A contrastive study of english and vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships

THESIS A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE PROVERBS ABOUT MORAL VALUES OF FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU TỤC NGỮ VỀ GIÁ TRỊ ĐẠO ĐỨC GIA ĐÌNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TI

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE PROVERBS ABOUT MORAL VALUES OF FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU TỤC NGỮ VỀ GIÁ TRỊ ĐẠO ĐỨC GIA ĐÌNH

TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYỄN ĐỨC LONG

Field: English Language Code: 60220201

Hanoi, 2017

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE PROVERBS ABOUT MORAL VALUES OF FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU TỤC NGỮ VỀ GIÁ TRỊ ĐẠO ĐỨC GIA ĐÌNH

TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT)

Certificate of originality

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

A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE PROVERBS ABOUT MORAL VALUES OF FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS 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, 2017

Nguyen Duc Long

Approved by SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)

Date:

I would also like to give my thank-you to all of my colleagues and students at Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT) where I am working in for helping me answer the surveyquestionnaire, from that I am able to bring out the results of the survey and have the most suitable suggested applications for learning English proverbs about moral values of family relationships at classrooms and in daily conversations

In addition, I would like to thank all of the teachers and professors at Hanoi Open University for guiding, helping and motivating when I am studying there

Abstract

This thesis attempts to investigate syntactic and cultural features of English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships The study is implemented via the adoptions of statistical, descriptive and contrastive, inductive, and deductive methods

The investigation of the study depended on many samples of English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships from a variety of dictionaries, books and websites about proverbs The findings are compared and contrasted to find out the major similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese with respect to proverbs about moral values related to family relationships in terms of syntax and culture In addition, the study also gives some applications for the more efficient learning of English proverbs about moral values

of family relationships by carrying out survey questionnaire on 100 non-major second-year students of Hanoi University of Business and Technology

relationships HUBT Hanoi University of Business and Technology

List of tables and figures

Table 3.1.Frequency of English and Vietnamese proverbs in three roles in family.55 Table 4.1 Student’ Results of EPMVF Questions 60 Table 4.2 Students’ Difficulties of Learning EPMVF 61 Bar 4.1 Students’ Benefits of Learning EPMVF 62

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the study 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Methods of the study 3

1.5 Scope of the study 4

1.6 Significance of the study 4

1.7 Design of the study 5

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Previous studies 6

2.2.Syntactic features 8

2.2.1.Word components 8

2.2.2.Clause components 12

2.2.3.Simple and complex sentence 15

2.3.Overview of proverbs 17

2.3.1 Definitions 17

2.3.2 Classifications 18

2.3.3 Proverbs about moral values 18

2.3.4 Proverbs and idioms 20

2.4 Language and culture 21

2.4.1 Language 21

2.4.2 Culture 23

2.4.3 The relationship between language and culture 25

2.4.4 Characteristics of British culture and people 27

2.4.5.Characteristics of Vietnamese culture and people 30

2.5 Summary 31

Chapter 3: THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE PROVERBS ABOUT MORAL VALUES OF FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS ACCORDING TO SYNTACTIC AND CULTURAL

FEATURES……… 32

3.1 In terms of syntax 32

3.1.1 English proverbs about moral values of family relationships… 32

3.1.1.1 Simple sentence PMVF 32

3.1.1.2 Complex sentence PMVF 35

3.1.2 Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships 40

3.2 In terms of culture 44

3.2.1 English proverbs about moral values of family relationships 44

3.2.1.1 Husband and wife 44

3.2.1.2 Parents and offspring 47

3.2.1.3 Brotherhood and sisterhood 48

3.2.2 Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships 49

3.2.2.1 Husband and wife 49

3.2.2.2 Parents and offspring 51

3.2.2.3 Brotherhood and sisterhood 53

3.3 Comparison and contrast between EVPMVF 53

3.3.1 Syntactic features 53

3.3.2 Cultural features 55

3.4 Summary 56

Chapter 4: DIFFICULTIES FACED BY LEARNERS OF ENGLISH WHEN USING ENGLISH PROVERBS ABOUT MORAL VALUES OF FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS 57

4.1 Survey questionnaires 57

4.1.1 Subjects 57

4.1.2 Questionnaires 57

4.1.3 Procedures 58

4.1.4 Data analysis and findings 59

4.2 Main causes of students’ poor performance 63

4.2.1 Insufficient language competence 63

4.2.2 Differences between cultures 63

4.3 Suggestions for teaching and learning EPMVF efficiently 64

4.4 Summary 64

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 66

5.1 Concluding remarks 66

5.2 Limitation of the study 67

5.3 Recommendations/Suggestions for further study 67 REFERENCES

APPENDIX

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study

Language is the ability to acquire and use complex systems of communication, particularly the human ability to do so, and a language is any specific example of such a system The importance of language is essential to every aspect and interaction in our everyday lives We use language to inform the people around us

of what we feel, what we desire, and question or understand the world around us

We communicate effectively with our words, gestures, and tone of voice in a multitude of situation

Among many favourite languages such as French, Chinese etc, English has still played its decisive role in international communication and has been learned by a large number of people in the world All foreign learners of English desire to master English as the native speakers but they usually face many difficulties that prevent them from gaining successful conversations One of the reasons for these problems lies in the way people perceive and use proverbs

Through the saying of Horace, R (1959) “a proverb in hand is often worth a thousand words”, we can understand that knowing proverbs are extremely

important and necessary and even it also plays a very essential role in deciding whether learners of English can be better at English or not

Firstly, proverbs as traditional wisdom are never absent from our daily speech They are a main part of each nation’s culture, which reflects all aspects of the life People epitomize their way of thinking and their ideas through proverbs We can use them to solve our daily conflicts or support our arguments Proverbs are the mirrors that reflect human culture Hence, it can be said that proverbs can help learners know more about social and cultural characteristics of that language

Secondly, proverbs are used to express ideas in figurative way It brings the vividness and richness for the speaker’s speech Anyone who much concerns proverbs owns a very attractive manner of speaking Especially, they can do provide users with a whole new way of expressing concepts linguistically Without them, it can be stated that English migh lose its color and vitality

Studying English proverbs in comparison with Vietnamese ones, we can find the similarities and differences in two languages and cultures when talking about the moral values between family members, which therefore, help learners of English to understand and have a better use of English proverbs and Vietnamese ones in

particular situations This can also help learners to avoid unnecessary mistakes made by not knowing or misunderstanding the meaning of each proverb related to the moral values of family relations

The idea is also supported by a saying of Professor Denis, B (Pittsburgh University, America, 1995) about the practical effect of learning proverbs that:

“Through proverbs I know your points of view, the attitudes of your ancestors Each time I know a new Vietnamese proverb, I become Vietnamese a little I believe when we know all proverbs of each other, we are brothers”

Being interested in proverbs for a long time, I choose proverbs as my thesis topic

as both English and Vietnamese are expecially rich in proverbs Many of them are corresponding in meaning or close enough to make comparison interesting and rewarding However, due to the limited time and knowledge, I just focus on a small part of the huge proverbial treasure “A contrastive study of English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships”

Hopefully, the study may be an interesting and helpful material for learners, teachers of English and for people who are interested in cultural pattern in communication and cross-cultural communication

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study aims to investigate the syntactic and cultural features of English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships in order to explore the similarities and differences between EVPMVF to help the non-major second-year students of HUBT learn more efficiently

To achieve the targets mentioned above, the following objectives are put forward:

• Investigating the syntactic and cultural features of English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships;

• Exploring the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships in terms of syntax and culture;

• Providing some suggestions for the learning Englishproverbs about moral values of family relationships in particular

1.3 Research questions

The research questions of the study consist of three different ones as follows: 1) What are the syntactic and cultural features of English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships?

2) What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships in terms of syntax and culture?

3) What are some suggestions for the learning English proverbs about moral values of family relationships in particular?

1.4 Methods of the study

In this study, the statistical method is used for collecting, analyzing, presenting and organizing samples of English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships The descriptive method is used in the study to describe and interpret English proverbs about moral values of family relationships with the support of a source of dictionaries (nine in English and four in Vietnamese) and lexicons to obtain their syntactic and cultural features The contrastive method is used to identify the structural differences and similarities between English and Vietnamese proverbs The deductive method is applied to present the general features of English and Vietnamese proverbs to more specific ones, and on the contrary, the inductive method is used for demonstrating the specific characteristics

to more general ones By applying these five methods, it is capable for the researcher to find out the syntatic and cultural features of English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships

In addition, the study uses the two methods: quantitative and qualitative By virtue

of the quantitative method, the study has collected data for the study, including both English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships The qualitative method is employed to describe and analyze the data of the study The steps of the study are in the order as follows:

• Collect EVPMVF from nine dictionaries in English (e.g., The New Oxford Dictionary (1996), The Oxford English Dictionary (2001), Dictionary of Proverbs by Fergusson (1983), Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary by Hornby (1995), The facts on file dictionary of proverbs, 2 nd edition by Martin (2002), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs by Simson & Speake (1998), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs by Simson (1999), The Oxford dictionary of proverbs, 5 th edition by Speake (2008)and The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs, 3 rd edition by Wilson (1970))and four in Vietnamese (e.g., Từ điển Thành ngữ, Tục ngữ Nghệ Tĩnh by Nguyễn Nhã Bản (2004), Kho tàng tục ngữ người Việt by

Nguyễn Xuân Kính (2002), Tuyển tập thành ngữ tục ngữ cao dao Việt – Anh thông dụng by Nguyễn Đình Hùng (2007) and Từ điển Thành ngữ - Tục ngữ Việt Nam Nguyễn Lân (2002))and then sort them out

• Investigate and analyze the general syntactic and cultural features of English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships

• Compare and find the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese about moral values of family relationships

1.5 Scope of the study

Proverbs about moral values of family relationships are a large part in both English and Vietnamese proverbs, so it is impossible for the author to carry out an exhaustive study on them; just from the syntactic and cultural perspective

In this study, the syntactic and cultural features of EVPMVF are extensively analyzed and discussed when English proverbs are compared with Vietnamese ones

113 samples of English proverbs about moral values of family relationships and

157 Vietnamese ones are collected from 13 dictionaries (e.g., The New Oxford Dictionary (1996), The Oxford English Dictionary (2001), Dictionary of Proverbs

by Fergusson (1983), Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary by Hornby (1995), The facts on file dictionary of proverbs, 2 nd edition by Martin (2002), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs by Simson & Speake (1998), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs by Simson (1999), The Oxford dictionary of proverbs, 5 th edition by Speake (2008)and The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs, 3 rd edition

by Wilson (1970) and Từ điển Thành ngữ, Tục ngữ Nghệ Tĩnh by Nguyễn Nhã Bản (2004), Kho tàng tục ngữ người Việt by Nguyễn Xuân Kính (2002), Tuyển tập thành ngữ tục ngữ cao dao Việt – Anh thông dụng by Nguyễn Đình Hùng (2007) and Từ

điển Thành ngữ - Tục ngữ Việt Nam Nguyễn Lân (2002))those kinds of dictionaries

It should be noted that the research may not cover all proverbs about moral values

of family relationships; just those of common use

1.6 Significance of the study

English and Vietnamese language are rich in proverbs A strong knowledge of proverbs will help teachers and students be better speakers The high number of proverbs and their high frequency in discourse make them an important aspect of vocabulary In this thesis, proverbs about moral values of family relationships are studied in terms of three aspects: syntax, semantics and culture The results of this

study can be applied to increase the efficiency of communication and can be of some supports to the teaching and learning of English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships

1.7 Design of the study

There are five chapters in this research paper:

Chapter 1 – Introduction – involves a general introduction to the study

regarding rationale, aims and objectives, research questions, methods, the scope, significance, and design of the study

Chapter 2 – Literature Review – shows previous studies, notions of proverbs

and proverbs about moral values of family relationships, the theory of proverbs and common and distinctive syntactic and cultural features of English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships

Chapter 3 – Findings and Discussion – pays attention to analyze the syntactic

and cultural features of English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships English proverbs about moral values of family relation are thoroughly discussed in comparison with Vietnamese ones As a result, the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships are brought out

Chapter 4 – Applications – involves subjects, interview, questionnaire,

procedures, data analysis and findings of the study as well as possible suggested implications for the teaching and learning English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships more efficiently

Chapter 5 – Conclusion – consists of concluding remarks, limitation of the

study and some recommendations for further study in the future

This thesis closes with References and Appendixes – which represent many

dictionaries in English and Vietnamese, the names of authors of referenced books, website addresses and involve a list of English and Vietnamese proverbs about moral values of family relationships and the survey questionnaire for students

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Previous studies

A lot of cultures scholars have written books on the history of both the paremiographical publications and paremiological studies Such books trace the development of various types of proverb collections and deal with the origin and dissemination of proverbs in the given language and culture, discuss definition problems of the various genres, analyze stylistic and structural aspects, investigate the function and use in different contexts (oral communication, literature, mass media), and attempt to give an inclusive picture of the meaning and significance of proverbs as verbal strategies The English language is no exception in this regard In the middle of the nineteenth century the philologist and theologian Richard

Chenevix Trench (1807–1886) presented his slim volume On the Lessons in Proverbs (1853) that went through seven editions during his lifetime and several

more later on, including a final edition in 1905 with the slightly changed title of

Proverbsand Their Lessons The book represents an important survey of the origin,nature, distribution, meaning, and significance of proverbs in the English-speaking world

Fifty years after Trench’s book,Hulme (1902) basically replaced Trench’ s popular volume,and it was appropriate that it was reprinted in 1968 to honor the work of this

folklore scholar But according to proverbial wisdom, “All good things come in threes,” and thus there is alsoThe Proverbof Taylor (1931) As the world’s leading

paremiologist of the twentieth century, Taylor wrote the definitive book on the subject and pioneered a vigorous American interest in proverbs that included suchrenowned scholars as Alan Dundes, Wolfram Eberhard, Stuart A Gallacher, Richard Jente, Wayland D Hand, John G Kunstmann, Charles Speroni, and Bartlett Jere Whiting The book was reprinted in 1962 together with a previously published

An Index to “The Proverb” (1934), and it was worth having the distinct honor of reprinting The Proverb and an Index to “The Proverb”(1985), some 50 years after

the original publication

Mieder, M.,(2004) with “Proverbs: a Handbook”, described the definition and

classification, origin of proverbs, as well as the context of the proverbs He also investigated proverbs in the slogans and titles of newspaper, in business, etc In view of Vietnamese proverb studies, it appears Vietnamese scholars have taken

even more special interests in this field resulting in a great many works of large scales following three so-called stages in this country’s long literature history Because of the fact that our national scripts have undergone some changes from the standard Chinese characters (up to 19th century) to the Nom (13 - 19th century) and finally the Vietnamese language (17th century), it is difficult to trace back the early works related to the field Therefore, not to mention those written in the Nom

by great scholars such as Quốc Âm Thi Tập(Nguyễn Trãi, 15th century), HồngĐức Quốc Âm Thi Tập (Lê Thánh Tông and co-authors, 15th century), Bạch Vân Quốc NgữThi Tập (Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, 16th century) Truyện Kiều (Nguyễn Du, 19th century) and Lục VânTiên(NguyễnĐình Chiểu, 19th century) where a lot of forms

of folk proverbscan be easily found and which are a useful source for researchers to collect and study Vietnamese proverbs, the first works written in Vietnamese

language to be taken notice of are Tục ngữ, cổngữ, gia ngôn ( Huỳnh Tịnh Của, 1897), Tục ngữ cách ngôn (Hàn Thái Dương, 1920),Điều tra về tục ngữ phương ngôn (BanVăn học Hội Khai Trí Tiến Đức, 1922), An Nam tục ngữ (Vũ Như Lâm and Nguyễn Đa Gia, 1933), Phong dao, ca dao, phương ngôn và tục ngữ (Nguyễn Văn Chiểu, 1936), Ngạn ngữphong dao (Nguyễn Can Mộng, 1941) During this

time, the most hard-working collection of proverbs containing the most affluent

content was Tục ngữphong dao (Nguyễn Văn Ngọc, 1928) consisting of some 6500

idioms and proverbs and up till now has been the one of the top scale

From 1975 up to now, some elaborate works connected with proverbs have done their share to the knowledge of the field and one of the wholehearted authors we

must not miss is Chu Xuân Diên with hisTiểu luậnvề tục ngữ Việt Nam (1997) His other books include Tục ngữ Việt Nam withco-authors Lương Văn Đang, Phương Tri (1975) and Văn học dân gian ViệtNam withĐinh Gia Khanh, Võ Quang Nhơn (2002) The following worksreceiving much attention from the public are Từ điển Thành ngữvà Tục ngữViệt Nam (Nguyễn Lân, 1997), Tục ngữ ca dao dân ca Việt Nam (VũNgọcPhan, 1998) where the difference between idioms and proverbs is mentioned based on two criteria: content and grammatical structures

All in all, the above works present every aspect related to proverbs including history, origin, distribution, definition, form, meaning, content, style, structure,

function and value, yet none gives fully detailedanalysis of the syntacticand cultural features of English and Vietnamese proverbsabout moral values of family relationships This very reason inspires me to devote myself to thestudy so

as to find out the similarities and differences in these aspects as well as the cultural characteristics of the two countries

2.2.Syntactic features

2.2.1.Word components

Quirk (1985) distinguished the term complementation from the term complement and defined complementation as “the function of a part of a phrase or clause which follows a word, and completes the specification of a meaning relationship which that word implies As such, complementation may be obligatory or optional on the syntactic level.”

Simple sentences in English consist of the basic elements: S V O C and A There are seven basic clause patterns in English consisting of the subject and verb (SV) (pattern 1); the subject, verb, obligatory adverbial (SVA) (pattern 2); the subject, verb, subject complement (SVC) (pattern 3); the subject, verb, direct object (SVO) (pattern 4); the subject, verb, indirect object, direct object (SVOO) (pattern 5); the subject, verb, direct object, object complement (SVOC) (pattern 6) and finally, the subject, verb, direct object, obligatory adverbial (SVOA) (pattern 7) The combination of obligatory clause elements required after particular verb class with one or more optional adverbials is possible, thus, a number of other clause patterns could be created, e.g the SVO(A), SV(A), SVOO(A) patterns, but also the other combinations

Below is the pattern:

A subject fills Slot 1 The subject of a sentence is a noun phrase that functions as

the topic of the sentence Examples include He is , The kids are , Swimming

The adverbial in this pattern describes the location of California The modifying

phrase clearly fulfills the where function of an adverb In the next pattern we’ll be

looking at how to construct sentences with modifiers that describe the subject rather than the verb

The second sentence pattern consists of Subject modifiers, or subjectcomplements,

explain or rename what the subject is

phrase)

A subject fills Slot 1 The subject of a sentence fills the opening slot of the sentence

as a noun phrase or nominal structure that functions as the topic of the sentence

A be verb fills Slot 2 A be verb is any verb form of be, such as is, are, was, or will

be

Finally, a subject complement fills Slot 3 A subject complement is the noun phrase

or adjective that follows the linking verb The subject complement renames (noun)

or describes (adjective) the subject Examples include referee (noun) and openly cynical (adjective phrase)

In the first example above, the noun phrase subject complement refers back to the

subject, stating what Michael was For example, in the sentence “Mrs Balensiefen

is my teacher,” the noun phrase my teacher tells us what Mrs Balensiefen is, just as

in the reverse, “My teacher is Mrs Balensiefen,” the noun (a name) tells us who is

the teacher of the subject position

In the second example, the adjectival subject complement, silly, modifies the noun dog, describing a characteristic belonging to the dog at that moment Other

examples can include any adjective or adjectival, such as “That field of grass is not very green.”

The third sentence patternuses linking verbs other than be and a subject

complement

Kara became a teacher (Noun Phrase)

After the sentence’s subject, a linking verb fills Slot 2 A linkingverb is typically a

verb “of the senses,” according to Kolln: taste, smell, feel, sound, and look Other common linking verbs include become, remain, seem, appear, and prove Kolln prefers to distinguish these “other” linking verbs from be verbs, since be verbs do

not have the restriction of connecting the subject to a subject complement

(remember, be verbs can be followed by an adverbial instead of a subject

complement) The linking verbs discussed here always tie the subject to its adjective

or noun phrase complement

A subject complement fills Slot 3 Remember that a subject complement is the noun phrase or adjective that follows a linking verb, renaming or describing the subject

In the first example, the adjective describes a quality the exam “appears” to have In the second example, the noun phrase renames Karalyn as what she becomes; similarly, Karalyn could be said to rename the noun “teacher.”

The fourth sentence patterninvolves only two components: a subject and an intransitive verb An intransitive verb is an action verb that requires no

complement In other words, the verb can stand alone

Note that the action verbs in the examples, died and laugh can stand alone They

could certainly be accompanied by modifiers, too For instance, the battery could

have died suddenly or audiences could laugh at the joke The adverb suddenly and the prepositional phrase at the joke both function as adverbials modifying the verbs

they follow Therefore, this sentence pattern allows you to construct brief sentences, then expand upon them by adding details in the form of adverbials

The fifth sentence pattern from Rhetorical Grammar employs a different kind of verb Rather than intransitive, this pattern uses transitiveverbs, which must be

followed by a direct object A direct objectis the person or thing receiving the

action of the verb

Joey spoiled his niece Rachel

Our secretary distributes our weekly timesheets

In the first example, the verb spoiled implies that there must be someone whom

Joey spoiled; in other words, someone must have been affected by his action

Similarly, the second example uses the verb distributes If there were no direct

object following this verb, it would be unclear what the significance of the secretary’s action is

One useful characteristic of transitive verb patterns is that sentences with transitive verbs can be turned into passive sentences That is, the direct object becomes the subject, while the subject—the “doer”—is typically relegated to a prepositional phrase at the end of the sentence This transformation allows the writer to de-emphasize the doer and emphasize what is done and to whom

E.g., His niece Rachel was spoiled by Joey

E.g., Our weekly timesheets were distributed by our secretary

Both examples place the receiver of the action at the sentence’s beginning, thus accentuating the verbs directly after these subjects Because the subjects are now

contained within adverbials (both in prepositional phrases beginning with by), they

are now optional modifiers and can easily be omitted Omitting the doer can be useful if you want to keep from “pointing a finger” at someone

Kolln’s sixth sentence pattern also uses transitive verbs However, in this pattern, the verb is followed by a direct object and an indirect object An indirect object is a noun or noun phrase that assumes an intermediary role in the action being described

in a sentence or, to put this another way, an object that is affected indirectly by the verb

Subject Transitive Verb Indirect Object Direct Object

Nurse Baggins handed the child a turquoise crayon How do you distinguish between a direct and an indirect object? If you can reconstruct the sentence so that there is an object being

transferred to or for someone, then that someone is the indirect object For example,

with the sentence “Vince did us a huge favor,” we can make the sentence “Vince

did a favor for us.” Or with the sentence “I read Charlotte a story,” we can make “I read a story to Charlotte.” In each case, the prepositions for and to indicate that

there is something being transferred to a receiver That receiver is the indirect object

in a Pattern 6 sentence Notice the order—the indirect object precedes the direct object

The seventh sentence pattern from Kolln’s book again uses a transitive verb, which

requires a direct object to receive the action, as well as an object complement to

modify or rename that object Kolln compares this sentence pattern to her second, which similarly includes a subject and subject complement

Subject Transitive Verb Direct Object Object Complement

Darcy considered Jane indifferent (Adjective)

The key to understanding this sentence pattern is to remember that a verb

like considered, or feared from the example in the paragraph above, includes the understood phrase “to be” directly after itself (E.g., “feared his house to

be destroyed…”) Kolln argues that omitting “to be” in this sentence pattern more

effectively emphasizes direct object complements (versus placing more stress on the direct object when “to be” is used) It also eliminates awkward wording

2.2.2.Clause components

Clauses can be classified as independent (main clauses) and dependent(subordinate

clauses) A typical sentence consists of one independent clause, possibly augmented

by one or more dependent clauses

A dependent clause may be finite (based on a finite verb, as independent clauses are), or non-finite (based on a verb in the form of an infinitive or participle)

Particular types of dependent clause include relative clauses, content clauses and adverbial clauses

A non-finite clause is one in which the main verb is in a non-finite form, namely

an infinitive, past participle, or -ing form (present participle or gerund); for how

these forms are made, see English verbs (Such a clause may also be referred to as

an infinitive phrase, participial phrase, etc.)

The internal syntax of a non-finite clause is generally similar to that of a finite clause, except that there is usually no subject (and in some cases a missing complement; see below) The following types exist:

- bare infinitive clause, such as go to the party in the sentence let her go to the party

- to-infinitive clause, such as to go to the party Although there is no subject in

such a clause, the performer of the action can (in some contexts) be

expressed with a preceding prepositional phrase using for: It would be a good idea for her to go to the party The possibility of placing adjuncts between the to and the verb in such constructions has been the subject of

dispute among prescriptive grammarians; see split infinitive

- past participial clause (active type), such as made a cake and seen to it This

is used in forming perfectconstructions (see below), as in he has made a cake; I had seen to it

- present participial clause, such as being in good health When such a clause

is used as an adjunct to a main clause, its subject is understood to be the same as that of the main clause; when this is not the case, a subject can be

included in the participial clause: The king being in good health, his physician was able to take a few days' rest

- gerund clause This has the same form as the above, but serves as a noun rather than an adjective or adverb The pre-appending of a subject in this

case (as in I don't like you drinking, rather than the arguably more correct your drinking) is criticized by some prescriptive grammarians

In certain uses, a non-finite clause contains a missing (zero) item – this may be an object or complement of the verb, or the complement of a preposition within the clause (leaving the preposition "stranded") Examples of uses of such "passive" non-finite clauses are given below:

- to-infinitive clauses – this is easy to use (zero object of use); he is the man to talk to (zero complement of preposition to)

- past participial clauses – as used in forming passive voice constructions (the cake was made, with zero object of made), and in some other uses, such as I want to get it seen to (zero complement of to) In many such cases the performer of the action can be expressed using a prepositional phrase with by,

as in the cake was made by Alan

- gerund clauses – particularly after want and need, as in Your car wants/needs cleaning (zero object of cleaning), and You want/need your head seeing to (zero complement of to)

A typical finite clause consists of a noun phrase functioning as the subject, a finite verb, followed by any number of dependents of the verb In some theories of

grammar the verb and its dependents are taken to be a single component called

a verb phrase or the predicate of the clause; thus the clause can be said to consist of subject plus predicate

Dependents include any number of complements (especially a noun phrase functioning as the object), and other modifiers of the verb Noun phrase constituents

which are personal pronouns or (in formal registers) the pronoun who(m) are

marked for case, but otherwise it is word order alone that indicates which noun phrase is the subject and which the object

The presence of complements depends on the pattern followed by the verb (for example, whether it is a transitive verb, i.e one taking a direct object) A given verb

may allow a number of possible patterns (for example, the verb write may be either transitive, as in He writes letters, or intransitive, as in He writes often)

Some verbs can take two objects: an indirect object and a direct object An indirect

object precedes a direct one, as in He gave the dog a bone (where the dog is the indirect object and a bone the direct object) However the indirect object may also

be replaced with a prepositional phrase, usually with the preposition to or for, as

in He gave a bone to the dog (The latter method is particularly common when the

direct object is a personal pronounand the indirect object is a stronger noun

phrase: He gave it to the dog would be used rather than He gave the dog it.)

Adverbial adjuncts are often placed after the verb and object, as in I met John yesterday However other positions in the sentence are also possible; see English

grammar § Adverbs, and for "phrasal" particles, Phrasal verb Another adverb

which is subject to special rules is the negating word not

Objects normally precede other complements, as in I told him to fetch

it (where him is the object, and the infinitive phrase to fetch it is a further

complement) Other possible complements include prepositional phrases, such

as for Jim in the clause They waited for Jim; predicative expressions, such

as red in The ball is red; subordinate clauses, which may be introduced by

a subordinating conjunction such as if, when, because, that, for example the clause in I suggest that you wait for her; and non-finite clauses, such as eating jelly in the sentence I like eating jelly

that-Many English verbs are used together with a particle (such as in or away) and with

preposition phrases in constructions that are commonly referred to as "phrasal verbs" These complements often modify the meaning of the verb in an

unpredictable way, and a verb-particle combination such as give up can be

considered a single lexical item The position of such particles in the clause is subject to different rules from other adverbs

Many clauses have as their finite verb an auxiliary, which governs a non-finite form

of a lexical (or other auxiliary) verb Variations on the basic SVO pattern occur in certain types of clause The subject is absent in most imperative clauses and most non-finite clauses he verb and subject are inverted in most interrogative clauses

This requires that the verb be an auxiliary or copula (and do-support is used to

provide an auxiliary if there is otherwise no invertible verb) The same type of inversion occurs in certain other types of clause, particularly main clauses

beginning with an adjunct having negative force (Never have I witnessed such carnage), and some dependent clauses expressing a condition (Should you decide to come, )

2.2.3.Simple and complex sentence

A simple sentence consists of only one clause A set of words with no independent clause may be an incomplete sentence, also called a sentence fragment

Sentence 1, 2 and 3are examples of simple sentences as follows:

1. I like ice-cream

2. I don't know how to sing English songs

3. I enjoyed living in the countryside

The simple sentence in example 1 contains one clause

A simple sentence structure contains one independent clause and no dependent clauses

I run

This simple sentence has one independent clause which contains one subject, I, and one predicate, run

The girl ran into her bedroom

This simple sentence has one independent clause which contains one subject, girl, and one predicate, ran into her bedroom The predicate is a verb phrase that consists

of more than one word

In the backyard, the dog barked and howled at the cat

This simple sentence has one independent clause which contains one subject, dog, and one predicate, barked and howled at the cat This predicate has two verbs, known as a compound predicate: barked and howled This compound verb should

not be confused with a compound sentence In the backyard and at the

cat are prepositional phrases

A complex sentence has one or more dependent clauses (also called subordinate clauses) Since a dependent clause cannot stand on its own as a sentence, complex sentences must also have at least one independent clause In short, a sentence with one or more dependent clauses and at least one independent clause is a complex sentence

In addition to a subject and a verb, dependent clauses contain a subordinating conjunction or similar word There are a large number of subordinating conjunctions in English Some of these give the clause an adverbial function, specifying time, place, or manner Such clauses are called adverbial clauses

When I went out of my room, from the sky, I could see a lot of lights

This complex sentence contains an adverbial clause, When I went out of my room, from the sky The adverbial clause describes when the action of the main clause, I could see a lot of lights

A relative clause is a dependent clause that modifies a noun or noun phrase in the independent clause In other words, the relative clause functions similar to

an adjective

Let him who has the right speak out his mind

She, who has never known the truth, seeeverythinghappening around her

In the first example, the restrictive relative clause who has the right specifies or defines the meaning of himin the independent clause, Let him speak out his mind In the second example, the non-restrictive relative clause who has never known the truth describes her in the independent clause, She seeseverythinghappening around her

A noun clause is a dependent clause that functions like a noun A noun clause may function as the subject of a clause, or as a predicate nominative or an object

• What she had understood was that situation was that moment when herfeeling was about to be broken

In this sentence the independent clause contains two noun clauses The noun

clause What she had understood serves as the subject of the verb was, and that situation was that moment serves as complement The sentence also contains an

adverbial clause, when herfeeling was about to be broken

2.3.Overview of proverbs

2.3.1 Definitions

As there is a genaral agreement that proverbs are widely known in all human languages, it is very necessary to define what proverbs are Such English

expressions as “Many men, many minds”, “Experience is the mother of wisdom”,

“Poverty is no sin”, etc are usually described as proverbs, so “What is a proverb?” According to The New Oxford Dictionary (1996), a proverb is “a short, pithy saying in general use, stating a general truth or a piece of advice” This definition

is developed in the Oxford English Dictionary (2001) which defines a proverb as “a short, pithy saying in common and recognized use; a concise sentence, often metaphorical or alliterative in form, which is held to express some truth ascertained

by experience or observation and familiar to all”

Some proverbs in themselves are people’s definitions of a proverb, like “proverbs are the wisdom of the street”, “proverbs are the children of experience”, “All the good sense of the world rins into proverbs”

Mieder, M (1993) defines a proverb as “a concise statement of an apparent truth which has currency among the people” Mieder, M (1993) performed an interesting

survey, asking 55 non-academics to write their definitions of a proverb He found

that from 4 to 20 times in the collected definitions, a proverb is “a phrase, saying, truth, morals, experience, lessons, and advice concerning life and which has been handed from generation to generation” (Proverbs are never out of season, 1993)

Vũ Ngọc Phan (2000) considered proverbs as “a complete saying in which it expresses one idea of comment, experience, morality, justice or criticism”

Many other scholars continue to find their own definitions of proverbs, but it is difficult to give one exact definition Taylor (1931) defined a proverb in more than

200 pages, and he concluded that it was impossible to give a meaningful definition

of it Taylor (1931) noted that “ an incommunicable quality tells us this sentence is proverbial and that one is not”

There are different ways of defining a proverb However, most of the definitions meet at a common point that they find out some features to realize a proverb which are a short pithy saying in common, stating a general truth or giving lessons or advice

In this thesis, aproverb is a brief, simple and popular saying, or a phrase that gives advice and effectively embodies a commonplace truth based on practical experience

or common sense It may have an allegorical message behind its odd appearance and its popularity is due to its usage in spoken language and in the folk literature as well

2.3.2 Classification

It is claimed that the exercise of categorizing the proverb genre is just difficult as defining it Despite the foregoing constraint, scholars have attempted to classify the proverbs There exists many different ways of proverb classification among linguists who have based on different categories as origin, meaning, function Simpson and Speake (1998) in the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs postulate in its introductory remarks the classification of proverbs They states that proverbs can be divided into three main categories Those of the first type take the

form of abstract statements expressing general truths, such as Absence makes the heart grow fonder Proverbs of the second type, which include many of the more

colourful examples, use specific observations from everyday experience to make a

point which is general; for instance, “You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make him” and “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” The third type of proverbs

comprises sayings from particular areas of traditional wisdom and folklore In this

category are found, for example, the health proverbs After dinner rest a while, after supper walk a mile In addition, there are traditional country proverbs which relate

to husbandry, the seasons, and the weather

In this thesis, this way of classifying the proverbs is not clear and difficult for learners to analyze As this study mainly aims at analyzing and comparing the English and Vietnamese cultural characteristics, I find that analyzing the proverbs according to the classification based on the sub-topic is very an effective and interesting way When comparing the system of sub-topics of proverbs, it is easy to find the similarities and differences between social and cultural aspects of the English and Vietnamese communities This kind of classification is the very popular

often used in many books For examples, Dictionary of proverbs by Fergusson (6000 proverbs, 118 subjects) and Tục Ngữ Việt Nam (Hanoi, 1993) by Chu Xuân

Diên (4000 proverbs, 73 subjects)

2.3.3 Proverbs about moral values

From time to time, the definition of moral values changes by the benevolence of public opinion and depends also on the point of view According to Stephen (2007),

“Moral quality is not just a cultural and social behaviours of acting and reacting

Moral quality should be understood as human behaviour which holds that man should concern himself with the welfare of all humans and never seek to destroy”

When it comes to morality, it is unavoidable to mention some famous books The

first one in the list isMoral Man and Immoral Society of Reinhold Niebuhr which is

the important early study in ethics and politics Forthright and realistic, it discusses the inevitability of social conflict, the brutal behavior of human collectives of every sort, the inability of rationalists and social scientists to even imagine the realities of collective power, and, ultimately, how individual morality can overcome social immorality The Library of Theological Ethics series focuses on what it means to think theologically and ethically It presents a selection of important and otherwise unavailable texts in easily accessible form Volumes in this series will enable sustained dialogue with predecessors though reflection on classic works in the field

In addition, the second one is The Geography of Morals publish in 2016 by Owen

Flanagan which is a work of extraordinary ambition: an indictment of the parochialism of Western philosophy, a comprehensive dialogue between anthropology, empirical moral psychology, behavioral economics, and cross-cultural philosophy, and a deep exploration of the opportunities for self, social, and political improvement provided by world philosophy.We live in multicultural, cosmopolitan worlds These worlds are distinctive moral ecologies in which people enact and embody different lived philosophies and conceive of mind, morals, and the meaning of life differently from the typical WEIRD - Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic - person This is not a predicament; it is an opportunity Many think that cross cultural understanding is useful for developing a modus vivendi where people from different worlds are not at each other's throats and tolerate each other Flanagan presses the much more exciting possibility that cross-cultural philosophy provides opportunities for exploring the varieties of moral possibility, learning from other traditions, and for self, social, and political improvement There are ways of worldmaking in other living traditions Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Muslim, Amerindian, and African that citizens in Western countries can benefit from Cross-cultural learning is protection against what Alasdair MacIntyre refers to as being "imprisoned by one's upbringing."Flanagan takes up perennial topics of whether there is anything to the idea of a common human nature, psychobiological sources of human morality, the nature of the self, the role of moral excellence in a good human life, and whether

and how empirical inquiry into morality can contribute to normative ethics The Geography of Morals exemplifies how one can respectfully conceive of multiculturalism and global interaction as providing not only opportunities for business and commerce, but also opportunities for socio-moral and political improvement on all sides This is a book that aims to change how normative ethics and moral psychology are done

In my point of view, “moral” refers to principles of right or wrong behaviour, based on one’s sence of what is right and just, not on legal rights and obligations

Thus by “proverbs about moral values” here is meant proverbs that may be used to

express a lesson about principles of behaviour

2.3.4 Proverbs and idioms

It is affirmed that all languages have systems of proverbs However, besides proverbs these also have idioms, which share many things in common with proverbs For better understanding proverbs, setting distinction between proverbs and idioms is highly essential

According to Hornby, A.S (1995) 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 learn as a whole unit” 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 (Hoàng Văn Hành, 1994) Some

examples of idioms are: “bury the hatcher”, “come up smelling like a rose”, “have second thoughts”, “let the cat out of the bad”

It is easy to find that proverbs and idioms have many in common and it comes as

no surprise that they are traditionally studied together The first one is that both proverbs and idioms are ready-made They are products of people, culture and process of hard working and learning They are mainly orally handed down from generation to generation and naturally accepted in daily life Secondly, any substitution in any component of a proverb or an idiom may result in unacceptable changes in the meaning of the whole group as both proverbs and idioms are se-expressions with stable and insubstituated components Apart from this, most proverbs and idioms use language in a metaphorical and figurative meaning So we cannot discover their meanings by looking up the individual words in a dictionary; their meanings must be understood metaphorically

However, proverbs and idioms also have some typital features that distinguish one from the other Their first and most obvious difference lies in the grammar Proverbs are considered as complete sentences or phrases expressing the whole idea and can stand alone Meanwhile, idioms are phrases which are parts of a sentence and thus, they are equivalent to words only Moreover, proverbs and idioms are also different in terms of functions Proverbs are short well-known sentences or phrases that express a judgment, state a general truth about life or advice; they are claimed

to contain three main literature functions which are perceptive function, aesthetic

function and education function For example, the proverb “Money is the root of all evil” demonstrates a remark as well as a criticism about the negative side of money

in the society Its perceptive function is to make people aware of the bad effect of money which can lead people to the evil road The educational function is to criticize the negative of money and urges people to be aware of its ill effect And its aesthetic function is to exaggerate in a picturesque way to help readers understand the proverb easily In contrast, idioms do not have functions of perception and

education but only the aesthetic function For instance, the idiom “a dirty pig”

merely describes somebody who is dirty in his or her personal or domestic habits in figurative and imaginary way and does not point out any educational lesson or knowledge of life

To conclude, beside some common things, proverbs and idioms also have differences in their structure and functions

2.4 Language and culture

2.4.1 Language

Sapir (1921) is of view that “language is a purely human method of communication through a system of voluntarily produced symbols” Also, Ruddell (1974) defines language as a system represented by sound symbols with conventional meanings hared by members of a linguistic group.” The importance of language cannot be undermined in the society

Bruner (1964) has referred to language as a Cultural technique upon which the phylogenetic and Ontogentic development of human intelligence depends Besides Communicating one’s own feeling and experience with another person other aims

of language are to learn to gain knowledge, to fulfill various needs and above all to relationship with others

In “Language and Culture” published in 2005, Kramsch desmostrated that

Language is the basic means for communication in a society Language is primarily related with culture in the domain of communication Speakers communicate their ideas, feelings and facts with language both in inter and intra societal setups Hence,

we can say that language expresses cultural reality He also stated that language is not only a mean of expressing experience but it also creates experience Speakers give meaning to such an experience through various mediums, such as, mass media, internet, telephonic conversations, presentations, etc The medium with which language is used also designate meaning to experience, for example, the phonological and supra-segmented phonological features of language Hence, we can say that language embodies a cultural reality

Scientifically, language is a system that consists of the development, acquisition, maintenance and use of complex systems of communication, particularly the human ability to do so; and a language is any specific example of such a system The scientific study of language is called linguistics Questions concerning the philosophy of language, such as whether words can represent experience, have been debated since Gorgias and Platoin ancient Greece Thinkers such

as Rousseau have argued that language originated from emotions while others like Kant have held that it originated from rational and logical thought 20th-century philosophers such as Wittgenstein argued that philosophy is really the study of language Major figures in linguistics include Ferdinand de Saussure and Noam Chomsky

Beside a boundary, a name, a flag, or a currency, what makes a country become a respectable and unique nation is its national language

Indeed, national language is a clear indicator that represents the national identity

of a country Language is a sensitive issue It’s also part of a nation and a person’s heritage To understand and penetrate deep into a community, one must be able to speak and understand the language of the community Fluency in the national language will surely enable the person to fully understand that community’s particular nuances and cultural aspects

National language is a driving force behind unity of the nation’s people, and makes them distinct from other nations – provided you give your language respect Giving respect to your national language means that it should be one’s primary language, as well as the preferred source of communication at every level

One should know as many languages as one can absorb, but use one’s own language

at every level History proves that every great leader tried his best to strengthen the national language China’s revolutionary leader Zedong Mao had a great respect for his own language Notwithstanding knowing many other languages, he never used them and preferred to use Chinese as his medium of communication

Languages evolve and diversify over time, and the history of their evolution can

be reconstructed by comparing modern languages to determine which traits their ancestral languages must have had in order for the later developmental stages to occur A group of languages that descend from a common ancestor is known as

and appreciation of art, literature.” Moreover, according to Kottak (1979), culture is

“that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” This definition means that culture is taken as socially acquired knowledge in a community and anything like habits or hobbies

According to Horton & Hunt (1968), in every society the collective set of social values, beliefs, norms and mores are transmitted from one generation to another by the process of socialization Hence, culture is a socially acquired knowledge If we observe language from this standpoint, it is observable that language is also transmitted from one generation to another through the process of socialization It

is, therefore, evident that language is also a socially acquired knowledge

According to Dahl (2001), culture is a collectively held set of attributes, which is dynamic and changing over time It is the totality of values, beliefs, basic assumptions as well as code of social behavior in a society Individual are made by culture on one level and culture is made by individuals on the other

Culture is a word for people's 'way of life', meaning the way groups do things Different groups of people may have different cultures A culture is passed on to the next generation by learning, whereas genetics are passed on by heredity Culture is seen in people's writing, religion, music, clothes, cooking, and in what they

do.The concept of culture is very complicated, and the word has many meanings.The word 'culture' is most commonly used in three ways

+) Excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high culture

+) An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior

+) The outlook, attitudes, values, morals goals, and customs shared by a society Cultures are what make countries unique Each country has different cultural activities and cultural rituals Culture includes material goods, the things the people use and produce Culture is also the beliefs and values of the people and the ways they think about and understand the world and their own lives

Different countries have different cultures

The culture of Vietnam is one of the oldest in Southeast Asia, with the ancient Bronze age Đông Sơn culture being widely considered one of its most important progenitors Due to a millennium of Chinese rule, Vietnam was heavily influenced by Chinese culture in terms of politics, government, Confucian social and moral ethics, and art Vietnam is considered to be part of the East Asian cultural sphere

Following independence from China in the 10th century, Vietnam began a southward expansion that saw the annexation of territories formerly belonging to the Champa civilization (now Central Vietnam) and parts of the Khmer empire (modern southern Vietnam), which resulted in minor regional variances in Vietnam's culture due to exposure to these different groups

During the French colonial period, Vietnamese culture absorbed various influences from the Europeans, including the spread of Catholicism and the adoption of the Latin alphabet Prior to this, Vietnamese had used both Chinese characters and a script called Chữ nômwhich was based on Chinese but included newly invented characters meant to represent native Vietnamese words

In the socialist era, the cultural life of Vietnam has been deeply influenced by government-controlled media and the cultural influences of socialist programs For many decades, foreign cultural influences were shunned and emphasis placed on appreciating and sharing the culture of communist nations such as the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and others Since the 1990s, Vietnam has seen a greater re-exposure to Asian, European and American culture and media

Some elements generally considered to be characteristic of Vietnamese culture include ancestor veneration, respect for community and family values, handicrafts

and manual labour, and devotion to study Important symbols present in Vietnamese culture include dragons, turtles, lotuses and bamboo

2.4.3 The relationship between language and culture

According to Sapir (1921), “language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desire by means of voluntarily produced symbols.” Language is a part of culture and a part of human behavior

It is often held that the function of language is to express thought and to communicate information Language also fulfills many other tasks such as greeting people, conducting religious service, etc

Krech (1962) explained the major functions of language from the following three aspects: language is the primary vehicle of communication, language reflects both the personality of the individual and the culture of his history In turn, it helps shape both personality and culture, and language makes possible the growth and transmission of culture, the continuity of societies, and the effective functioning and control of social group

It is obvious that language plays a paramount role in developing, elaborating and transmitting culture and language, enabling us to store meanings and experience to facilitate communication

According to Kramsch (2000), language is the principle means whereby we conduct our social lives When it is used in communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways

Kramsch, one of the earliest pioneers in language and culture, states in “Language and Culture” (1998) that language expresses cultural reality, language embodies

cultural reality, and language symbolies cultural reality

The point language expresses cultural reality can be explained that the words which are uttered refer to common experience They express facts, ideas or events which are communicable because they bring about a stock of knowledge about the world that other people share with each other Words also reflect the attitudes and beliefs and the point of view In both cases, it is proved that language expresses cultural reality

The next point language embodies cultural reality is explained as follows: But members of a community or social group [ ] also create experience through language They give meanings to it via the medium they select to have communications with each other For example, speaking in the mobile phone or

face-to-face, writing a letter or sending an e-mail, reading magazines or interpreting

a pie or a table The way that users apply the spoken, written, or visual tools creates the meanings which can be understandable by the group they belong to, for instance, through a speaker’s tone of voice, accent, conversational style, gestures and facial expressions Therefore, the view language embodies cultural reality can

be proved through two different aspects: verbal and non-verbal

The final point language expresses cultural reality is illustrated in the following way: language is a system of signs that is seen as having itself a cultural value Speakers identify themselves and others through their use of language

Fishman (1991) distinguished three links between language and culture: language

as a part of culture, language as an index of culture, and language as symbolic of culture Concerning the first point, Fishman (1996) also demonstrated language as

“an inevitable part”, “a major and crucial part” of culture, and “all those who seek fully to enter into and understand a given culture must, accordingly, master its language”

The second point language as an index of culture, Fishman described as follows:

“the role of language as an index of culture is a byproduct (at a more abstract level)

of its role as part of culture Languages reveal the ways of thinking or of organizing experience that are common in the associated cultures” – a little further down, he talks about “culture-bound language”

The third point language as symbolic of culture, Fishman explained in the following way: “Language movements and language conflicts utilize languages as symbols to mobilize populations to defend (or attack) and to foster (or reject) the cultures associated with them”

It can be recognized that Fishman is mentioning culture-bound language and about the fact that language and culture are “intimately associated” with one another

In conclusion, language and culture have a close relationship, they always exist together and reinforce each other and this relationship is so inextricable that it is extremely hard to be understood only language or culture, this means to get the correct and full knowledge of this kind of relation, those who are interested need to know about both language and culture

2.4.4 Characteristics of British culture and people

Family values, sometimes referred to as familial values, are traditional or cultural values (that is, values passed on from generation to generation within families) that pertain to the family's structure, function, roles, beliefs, attitudes, and ideals In the social sciences, sociologists may use the term "traditional family" in order to refer specifically to the child-rearing environment that sociologists formerly called the norm This "traditional family" involves a family with a breadwinner father and a homemaker mother, raising their biological children Any deviation from this family model is considered a "nontraditional family"

According to Lawton (1982) moral developrnent is concerned with learning the appropriate rules and values that guide social behaviour and the extent to which moral thought is reflected in moral behaviour Moral development is learning to know what is right and wrong, good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable behaviourwithin a particular society in which the child lives Moral behaviour can only be learned and the child learns by imitation Van den Aardweg and Van den Aardweg (1990) say moral development refers to the child's actions, attitudes and aspirations and volition, to the child's whole character, his virtues and vices and at a later stage in his development to his value judgements Moral development is dependent on cognitive development

Children at an early age, before the "dawn of reason", are capable of doing considerable harm to themselves and to others because they are still unable to make

a clear distinction between right and wrong (Peters, 1981) According to Le Roux (1992), it is socially essential that children should observe certain rudimentary rules from an early age (Peters, 1981) The foundation phase learner needs laws rules and social interaction to guide his moral behaviour in a way that would not harm himself or other people

The child learns family values through the interaction that occurs between thefarnilymembers (Crain, 1992) Underfamilyvaluescould be marriage, manners free speech, obedience punishment relations, leisure time, money household duties.etc When considering family values the following questions need to be answered (Yeats, 1991):

- How does the family as a unit see each individual member?

- Does mum and dad.respect each other?

- Is there respect between and for each member of the family?

Values, such as honesty, dependability, respect, courtesy and friendliness enjoy universal recognition and should be inculcated in the child by educational help (Du Toit & Kruger, 1994) Although there are various methods which educators (parents) may implement to help the child develop an intemalized system of values the most successful way of normativeinstruction is by the educator's (parent's) own example (SprinthalL Sprinthall & Gja, 1994) Responsible parents assist their children in selecting values which are important for their moral development (Isaacs, 1981) According to SchillerandBryant (1998) parents must model valueswhich will benefit the moral development of their children If parents want their children to accept the family values they must be worthy exemplary figures Bradshaw (1996) says that values must beacted upon and acted upon repeatedly to become intemalized as a constituent of a person's character When parents together with their children in the foundation phase act on values it becomes easier for the young child to intemalize and adopt these values Children whose parents constantly complain and criticize other people and the world in general are likely to getinto the same habit Parents' behaviour towards other people will be faithfully copied by their children and especiallyyounger children because their moral-religious development still rests on concrete and realistic grounds (Du foit & Kruger 1994) Parents should be consistent in their values and as role models to their children avoid transmitting conflicting values

British customs and traditions are famous all over the world There is a considerable diversity of culture among British people However, the English culture is often considered a representative and often used to refer to the entire country’s culture of Britain Especially it cannot be denied that the dominant culture

of Britain today is specifically English

Britain, the largest island of the British Isles, includes the countries of England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland Being an island has affected the British people’s characteristics British people still have an island mentally: independent, separate and on the edge of things British families are often criticized for the way they do things separately, though many believe that it is good for children to learn to be independent

According to O’Driscoll, J (2000), family identity is rather week in Britain, especially in England, in comparison with most other places in the world In Britain, the family unit definitely means the nuclear family Compared to the cultre value of

Vietnam, the members of a family in Britain usually do not share the same roof There is little sense of extended family identity, except among some racial minorites

It is unusual for adults of different generations within the family to live together Especially, newly married couples rarely live with their in-laws Elderly parents either live alone for as long as they are able or enter a home for the aged An adult child would oversee such an arrangement but does not feel an obligation to take the parent into his own home

Unlike Vietnam, Britain has a strong history of colonizing many areas of the world Perhaps because of the long tradition of a clear separation between individual and the state, English people are not normally actively patriotic although many of them feel proud to be English When the community value is concerned, it is rare to find people who have lived all their lives in one community As a result, the British also have no the same community value as the Vietnamese do

It is probably true that the British, especially the English, tend to be more reserved than the people of many other countries It means that they do not show their emotion very much They do not quickly share their deeper feelings They find it comparatively difficult to indicate freindship by open displays of affection They are said to be people who often keep certain distance to strangers, do not talk much about themselves, do not show much emotion and seldom get excited This fact tends to give their communicators the impression of coldness The English also favour individualism rather than group orientation

The English people specially like privacy “An Englishman’s house is his castle”,

this old saying sums up a fairly widespread tendency In addition, certain information is thought of as private The information is normally about personal details; e.g older people would probably still not like being asked a direct question about their age It is not acceptable to ask a childless couple why they have no children People do not like to be asked how much money they earn, etc

Moreover, sportsmanship is highly valued in Britain with rules showing generosity

to one’s opponent and good temper in defeat It is also an ideal that is applied to life

in general This is proved by the number of sporting terms used in ordinary speech One of the most element rules of life is “never hit a man when he’s down” – in other words, never take advantage of another misfortune

In short, English culture belings to the Western one It is world – wide agreed that British people are independent, separate and reserve Additionally, individualism is

also the main ego in British culture The English people and culture are very different from Vietnamese ones in some ways and this makes the comparison between English and Vietnamese culture rewarding

2.4.5 Characteristics of Vietnamese culture and people

In the book Culture and Customs of Vietnam published in 2001 by McLeod and Nguyen, the various forces of Vietnamese culture in narrative chapters on the land, people, and language; history and institutions; thought and religion; literature; art and architecture; cuisine; family, marriage, gender, and youth culture; festivals and leisure activities, and performing arts have been shown in a professional way

Jamieson of Understanding Vietnam (1995), after many years of living and

working in Vietnam, has written the book that provides the understanding of Vietnamese peope, their culture, and their ways of looking at the world He paints a portrait of twentieth-century Vietnam Against the background of traditional Vietnamese culture, he takes us through the saga of modern Vietnamese history and Western involvement in the country, from the coming of the French in 1858 through the Vietnam War and its aftermath Throughout his analysis, he allows the Vietnamese—both our friends and foes, and those who wished to be neither—to speak for themselves through poetry, fiction, essays, newspaper editorials and reports of interviews and personal experiences.By putting the old and partial perceptions into the book, Jamieson provides positive insights that may perhaps ease the lingering pain and doubt resulting from American’s involvement in Vietnam

Besides, Trần thì Quế (1998) described that the Vietnamese culture is said to be an agricultural one which was characterized by the village community with many of its primitive vestiges retained Farmers’ thoughts penetrated deeply into the Vietnamese agricultural society and had many positive aspects that made up the typical features of the traditional Vietnamese Living mostly on farm created democracy and hierarchy, unity, collective spirit and independent spirit in Vietnamese people

In addition, Vietnamese life was also profoundly influenced by the practice of ancestor worship as well as native animism Most Vietnamese people, regardless of religious denomination, practise ancestor worship and have an ancestor altar at their home or business, a testament to the emphasis Vietnamese culture places on filial duty (Taylor, 2004)