax is also a set of rules in a language It dictates how word from different parts of speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought

In this research, syntax is used to convey the meaning of color expressions and BLUE color set expressions, to explain the rules for grammatical arrangement of words denoting color expressions and the word BLUE color in sentences

2.2.3 Theory of Semantics

John Isaeed (1997) posited that Semantics is the study of meaning communicated through language and “Syntax is the study how words can be combined into a sentence; and semantics is the study of the meanings of words and sentences” It could be seen that whereas syntax is the grammar, structure or order

of the elements in a language statement, semantics is the meaning of these elements Semantics has a long history of researching as well as many controversies about its definition but the word “semantics” made it earliest entry into the Old English Dictionary only in 1890s

Goddard (1998) remarks that semantics is the systematic study of meaning, is

at the center of linguistic request to understand the nature of language and human language abilities for two reasons The first reason is that expressing meanings is what language is all about – everything from words to grammatical constructions and structures The second one is that semantics can shed the light on the relationship between language and culture

The term “linguistic semantics” is used by J Lyons (1995) and considered as correspondingly ambiguous because “linguistic semantics” can be held to refer either to the study of meaning in so far as this is expressed in language or, alternatively, to the study of meaning within linguistics “Linguistics semantics is the study of meaning in so far as it is systematically encoded in the vocabulary and grammar of natural languages” As for Charles Kreidler (1998), there are three disciplines are concerned with the systematic study of “meaning” itself: psychology, philosophy, and linguistics Their particular interests and approaches are different, yet each borrows from and contributes to the others

Obviously, “Semantics is the systematic study of meaning of words and sentences, and linguistic semantic is the study of how language organize and express meaning” (Charles Kreidler,1998); hence, it has been the central to the

study of communication and study of the human mind - thought processes, cognition With this definition, semantics is included under lexicology, the more general science of words, being its most important branch

In all cases mentioned above, the linguistic researchers offer different aspects

of Semantics Different as they are, the definition of Semantics is more interesting and clear Due to the scope of this study, semantics aspect is selected to serve as working researching for the study; therefore, the findings in chapter III basically

concentrates on semantic findings of expressions containing word Blue

2.2.4 Theory of color set expressions

In the first place, definition of adjective denoting colors will be presented:

An adjective is a kind of word that modifies a noun Nouns are words that name a place, a person, a thing or an idea An adjective is a word that give more information about the noun that goes with it It is a part of speech Adjectives are something that describe something and make the things sound better

The table below will help readers to understand more about the roles of adjectives, so that the adjective “BLUE” is used and understood more clearly

Table 2.1 Functions of adjective

Order Functions Examples

1 Describe feelings or qualities He is a lonely man, she is an

honest person

2 Give nationality or origin I am Vietnamese

3 Tell more about a thing’s characteristics A wooden table

5 Tell about size and measurement That is a long film

7 Tell about materials She wore a cotton hat

8 Express a judgement or a value Grammar is boring

There are definitions (or categories) of color based on the color wheel: primary color, secondary color and tertiary color Although color theory principles

first appeared in the writings of Leone Battista Alberti and the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1490), a tradition of "color theory" began in the 18th century, initially within a partisan controversy around Isaac Newton's theory of color (Opticks, 1704) and the nature of so-called primary colors From there it developed

as an independent artistic tradition with only superficial reference to calorimetric and vision science

There are also two kinds of color process: Subtractive color (reflected pigment) and addictive color (projected light or reflected light)

But in my study, color theory has been concerned originally formulated in

terms of three "primary" or "primitive" colors - red, yellow and blue (RYB) - because these colors were believed the capable of mixing all other colors and black and white (achromatic colors) - two of the most debated issues about color Ask a scientist and you will get a reply based on physics: “Black is not a color, white is a color.” Ask an artist or a child with crayons and you will get another: “Black is a color, white is not a color.” Because of some issues, it is very interesting to discover

in my thesis

After having studied 98 languages (20 languages experimentally and investigating the literature on color term semantics for 78 additional languages), Berlin and Kay 1969 presented evidence indicating that all languages share a universal system of basic color categorization Furthermore, their basic experimental found that “color categorization is not random and the foci of basic color terms are similar in all languages” On the other hand, their conclusion drawn

in this and subsequent studies is that color naming systems are based on the neurophysiology of the human visual system (Kay and M.C Daniel 1978) A further claim is that there are eleven basic categories; and that these form the implicational hierarchy below:

Basic color term hierarchy (Berlin and Kay, 1969):

This hierarchy represents the claim that in a relation A<B, if a language has B then it must have A, but not vice versa

All languages contain terms for white and black

- If a language contains three terms, then it contains a term for red

- If a language contains four terms, then it contains a term for either green or

yellow (but not both)

- If a language contains five terms, then it contains a term for blue

- If a language contains six terms, then it contains a term for brown

- If a language contains eight or more terms, then it contains a term for

purple, pink, orange, grey, or some combination of these

2.3 Theoretical background

2.3.1 Definition of expressions

According to John Lyons (1995) posited that the expression of a language falls into two sets One set, finite in number, is made up of lexically simple expressions: lexemes These are the expressions that one would expect to find listed in a dictionary: they are vocabulary-units of a language, out of which the members of the second set, lexically composite expression, are constructed by means of grammatical (i.e syntactic and morphological) rules of the language

Not all the expressions listed in a dictionary, however, are words Some of them are what traditionally called phrases; and phrasal expressions, like word-expressions

English expressions have their own phrases and sentences that used daily in communication, in speech as well as in writing Furthermore, “phraseology unit is the study of set expressions called phraseological units These set expressions are completely or partially idiomatic in speech as ready-made unit” (Đang Tran Cuong, 2001) Expressions required of fixed phrases, sentences, idioms and proverbs; in this study the working definition include proverbs and idioms In order to bring a deep insight, the definition of expression would be presented firstly as follows

In short, there are many kinds of definitions of expressions, but the one I would like to mention here is the definition of color expression, and here is the classification of expressions

Syntax is the grammar, structure or order of the elements in a language statement (semantics is the meaning of these elements) Syntax applies to computer

languages as well as to natural languages Usually, we think of syntax as “word order”

Syntax is also a set of rules in a language It dictates how word from different parts of speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought

In this research, syntax is used to convey the meaning of color expressions and

Blue color set expressions, to explain the rules for grammatical arrangement of

words denoting color expressions and the word Blue color in sentences

Syntax refers to the ways in which we order specific words to create logical, meaningful sentences While the parts of speech are all the different types of words that we can use, syntax is the set of rules, patterns, or processes by which we can put them together

Set expressions are the word-groups consisting of two or more words, combination of which is integrated as one unit with specialized non-literal meaning

of the whole

+ Set expressions functioning like nouns (white elephant)

+ Set expressions functioning like verbs (to catch up with…)

+ Set expressions on functioning like adjectives (as mad as a hatter…)

+ Set expressions functioning like adverbs (once in a blue moon…)

+ Set expressions functioning like interjections (God bless me! Hang it all) + Set expressions functioning like proverbs (It’s no use crying over spilt milk) + Set expressions functioning like set phrases (Tell it to the horse marines)

• In this part, syntactic features of blue set expressions are used in the

following cases:

- Syntactic features of blue set expressions are regarded as adjective phrases

- Syntactic features of blue set expressions are used as verb phrases

- Syntactic features of blue set expressions are used as adverb phrases

- Syntactic features of blue set expressions are used as noun phrases

Now some detailed information below about noun phrases, adverb phrases, adjective phrases and verb phrases will be analyzed to make clearer the function and

the uses of syntactic features of blue set expressions

• Noun phrases: A noun phrase is a phrase that plays the role of a noun The head word in a noun phrase will be a noun or a pronoun Like any noun, a noun phrase can be a subject, an object, or a complement

E.g.: The best defense against the atom bomb is not to be there when it goes off

In the above example, there is a noun phrase within a noun phrase The noun phrase “the atom bomb” is the object of the preposition “against” The prepositional phrase against the atom bomb modifies defense

• Adverb phrases: An adverb phrase is simply two or more words that act as an adverb It can modify a verb, adverb, or adjective and can tell “how”, “where”,

“why”, or “when”

E.g.: Bob nodded as if he understood

Meet me at the mall

• Adjective phrases: An adjective phrase is a group of words that describe a noun or a pronoun in a sentence The adjective in an adjective phrase can appear at the start, end, or in the middle of the phrase The adjective phrase can be placed before, or after the noun or pronoun in the sentence

E.g.: The final exams were really difficult

The highly emotive actor gave a wonderful performance

• Verb phrases: A verb phrase consists of a main verb alone, or a main verb plus, any modal and/or auxiliary verbs The main verb always comes last in the verb phrase A simple verb phrase consists of a main verb The verb in the simple verb phrase shows the type of clause (Your camera takes fantastic pictures) Complex verb phrases may include one modal verb and one or more auxiliary verb before the main verb A modal verb always comes before any auxiliary verbs (You may have played this game before)

in the field of syntax and semantics

Semantically, the most dominant feature of expression classifications is their composite unity which consists of empty words With these ones, their meanings

should be taken symbolically and metaphorically because they create a very different meaning than their appearance at first glance

According to Jackson and Ze Amvela, there are so-called “pure idioms” which are, in fact, “frozen idioms” that “tend to lose their vividness and speakers often lose sight of their metaphorical origins” Frozen idioms are not widely used by modern English speakers

Fernando divided expressions into three different groups depending on the degree of semantic isolation and the degree of opacity as follows

2.3.3 Features of color expressions

Each language has its own features, and these features have made the face, the cultural components of that language As we know, English language is more various and flexible than any other ones Especially, English has been a global language and called by an exact name “a living language” Therefore, English has much more outstanding and individual characteristics than other languages in the world

The general view of color expressions below will be able to provide readers with a certain knowledge of the features of some color expressions

2.3.3.1 Red color

A stimulant, red is the hottest of the warm colors Studies show that red can

have a physical effect, increasing the rate of respiration and raising blood pressure

It is a strong color that conjures up a range of seemingly conflicting emotions

from passionate love to violence and warfare People tend to wear red when they

desire energy or would like to make an impact or attract attention With respect

English idioms, red is also one among the most popular colors in English idioms with different meanings Here are some red-based idioms in English:

2.3.3.2 Yellow color

Yellow is sunshine It is a warm color that, like red, has conflicting symbol It

denotes happiness and joy ad gives the wearers a sense of self-confidence to help them cope during stressful situations It is also the color of cowardice and deceit

Because of the high visibility of bright yellow, it is often used for hazard signs and

some emergency vehicles

2.3.3.3 Black color

Black is the absence of color and can make other colors appear brighter It has conflicting connotations It can be serious and conventional; or mysterious, sexy and sophisticated (Thái Thị Ngọc Liễu, 1998)

color of truth, knowledge and illumination, and people select white when they want

to make a dramatic impression on others (Thái Thị Ngọc Liễu, 1998)

2.3.3.5 Green color

Green is the color of the nature just as grasses, the trees, the river, etc so it is often considered as the color of peaceful and quiet places According to some

psychologists, green also is the color of jealousy The ones who always involved in

competitions tend to love color green than others Therefore, English expressions on

green color often have the meaning of jealousy or the peaceful nature

2.3.3.6 Brown color

In Vietnamese, color brown is considered to match or fix with a low class in the feudalism; therefore, it is not easy to find color brown in poems or stories On

the contrary to this difference, brown is used to express the emotion, the mood of

someone, usually in negative or neutral way in English

Together with these features, English also has other characteristics which create cultural and traditional treasure of language, which include color expressions Because of the own meaning of each color in the living of English people, each color expression also play a special role in English language as well as the daily life

It lies in the fact that there are some typical features of color expressions They are as follows:

First of all, concerning to semantics, like many others English expression, one

of the most outstanding features of English color expressions is that their meanings could be ranged into the three groups: positive, negative, and neutral meaning The second feature of English color expressions is that the structures have no grammatical rules at all With the viewing from a syntactic aspect, color expressions usually have short and fixed forms and they form a complete utterance (Norrick, 2007)

For example: “Green around the gills” means that looking sickly

E.g.: My friend green around the gills after being heard the news

As we know, colors are very important for the users to express their feelings

so they are frequently associated with various moods or emotional states Then, color expressions are built up by using name of colors – and most of them are metaphorical when considering from a literary aspect They contain various figures

of speech and thus, they are part of figurative language; prosody is a typical feature

of color expressions (Norrick, 2007) as they include such stylistic markers as rhyme, alliteration etc

For example: “To be green with envy” means being so envious that it almost

turns one’s skin to green or sickly

E.g .: Daisy was green with envy when she knew you have been promoted

Or the expression “Make somebody see red” means making somebody so

angry that his/her face turn to red

E.g .: You made him see red with your criticism

Another feature of English color expressions is that each English color expression usually contains only one color However, some expressions can contain

a pair of colors and those ones are used in popularity with such expressions are

White, Black , and Blue

For example, the expression “In black and white” means that it is easy to see what is right and wrong, or another example is the expression “Black and blue (all

over)” whose meaning are the bruises from appearance

Thus, considering from a semantic aspect, color expressions express wisdom, general truths, morals, traditional views, experiences, observations, social norms, human nature and behavior accepted by the majority in the society;

Lastly, considering from a cultural aspect, color expressions are traditional and

a part of cultural literacy They represent values and norms of the society (Morris, 2003) and their origin is rooted from the cultural history of a nation or an ethnic

In sum, after taking the features of color expression in consideration carefully, one remarkable has emerged that not only these different aspects have no clear-cut distinctions or the overlaps between them but also all complementary to each other

2.3.4. An overview of blue color

According to Cobuild advanced English Dictionary, Copyright HarperCollins

Publishers, BLUE is the color between violet and green on the optical spectrum of visible light Human eyes perceive blue when observing light with a wave lengthbetween 450 and 495 nanometers, which is between 4500 and 4950 angstroms

Blues with a higher frequency and thus a shorter wave length gradually look more violet, while those with a lower frequency and a longer wavelength gradually

appear more green Pure blue, in the middle, has a wavelength of 470 nanometers (4700 angstroms) In painting and traditional color theory, blue is one of the three primary colors of pigments, along with red and yellow, which can be mixed to form a wide gamut of colors Red and blue mixed together form violet, blue and

yellow together form green Blue is also a primary color in the RGB color model,

used to create all the colors on the screen of a television or computer monitor

The modern English word blue comes from Middle English bleu or blewe, from the Old French bleu, a word of Germanic origin related to Old Dutch, Old High German, Old Saxon blāo and Old Frisian blāw, blau The clear sky and the

deep sea appear blue because of an optical effect known as Rayleigh scattering

When sunlight passes through the atmosphere, the blue wavelengths are scattered more widely by the oxygen and nitrogen molecules, and more blue comes to our eyes An optical effect called Tyndall scattering, similar to Rayleigh scattering, explains blue eyes; there is no blue pigment in blue eyes Distant objects appear more blue because of another optical effect called atmospheric perspective

Blue has been used for art and decoration since ancient times The precious stone lapis lazuli, coming from mines in Afghanistan, was used in ancient Egypt for jewelry and ornament and later, in The Renaissance, to make the pigment ultramarine, the most expensive of all pigments It is the most important

semi-color in Judaism In the Middle Ages, cobalt blue was used to semi-color the

stained of cathedrals Beginning in the 9th century, Chinese artists used cobalt to

make fine blue and white porcelain Blue dyes for clothing were made from wood in

Europe and indigo in Asia and Africa In 1828 a synthetic ultramarine pigment was

developed, and synthetic blue dyes and pigments gradually replaced mineral

pigments and vegetable dyes Pierre-Auguste Renoir,Vincent van Gogh and other late 19th century painters used ultramarine and cobalt blue not just to depict nature,

but to create moods and emotions In the late 18th century and 19th century, blue

became a popular color for military uniforms and police uniforms In the 20th century, because blue was commonly associated with harmony, it was chosen as the color of the flags of the United and the European Union Toward the end of the 20th

century, dark blue replaced dark grey as the most common color for business suits; surveys showed that blue was the color most associated with the masculine, just ahead of black, and was also the color most associated with intelligence,

knowledge, calm and concentration

Surveys in the US and Europe show that blue is the color most commonly

associated with harmony, faithfulness, confidence, distance, infinity, the imagination, cold, and sometimes with sadness In US and European public opinion polls it is the most popular color, chosen by almost half of both men and women as their favorite color

2.3.5 The association of BLUE color in language and culture

Culture and language, at all times, go together with each other; therefore, language is considered as an essential and vital part of culture and they have an interactional relationship, cannot make a separation, as Kramsch (2000) posited that: “language is the principle means whereby we conduct our social lives When it

is used in contexts of communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways.”

According to Mazurova, “concepts represented by means of color terms are the constituent parts of English idioms We proceed from the fact that color perception is similar for all people whereas its interpretation is different among different nations” In the article, she claims that color concepts reflect ethnic mentality: “the meaning of such idioms as black dog (melancholy and depression), black ox (misfortune), for example, is determined by negative cultural association connected with colors”

The existence of colors in nature is universal and timeless For example, the

fact that Blue color tells the sky or sea on a sunny day “the clear blue sky” It is also

of a person or mood melancholy, sad or depressed “he is feeling blue” The

symbolism or comparison are based on cultural, as well as contemporary contexts According to Berlin and Kay (1969), the relationship between color lexicons and cultural and technological development is addressed as follows: “Color lexicons with few terms tend to occur in association with relatively simple cultures and simple technologies, while color lexicons with many terms tend to occur in association with complex cultures and complex technologies”

Besides, the symbolism of color in different cultures tends to have the common identification of color names through cultural exchange Carl G Jung (1964) defined symbols “terms, names, or even pictures that may be conventional and obvious meaning” Fontana (1994), building on the work of Jung, pointed out that certain kinds of symbolism constitute a universal language and show that Jung’s ideas on symbolism go only part of the way in accounting for the rich and varied symbolic vocabularies of different cultures

As regards the linguistic expression of colors, Plumacher shows that: “The world is colored for human beings Although we can distinguish millions of color visually, only very few of them have special names” Furthermore, Wyler claims that “the group of color terms that freely generates figurative phrases and idioms is

formed by five color terms: “Red”, “Blue”, “Green”, and the two a-chromatic color names “White” and “Black”

From a deep insight of cultural and linguistic aspect, according to Berlin and Kay (1969), that’s the five colors have a varied appearances and an encoded

interpretation across languages BLUE in every spoken language is one of the first

colors mentioned in the vocabulary and expressions

2.4 Summary

The first section of this chapter has given a brief description of previous studies related to the research area, which are overseas and in Vietnam These studies are valued as the highly valuable source of reference In the second section, the review of the theoretical background concerning syntactic and semantics of

expressions and the meaning Blue color in the relationship with culture and

language to help readers have an over view of this study, which later are employed

to conduct the whole research thesis, has been presented Basing on such a foundation, all the syntactic and semantic features of English color expressions with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents will be described and analyzed in Chapter

IV

Chapter 3 : A STUDY ON ENGLISH SET EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING THE WORD “BLUE” AND THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS Overview

According to Berlin and Kay (1969), one of the seven popular colors (White,

Black, Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, and Brown) in basic systems of all languages is blue

In this chapter , after presenting a study of syntactic and semantic features of the seven English color expressions in general, a discussion of English expressions containing the

word blue with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and

semantic features will be mainly discussed From what has been presented earlier,

the similarities and differences of expressions containing the word blue color in terms of

syntactic and semantic features between English and Vietnamese will be pointed out with illustrations in details

3.1. Syntactic features of blue set expressions

• In order to make clear about the syntactic features of blue set expressions,

the table below will show some information about them

Table 3.1 Syntactic features of BLUE set expressions

Order Noun phrases Adjective

phrases Verb phrases

Adverb phrases Meaning

tộc)

workers chân tay)

the blue

(Sét đánh ngang tai)

murder

(Cật lực phản đối)

blue

(Biến mất không để lại dấu vết)

bí tỉ)

blue

(Làm cho ai buồn)

25 Blue screen of

death

(Cái chết của màn hình xanh - máy tính)

(Tức giận)

blue-arsedfly

(Bận bịu công việc)

ground the gills

(Xanh xao)

blazes

(Trách móc)

quan)

From the table above, the following graph will show the readers more clearly

about the summary of the syntactic features of English blue set expressions

Of the 44 phrases as shown in the table below, verb phrases take up 22, then noun phrases occupies for 16, and the two last ones are adjective phrases and adverb phrases occupy for 3

The following graph shows the outnumber of verb phrases, which occupies 50%, next to it is noun phrases, with the total number is 36%, then the last equal number of adjective phrases and adverb phrases are 7%

36%

7%

7%

50%

3.2. Semantic features of blue set expressions

As mentioned in the chapter 2, the meaning of expressions cannot be inferred from the meanings of individual words; therefore, it is the opacity of expressions that make Vietnamese learners of English get into a lot of troubles The degree of the troubles depends on the degree of semantic opacity of expressions

In the process of collecting materials of English and Vietnamese expressions,

containing the word blue, I have seen that there is a variety of sources of materials,

the number of them seems to be really enormous After carefully taking them in consideration, the number of expressions in both English and Vietnamese has been limited in a smaller part by omitting the similar or the rare ones

Among the seven colors, blue is one of the favorite color, which is often used

as a symbol of the natural beauty just as the blue sky, the deep blue sea However, color blue is always used to express depressed emotions, sad feelings in English

blue expressions In addition, it is also used to talk about the very astonishment

Before investigating the semantic features of blue color, I would like to analyse some idioms of blue color

3.2.1 Idioms with “blue”

A natural color, from the blue of the sky, blue is a universal color Blue is

calm It can be strong and steadfast or light and friendly In many diverse cultures,

blue is significant in religious beliefs, brings peace, or is believed to keep the bad

spirits away Blue is selected by those who would like to appear knowledgeable,

responsible and still exert an aura of credibility (Thái Thị Ngọc Liễu, 1998)

1 Blue blood

“Blue blood” comes from the medieval belief that aristocratic blood was blue

It is usually used to talk about novelty and royal family members In this idiom, it is

a structure of a noun phrase Regarding the semantic features, it means royal origins, and is alliteration in terms of stylistics

E.g.: Scott is trying to trace his ancestry His mother told him that generations ago

there was blue blood in the family

Scott đang cố gắng dõi theo tổ tiên của mình Mẹ anh đấy đã nói với anh ấy

rằng các thế hệ trước đã có dòng máu quý tộc trong gia đình

2 Blue in the face

If you do something until you are blue in the face, you try unsuccessfully to do

something for a very long time Hence, the idiom is used to describe a thing that you are wasting your efforts because you will get no results In this idiom, it is a

structure of an adjective phrase The idiom means upset, and has metaphorical sense:

E.g.: I explained the situation until I was blue in the face but she would not change

her mind

Tôi đã giải thích tình huống đó cho đến khi tôi nói hết lời nhưng cô ấy vẫn

không thay đổi suy nghĩ của mình

3 To feel blue

“blue” in the idiom refers to a state of sadness or depression This idiom is a verb phrase “to feel blue” means to have feelings of deep sadness

E.g.: What a gloomy day It makes me feel blue

Th ật là một ngày ảm đạm Nó làm cho tôi cảm thấy buồn quá

4 A blue-eyed boy

If a person is called a blue-eyed boy, it means a person highly regarded by someone and treated with special favor with figurative meaning Stylistically, the idiom is alliteration, and syntactically, it is a noun phrase

E.g.: He was the blue-eyed boy of the boss

Anh ấy là đứa con cưng của ông chủ

5 To appear/ happen out of the blue

- To arrive unexpectedly, usually after a long absence

Take this sentence as an example:

My brother suddenly appeared out of the blue yesterday We had not seen him

for years

Anh (Em) trai c ủa tôi bất chợt xuất hiện ngày hôm qua Chúng tôi đã không

g ặp anh (em) ấy nhiều năm rồi

- To happen very suddenly and unexpectedly

E.g.: I was driving home when out of the blue a deer jumped out in front of

my car I braked just in time to avoid it We were both very lucky not to be hurt Tôi đang lái xe về nhà thì bất chợt một con hươu xuất hiện ở đằng trước xe ô

tô c ủa tôi Tôi đã kịp phanh để tránh nó Thật may là cả hai chúng tôi đều không bị

th ương

6 Drink till all’s blue

This expression means that someone drinks until he /she is very drunk

E.g.: Whenever the man feels happy or sad, he often drinks till all’s blue

B ất kỳ lúc nào người đàn ông đó vui hay buồn, ông ta thường uống say bí tỉ (say mềm)

7 True blue

When you say “true blue” the expression means loyalty

E.g.: David is true-blue, you can count on him

David r ất đáng tin cậy, anh có thể trông cậy vào cậu ta

8 Blue eyed girl

The expression means an often derogatory term used to describe a woman who

is respected and treated especially well by an authority figure

E.g.: It was no surprise that Stacie got the promotion Everyone knows she is

the boss’s blue eyed girl

Không ng ạc nhiên gì khi Stacie lại được thăng chức Mọi người đều biết ông

ch ủ rất ưu ái cô ấy

9 Blue balls

It’s supposed to be a painful problem that guys have when they do not have sex In reality, there’s probably no such thing

E.g.: The man has felt blue ball for many years because of living far from his wife

10 Talk until you are blue in the face

The expression means to talk, talk, talk and talk some more until you are utterly and completely spent

E.g.: The three-year-old boy always talks until he is blue in the face

Đứa bé lên 3 luôn mồm nói cho tới khi nó mệt không thốt ra lời

11 Blue bottle

The expression means a common blowfly with a metallic blue body, the female of which often comes into houses searching for a suitable food source on which to lay her eggs

E.g.: Apart from the threat of sharks, the biggest problem for competitors has been rough seas and bluebottles

12 Blue ground the gills

The expression means if a person looks blue around gills (or green or pale) they look unwell or sick

E.g.: You should sit down You look a bit blue ground and the gills

13 Burn with a low blue flame

The expression means to feel intense anger, typically without expressing it The phrase refers to the appearance of a flame in a gas burner

E.g.: I was quiet all through dinner because Phil’s comments about my

appearance left me burning with a low blue flame

14 Blue study

The expression means someone is deeply sad, unhappy or depressed

E.g.: I feel blue study because of living far from my family

• Briefly, through the English idioms based on blue color, blue expresses the following meanings:

- Nobleness, adorableness: blue blood, a blue-eyed boy

- Suddenness, rarity: out of the blue, a bolt from the blue, once in a blue moon