A study of idioms by animals in english and vietnamese from component perspective

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

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

A STUDY OF IDIOMS BY ANIMALS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM COMPONENT PERSPECTIVE

(NGHIÊN CỨU THÀNH NGỮ THUỘC CHỦ ĐỀ ĐỘNG VẬT

TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀTIẾNG VIỆT

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

A STUDY OF IDIOMS BY ANIMALS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM COMPONENT PERSPECTIVE

(NGHIÊN CỨU THÀNH NGỮ THUỘC CHỦ ĐỀ ĐỘNG

VẬT TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀTIẾNG VIỆT

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

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for their patience, endless love, and devotion Whatever choices I have made, they have always stood by me and believed in me I am immensely thankful for all the assistance they have given me

ABSTRACT

An investigation of idioms by animals in English and Vietnamese in terms

of structural and semantic components is carried out in the present study Componential analysis, describing, comparing and contrasting, and experimental research are regarded as the main methods used in the present thesis The findings of the study are concerned with the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms by animals in terms of structural and semantic components In order to collect the data, a hand search approach of the dictionaries in both languages has been conducted, which helps to establish a corpus of 180 idioms by animals in English and 186 idioms by animals in Vietnamese In the present study, a common theoretical framework on idioms is applied to both English and Vietnamese The structural and semantic components involve three types of idioms existing in our data: symmetrical, similized, and non-symmetrical (Hoàng Văn Hành (2008)) The structural components of each idiom type are realized, described and analyzed according

to grammatical rules suggested by Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, & Svartvik (1985) The semantic components of each idiom type involve the motivation degrees (transparent, semi-transparent, semi-opaque, and opaque) (Fernando & Flavell (1981), Fernando (1996)) The findings of the current study also reveal that most of the idioms in both English and Vietnamese are analyzable and have meanings that are at least partly motivated The main findings are also applied to idiom teaching and learning at Nguyen Huu Tien High School in Ha Nam

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aim(s) and Objectives of the Research 2

1.3 Research Questions 3

1.4 Methods of the Research 3

1.4.1 Major Methods 3

1.4.2 Data Collection Techniques 3

1.4.3 Data Analysis Techniques 4

1.5 Scope of the Research 5

1.6 Significance of the Research 5

1.7 Design of the Research 6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Previous Research 7

2.1.1 Previous Research Works on Idioms in English 7

2.1.2 Previous Research Works on Idioms in Vietnamese 9

2.2 Theoretical Background 12

2.2.1 Idioms Defined 12

2.2.2 Idioms from Traditional, Cognitive and Perspective Component Views 14

2.2.3 Idioms and other language units 17

2.3 Summary 20

CHAPTER 3: STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC COMPONENTS OF IDIOMS BY ANIMALS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 21

3.1 Structural Components of Idioms by Animals in English and Vietnamese 21

3.1.1 Symmetrical Idioms by Animals 21

3.1.2 Similized Idioms by Animals 24

3.1.3 Non-Symmetrical Idioms by Animals 28

3.2 Semantic components of idioms by animals in English and in Vietnamese 33

3.2.1 Motivation Degrees of Symmetrical Idioms by Animals 34

3.2.2 Motivation Degrees of Similized Idioms by Animals 35

3.2.3 Motivation Degrees of Non-symmetrical Idioms by Animals 37

3.3 Comparison between English and Vietnamese Idioms by Animals 40

3.3.1 In terms of structural components 40

3.3.2 In terms of semantic components 41

CHAPTER 4: IDIOM TECHING AND LEARNING THROUGH TRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC COMPONENT ANALYSIS 44

4.1 Idioms and their Importance for English Language Learners 44

4.2 Reality of Idiom Teaching and Learning at Nguyen Huu Tien High School 46

4.3 Idiom Teaching and Learning through Componential Analysis 48

4.3.1 Participants 48

4.3.2 Data Collection 48

4.3.3 Findings and Discussion 51

4.4 Summary 53

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 55

5.1 Recapitulation 55

5.2 Concluding Remarks 55

5.3 Limitations of the Study 56

5.4 Implications for Idiom teaching 56

5.5 Suggestions for Further Studies 57

REFERENCES 58 APPENDIX 1: A CORPUS OF 180 IDIOMS BY ANIMALS IN ENGLISH I APPENDIX 2: A CORPUS OF 186 IDIOMS BY ANIMALS IN VIETNAMESE VIII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

English has long been regarded as a tool of international communication, and together with its rising importance, the need of learning English is becoming more and more urgent It cannot be denied that all foreign learners in general and Vietnamese learners in particular desire to master English as the native speakers; however, they usually face a lot of difficulties that prevent them from gaining successful conversations One of the reasons for these problems lies in the way they perceive and use idioms

Each nation's language lies in itself similar and different concepts on many fields of life such as humane values, ways of thinking, behavior standards, religious beliefs, customs and traditions, social conventions, etc Words and expressions including idioms have formed the vocabulary system of a language Idioms are regarded as special factors of a language's vocabulary system because they reflect cultural specific characteristics of each nation, including material and spiritual values Therefore, a lot of researchers have long shown their concerns for idioms

Structurally, English and Vietnamese are very different English is regarded as a semi- inflectional language (Crystal 1997) while Vietnamese is completely isolating It is interesting, nevertheless, that several idioms in English have the same structural patterns as those in Vietnamese For example,

like water off a duck’s back in English and như nước đổ đầu vịt in Vietnamese

are both prepositional phrases It is more interesting that the idiomatic meanings

of the two idioms are also similar, and they both mean ‘have no effect’ In terms

of structural components, these idioms have both similarities and differences They are similized idioms introduced by prepositions as the first component

parts (like in English and như in Vietnamese) The differences lie in the rest of component parts forming the idioms The component parts after like in English together form a noun phrase whereas those after như in Vietnamese together

form a clause To the best of my knowledge, the structural components of

idioms in both English and Vietnamese have not yet been investigated in this way

Although the component parts forming idioms expressing the same concepts in English and Vietnamese are usually different, they have some features in common The idioms in both languages appear from totally transparent to the totally opaque The four degrees of motivation are transparent, i.e all the components are explicit; semi-transparent, i.e some components are explicit (the meaning focused) and the other are implicit; semi-opaque, i.e all the components are implicit but possibly interpretable; and opaque, i.e all the components are implicit (Fernando & Flavell 1981; Fernando 1996) However, investigating semantic components of idioms based on these semantic criteria in both English and Vietnamese is still the gap

For the reasons presented above, we state that studying idioms by animals from structural and semantic component perspective in both English and Vietnamese in order to fill in the gap in research is necessary

1.2 Aim(s) and Objectives of the Research

The study is conducted to improve the English teaching and learning in general and idiom teaching and learning in particular The findings of the study,

to some extent, help the teachers and the learners have a better understanding of English and Vietnamese languages through the idioms by animals

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

- to uncover how idioms by animals are organized structurally and semantically in English and Vietnamese;

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

- to give some implications for idiom teaching and learning from the main findings

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

a full account of the structural and semantic components of English and Vietnamese idioms by animals Secondly, the contrastive method is applied to identify the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms

by animals Finally, the experimental method is used to uncover the effectiveness

of idiom componential analysis applied to idiom teaching at Nguyen Huu Tien High School

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

1.4.2 Data Collection Techniques

The monolingual and bilingual dictionaries of idioms in two languages are useful instruments to collect data Google search should be accounted because a large number of relevant journals, newspapers, reference materials have been taken thanks to this tool Hence, to select an appropriate collection of English and Vietnamese idioms by animals with illustrating examples, the following

techniques have also been applied: dictionary checking, Google searching techniques and data categorizing with determined criteria

Regarding dictionary checking techniques, such key words as ‘idiom’,

names of animals are used to check the relevant meanings of English idioms

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

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

1.4.3 Data Analysis Techniques

After finishing the collection of data, they are qualitatively described and analyzed in terms of the structural and semantic components to create a full picture of English and Vietnamese idioms by animals In doing this thesis, the data profiling technique is used in this research thesis to track the frequency, distribution and characteristics of the values that populate the columns of a data set; they then present the statistical results for review and drill-down analysis The selective idioms by animals are carefully sorted out together with illustrated examples of the above-mentioned features to find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms by animals

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

1.5 Scope of the Research

The present study focuses on everyday idioms selected from recently published dictionaries All the authors of these works affirm that the idioms in their books are both current and used, or at least understood, by most native speakers It means that the study is deliberately limited to idioms usually used in daily conversations It is noteworthy that the study investigates idioms by animals in both English and Vietnamese from structural and semantic component perspective The components in the current inquiry are regarded as elements which are hardly varied and together form a unit

1.6 Significance of the Research

Theoretically, a common theory on idioms is applied to both English and Vietnamese This approach helps to find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms by animals in terms of structural and semantic components This is a major contribution to the knowledge of linguistics in general and that of idioms by animals in particular Since language and culture are closely intertwined, the findings will help improve the knowledge of the two underlying cultures, which are expressed through those idioms

Practically, the work will provide assistance to English-speaking learners

of Vietnamese and Vietnamese learners of English in general and learners of English at Nguyen Huu Tien High School to distinguish one kind of idioms by animals from others in each language The work will also enable learners to tell when idioms by animals in English and Vietnamese are similar and different, which is likely to be useful for their study Language teachers will be aided to help their learners to reach this communicative goal For translation, knowledge

of idioms from this work will help translators find closest equivalents to the expressions in the source language Idioms and idiomatic expressions are the most culture-bound part of any language, so their transfer is one of the most problematic issues in translation It is because transfer of language also involves

that of culture, which is not always transferable In this way, knowledge from this sort of work will be of great benefit to translators, who should be able to find the possible equivalents in the target language

1.7 Design of the Research

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

Chapter 1, introduction, contains the rationale, the aims and objectives, the research questions, the scope, the contributions, the methods, and the structure of the study

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

Chapter 3, structural and semantic components of idioms by animals in English and in Vietnamese, is divided into three main parts: structural components of idioms by animals in English and in Vietnamese, semantic components of idioms by animals in English and in Vietnamese and a comparison between idioms by animals in English and those in Vietnamese

Chapter 4, applying the findings to idiom teaching, includes reality of idiom teaching and learning, idiom teaching and learning through structural and semantic components explanations, implications for idiom teaching and learning

Chapter 5, the last part, is the conclusion which includes the recapitulation of the study as well as the concluding remarks and some suggestions for further studies

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review is divided into two main parts The first part gives

a review of theoretical background of idioms in English and in Vietnamese on which the whole research has been based The second one presents and discusses the previous research works on idioms in English and in Vietnamese

2.1 Previous Research

2.1.1 Previous Research Works on Idioms in English

Makkai (1972) divides idioms into two main kinds: encoding and decoding Then, decoding idioms are subdivided into lexemic and semantic Semantic idioms consist of six categories: phrasal verbs, tournures, irreversible binomials, phrasal compounds, incorporating verbs and pseudo-idioms Seidl and McMordie (1988), Cowie, Mackin & McCaig (1993) mention the categories of idioms based on their topics and grammatical patterns From transformational grammar, Fraser (1970) regards an idiom as

a constituent or a series of constituents whose meaning does not come from the meanings of individual parts He also mentions six level scales of idioms: unrestricted, reconstitution, extraction, permutation, insertion, adjunction and completely frozen Semantically, Quirk (1996) investigates idioms and proverbs having constituents of animals in English In this study, typical cultural properties conveyed by this type of idioms and proverbs are established This is regarded as an initial research investigating English idioms and proverbs in terms of their semantic properties from component perspective

Fernando & Flavell (1981) are the linguists who realize the limitations

of the previous scholars They suppose that idiom and idiomaticity are not the same They focus on the nature of idioms such as morpho-syntacite composition, semantic properties, homonymity, syntactic properties, etc

They also examine several issues which focus attention on the idiom as a single lexeme that is non-correlative in its syntax and therefore non-literal

in terms of its constituents The most satisfying and sensitive criterion to establish idiomaticity is undoubtedly the semantic one Semantically, Fernando & Flavell (1981) establish the transparent-opaque axis for analyzing idioms In defining idiom, they stress three features in particular: a non-correlative syntax resulting in non-literalness, homonymity and institutionalization

From cognitive view, Nunberg et al (1994) divide idioms into two categories (i) idiomatically combining expressions whose constituent parts carry identifiable parts of their idiomatic meanings, and (ii) idiomatic phrases whose idiomatic meanings cannot be derived from their parts (see Section 1.1.3) Fernando (1996) also divides English idioms into three categories: pure idioms, semi-idioms and literal idioms Grammatically, Taylor (2002) mentions the interrelated topics of idioms and constructions The topics are interrelated in that both idioms and constructions are possibly considered as symbolic units, which associate a phonological (or ‘formal’) representation with a semantic reading According to his points of view, constructions are usually specified at a high level of schematicity and likely to sanction an open set of expressions Nevertheless, a construction’s usage range may not be fully predictable: constructions, in other words, display varying degrees of idiomaticity Idioms generally need to be specified at a lower level of schematicity Taylor (2002) also points out that the difference between idioms and constructions turns out to be a gradient distinction, having to do, essentially, with the schematicity at which a unit is specified Langlotz (2006) explores alternative types of adnominal modification in occasional variants of English verbal idioms Following the cognitive-linguistic framework, he states that

the dimensions of idiom-transparency result from the language user’s ability

to remotivate the bipartite semantic structure by conceptual metaphors and metonymies

In short, idioms in English are studied in terms of several aspects such

as grammar, semantics, rhetoric, pragmatics, etc which are investigated from different views However, the majority of scholars pay their attention to the two approaches Scholars who adopt the first approach are more structurally orientated They describe the idioms and their idiomaticity in terms of one or more structural properties The idiomatologists who adopt the second approach study idiomaticity as manifesting hidden conceptual design of the language Such an approach leads to the nature of cognition itself and

accordingly has valid psycholinguistic

2.1.2 Previous Research Works on Idioms in Vietnamese

In the vocabulary system of Vietnamese, idioms which are usually placed in a certain position can define themselves with other linguistic units such as compounds, collocations and proverbs Due to this direction, it can

be seen that several studies on vocabulary and grammar or the boundary issues among lexical units have been carried out (Đỗ Hữu Châu 1981, Nguyễn Văn Mệnh 1986, Nguyễn Thiện Giáp 1985, Hồ Lê 1976, etc) Some other Vietnamese authors such as Trương Đông San (1974), Hoàng Văn Hành (1976) study the forms and meanings of similized idiom Nguyễn Công Đức (1995) studies Vietnamese idioms from formal-semantic perspectives It is a research investigating idioms quite systematically from both structural and semantic perspectives Based on the forms, he divides Vietnamese idioms into three categories: idioms with symmetrical structure, idioms with comparison structure and idioms with non-symmetrical structure For idioms with symmetrical structure, the most important characteristic is the reciprocal or contrast of meaning of the two parts of

idioms, i.e it is the relation of symmetrical contents From this relation, these idioms form other relations such as the relation of symmetrical words, i.e symmetry or repetition between components Like other linguists, he supposes that idioms with comparison structure are formed according to a

general formula A như B (e.g chậm như rùa (very slowly) Idioms with non-

symmetrical structure are generally formed by phrases, especially verb

phrases: bắt cá hai tay (too greedy) Additionally, this kind of idioms also has subject – predicate pattern: chuột sa chĩnh gạo (be very lucky to have a comfortable life), chó ngáp phải ruồi (be suddenly in luck), etc The

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

Like other linguists, Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) regards idioms as fixed groups of words having stable forms and fully figurative meanings The stable particularity of idiom forms is the stability of vocabulary components (It is normally so fixed that they cannot be replaced by any synonyms) This stable characteristic is the result of dimming or forgetting the relationship between grammar and semantics However, he also notes that the stability

of idioms in the standard system and their flexibility in usage are not two contradict aspects and don’t exclude each other The full particularity of idiomatic meanings is also explained from nominal senses Differing from other normal parts of speech, idioms are considered as the nominal units of the second class From this point of view, he emphasizes that idioms have bipartite meanings: literal (base, origin); figurative (used in

reality and formed by the emblematized process) The emblematized process

of idiom meanings is expressed by two forms: comparative and figurative Due to this, Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) classifies Vietnamese idioms as follows:

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

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

The differences in classification above are only in view, or rather

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

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

similized idioms (A như B) given by the previous authors is right but very

reduced It does not reflect the nature of comparison in terms of both logic and language According to him, in any case the logical structure of

comparison is At1 như Bt2 (t1 is the attribute of A; t2 is the attribute of B)

Based on that general model, he conducts an analysis to find out the structure

of idiomatic meanings and divides it into t như B and như B t như B idioms can be sub- divided into t như B (như B indicates the degree of t) and t như B (như B indicates the manner of t) In addition, he does not only focus on the

idiom structures but also their usage and values From cultural perspective,

he supposes that the underlying cultural factors behind the idioms need uncovering Although he himself realizes that this approach of studying Vietnamese idioms is still open, we can find his contribution in this aspect through his works on idioms

In short, in Vietnamese, although there exist several studies on idioms, most of the scholars focus on the forms and meanings of idioms from traditional view It means that studies on idioms in general and idioms

by animals from cognitive view have not been paid much attention

2.2 Theoretical Background

2.2.1 Idioms Defined

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

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

a sequence of lexical items which habitually co-occur and each lexical constituent of a collocation is a semantic component Hornby (1995) argued

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

when they stand alone” For instance, the collocation of kick and the bucket forms an idiom meaning die, which is not systematically determinable from the meanings of kick and the bucket This idiom or phrasal lexeme is formally identical with the phrase kick the bucket whose meaning is systematically

determinable on the basis of the meaning of the lexemes of which it is

composed – hit a certain type of container for liquids with their foot

In Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1992), an idiom is also regarded as “an expression which functions as a single unit and whose meaning cannot be worked out from its separate parts”

In addition, Cowie, Mackin & McCaig (1993) state that idioms are groups of words with set meanings that cannot be calculated by adding up the separate meanings of the parts Fernando (1996) defines an idiom as “an indivisible unit whose components cannot be varied or varied only within definable limits” This means that no other words can be substituted for those comprising Nor are the words of an idiom usually recombinable

In Vietnamese, a great variety of definitions of idioms are also given Nguyễn Văn Mệnh (1972) and Đỗ Hữu Châu (1981) suppose that idioms are available linguistic units which have stable structures, typical meanings and nominative functions

Having the same viewpoint, Nguyễn Đức Dân (1986) defines that an idiom is a fixed group of words having a complete meaning and descriptive value To make it clearer, he also adds that idioms express concepts based on separated images It is the reason why idioms usually have their own

figurative meanings For example, the phrase cưỡi ngựa xem hoa (do

something summarily and perfunctorily) is considered as an idiom because its idiomatic meaning cannot be infered from the meanings of its constituents

(cưỡi, ngựa, xem and hoa) Another definition of idiom from Hoàng Văn

Hành (2008: 31) is that an idiom is a fixed group of words which is firm in

terms of structure, complete and figurative in terms of meaning, and is widely used in daily speaking

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

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

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

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

- expresses a pure concept

2.2.2 Idioms from Traditional, Cognitive and Perspective Component Views

i) Idioms from Traditional Views

Traditionally, in English, idioms are considered to be unpredictable or non-compositional (Chafe 1970, Chomsky 1965/1980, Katz 1973, Fernando

& Flavell 1981, etc) This results in the concept that although we have learned the meaning and syntactic property of each word of an idiom, we are still unable to capture its idiomatic meaning In other words, the meaning of

an idiom cannot be derived from the meanings of its constituents According Fernando & Flavell (1981), the meaning of an idiom is not the result of the compositional function of its constituent parts They regard an idiom as a lexeme

Vietnamese idioms are traditionally thought to be unpredictable or non-compositional (Nguyễn Văn Mệnh 1972, Đỗ Hữu Châu 1981, Nguyễn

Công Đức 1995, Hoàng Văn Hành 2008, etc)

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

of idioms It is regarded as the limitation of this view

ii) Idioms from Cognitive Views

In English, from cognitive view, most idioms are believed to be analyzable and have meanings that are at least partly motivated (Geeraets

1995, Gibbs 1990/1995, Kốvecses & Szabo 1996, Nunberg et al 1994, Fernando 1996, Taylor 2002, Langlotz 2006, etc)

According to Nunberg et al (1994: 497), “saying an expression is an idiomatic combination (i.e idiomatically combining expression) doesn’t require us to explain why each of its parts has the figurative interpretation it does, so long as we can establish a correspondence between it and the relevant element of the idiomatic denotation” Nunberg et al (1994) also divides idioms into two categories They are idiomatically combining expressions whose constituent parts carry identifiable parts of their idiomatic meanings, and idiomatic phrases whose idiomatic meanings cannot be

derived from their parts For example, the phrase spill the beans, which

means ‘divulge the information’, can be analyzed by looking at the action of

‘spill’ as the action of divulging and ‘beans’ as the information Gibbs (1990, 1995) supposes that most idioms are motivated by cognitive-semantic mechanisms such as metaphors, metonymies and conventional knowledge

According to cognitive view, most Vietnamese idioms are also

believed to be analyzed and their meanings are at least partly motivated For

example, the idiom “cưa sừng làm nghé” meaning “one who is old tries to be young and innocent” in is analyzed in this way: cưa sừng refers to người già

lớn tuổi (the old), while làm nghé corresponds to cổ làm ra vẻ trẻ trung, ngây thơ (try to be young and innocent)

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

iii) Idioms from Component Perspective view

According to Component Perspective view, idioms both in English and

in Vietnamese are made up of two components which are structural and semantic

In terms of structural components, idioms are divided into three types: symmetrical, similized and non-symmetrical idioms A symmetrical idiom

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

by animals is similar to an ordinary comparison; however, they differ from each other in some ways An ordinary comparison refers to two things belonging to the same category to show the degree of their similarity or difference On the contrary, a similized idiom involves one thing which is put in the same line with another of a different category to emphasize or exaggerate certain properties It is called idiomatic comparison which is used

to make the language more vivid Non-symmetrical idioms are idioms whose structural components are different from those of symmetrical and similized idioms In detail, a non-symmetrical idiom does not contain two symmetrical

parts, or it is not formed by its specific comparative means such as as…as,

like, as, in English and nhu in Vietnamese

In terms of semantic components, idioms are classified according to the motivation degree which is sub-divided into four degrees: transparent, semi-transparent, semi-opaque and opaque Transparent idioms are idioms whose idiomatic meanings can be derived from the meanings of their constituent parts The constituents of these idioms are explicit, i.e the idioms are completely transparent Semi- transparent idioms refer to the idioms having both explicit and implicit component parts The meanings of these idioms are from one component or one component part of the idioms (Nguyễn Công Đức 1995; Hoàng Văn Hành 2008) Semi-opaque idioms are regarded as idioms whose component parts are implicit but possibly analyzable According to Langlotz (2006: 91), ‘analysability is a dimension potentially affecting the internal semantic structure of an idiomatic construction’ Opaque idioms are idioms all the constituents of which are implicit In other word, that the idioms are completely opaque means that there is no link between the literal reading and the idiomatic meaning However, to some extent they can be motivated by conventional knowledge

2.2.3 Idioms and other language units

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

i) Idioms versus Proverbs

According to Mieder , “a proverb is a short, generally known sentence

of the folk which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a metaphorical, fixed and memorizable form and which is handed down from generation to generation” For example, ‘a leopard cannot change its spots’ is

used to say that one will stay true to one’s nature, even ì one pretends of claims otherwise

According to the Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary, a proverb is defined as “a well-known phrase or sentence that gives advice or says something is generally true”

From such definitions, it is obvious that idioms and proverbs share some common features and it is necessary to put them side by side to distinguish First of all, both idioms and proverbs are ready-made units which are mainly orally transmitted from generation to generation and naturally accepted in daily life Secondly, both of them are set-expressions whose components are stable and not able to be substituted It is nearly impossible to add, omit or replace any components of an idiom or a proverb because it will make them lose their figurative meanings In addition, the meaning of most idioms and proverbs is understood metaphorically rather than literally This is the reason why it is arduous to discover their true meaning just by looking up the individual words in a normal dictionary Finally, some proverbs originate

from idioms An example of this is the proverb ‘birds of a feather flock

together’ (similar people spend time together) which contains the idiom ‘birds

of a feather’ (similar people)

Besides the similarities, both idioms and proverbs have their own typical features that distinguish one from another The first and most obvious difference lies in their syntactic structures In terms of syntactic structures, idioms are phrases which are parts of sentences; thus, they are equivalent to words In contrast, proverbs are complete sentences or phrases which can express the whole idea by themselves What is more, idioms and proverbs are also different in terms of their functions Proverbs are short well-known sentences or phrases that express a judgment, general truth about life, advice or moral lesson They contain three main literature functions namely perceptive,

aesthetic and educational functions Therefore, a proverb can be considered as

a perfect literature work The proverb ‘a leopard cannot change its spots’

illustrates this point clearly Its perceptive function is to make people aware that it is not easy to change one’s own characteristic Moreover, the proverb is expressed in a figurative and picturesque way which helps readers understand the proverb easily then be deeply convinced On the contrary, idioms do not express judgments; give advice or state general truth about life, which means they do not have functions of perception and education but only aesthetic function Lacking these two functions, idioms cannot be considered as a

literature work, but as a language unit only The idiom ‘to eat like a horse’

illustrate that idioms own only aesthetic function since it merely describes the ability of eating strongly of someone because of great hunger in figurative way

as well as it does not offer any moral lesson or experience of life

ii) Idioms versus Slang

Slang, as defined in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, is “very informal words and expressions that are more common in spoken language, especially used by a particular group of people, for example, children, criminals, soldiers, etc.” Slang is firstly created only to satisfy the need of secret-keeping, or it can be the signs to recognize people of the same group Slang can appear as a brand new word, a new meaning for an existing word,

an abbreviation for a word, or a word that becomes more generalized than its former, narrow meaning Though both idioms and slangs are almost fixed in structure and meaning, they differ from each other in some aspects

It can be inferred from the definition that slang is used by only some specific communities whereas idioms are used more commonly In other words, other group people may find it difficult to understand the slang and slang is a means of identifying and reinforcing certain sub-groups in society which can be divided according to age, occupation, criminals, etc However,

there is a close relationship between slang and idiom It can be said that idiom

is yesterday’s slang and slang is tomorrow’s idiom In other words, idiom is slang that has through use and over time, become acceptable to use in informal language Slangs are words that are usually made up and stand alone on their own, often used as euphemisms - but not always They are typically used in informal language, and are very often tied to locale, profession or cultural

cliques For example: the slang chicken is used to refer to a coward, the slang

pig refers to an police officer

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

2.3 Summary

The chapter has presented theoretical background that is employed for conducting the whole graduation thesis along with the review of literature with certain previous works on idioms both in English and in Vietnamese Idioms in both English and Vietnamese are studied in terms of several aspects such as structure, semantics, and taxonomy, etc which are investigated from different views (traditional, cognitive, etc) However, Vietnamese idioms from cognitive view have not been adequately investigated Most scholars in Vietnam pay attention to the forms and meanings of idioms from traditional view These studies are initial investigations on the specific aspects of idioms

As far as I am concerned, there have been only a few studies investigating the structural and semantic components of idioms in both English and Vietnamese in a fully systematical way

CHAPTER 3: STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC COMPONENTS OF IDIOMS BY ANIMALS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

This chapter presents structural and semantic components of idioms

by animals in both English and Vietnamese The structural components are presented in Section 3.1 Section 3.2 discusses the semantic components of both English and Vietnamese idioms by animals Section 3.3 makes a brief comparison between idioms by animals in English and in Vietnamese in terms of structural and semantic components

3.1 Structural Components of Idioms by Animals in English and Vietnamese

In terms of structural components, idioms consist of four types Therefore, Section 3.1 is divided into four smaller sections: Section 3.1.1 discusses structural components of symmetrical idioms by animals; Section 3.1.2 discusses structural components of similized idioms by animals; section 3.1.3 presents structural components of non-symmetrical idioms by animals 3.1.1 Symmetrical Idioms by Animals

i) Symmetrical Idioms by Animals in English

English symmetrical idioms are regarded as “idiomatic pairs”, which are established due to the pairs of adjectives, nouns, adverbs, verbs, etc (Seidl & McMordie 1988) In short, in the present study, a symmetrical idiom by animals is generally regarded as one which has two opposite component parts (A and B) And these two parts are usually parallel

In our data, symmetrical idioms by animals are in the forms: A and B

(e.g run with the hare and hunt with the hounds (try to remain on good terms with both sides in a conflict or dispute), A ,B (e.g pigs get fat, hogs get

slaughtered (being satisfied with enough, that being greedy or too ambitious

will be your ruin) A, B can be: a noun phrase (e.g small dog, tall weeds

(someone the speaker does not believe has the ability or resources to handle a

task or job); a verb phrase (e.g run with the hare and hunt with the hounds),

or clause (e.g monkeys see, monkeys do (to criticize someone for copying someone else without thinking about what they are doing) In short, the two

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

other word, A and B are completely symmetrical whether they contain one or more component parts The connector of these idioms can be and or

comma

However, there are few English symmetrical idioms by animals Only

8 among about 180 English idioms by animals are symmetrical They

account for approximately 0.4 % in all

ii) Symmetrical Idioms by Animals in Vietnamese

In order to realize symmetrical idioms by animal in Vietnamese, a

symmetrical idiom is said to have an even number of syllables which are divided into two opposite parts (Bùi Khắc Việt (1981)) Sharing the same point of view, Nguyễn Công Đức (1995) states that a symmetrical idiom always contains two parts having opposite meanings and together forming the idiomatic meaning In other words, that a symmetrical idiom has two opposite component parts is obligatory According to Hoàng Văn Hành (2008), the most typical feature of a symmetrical idiom is the symmetry of the component parts forming an idiom The symmetry can be created by

meanings or words The idiom lòng chim dạ cá (unthankful, ungrateful) is a typical example The first part (lòng chim) is opposite to the second one (dạ

cá) In short, in the present study, a symmetrical idiom by animals is

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

In term of structural patterns, symmetrical idioms by animals in our

Vietnamese data, like English ones, can be noun phrases (e.g đầu voi đuôi

chuột (good plan but bad result), etc), verb phrases (e.g bới đầu cá vạch đầu tôm (to criticize a person who is eager to find out others’errors), ăn chó

cả lông ăn hồng cả hạt (greedy), etc), or sentences (e.g khỉ ho cò gáy

(remote places))

In terms of structural components of Vietnamese symmetrical idioms

by animals, most of them have four components which are divided into two opposite parts (each contains two constituents) The symmetry of these idioms is established due to semantic and syntactic properties of the components belonging to the two parts In other words, the first part is opposite to the second one in terms of both syllables and meanings For

example, the idiom đầu voi đuôi chuột (good plan but bad result) has two symmetrical parts Đầu voi is opposite to đuôi chuột, and these parts are

paraphrasable According to Hoàng Văn Hành (2008: 58), most of symmetrical idioms in Vietnamese have four components divided into two opposite parts (A, B) A is generally opposite to B And A contains smaller parts which are individually opposite to those in B M is regarded as the beginner of the first part (A) for N being the beginner of the second one (B);

X is the constituent after M and Y is the one after N Symmetrical idioms

with the form AB in Vietnamese are shown as follows: MXNY; MXMY;

Indeed, the symmetry depends on the opposite relations between the

components of the two parts The idiom đầu voi đuôi chuột is an example This idiom has two symmetrical parts (A, B) in which đầu (M) and voi (X) in

A are opposite to đuôi (N) and chuột (Y) in B In the symmetrical

relationship among the syllables of the idioms, the contents of each constituent in the two opposite parts usually express the concepts belonging

to the same semantic category Furthermore, symmetrical idioms must have

two opposite parts whose constituents are always parallel The opposite

constituents in the two parts belong to the same types of linguistic units It

means that when A is opposite to B, A and B must belong to the same kind

of linguistic units Generally, symmetrical idioms by animals in Vietnamese are regarded as idioms having two opposite parts (A, B) A and B are together combined by the rhythm of the syllables In fact, some symmetrical

idioms have two opposite constituents consisting of four syllables such as ăn

ốc nói mò (to speak by guess and by god)

In contrast to the number of English symmetrical idioms by animals, the number of Vietnamese symmetrical idioms is 37 among 186 Vietnamese idioms by animals, accounting for about 20 per cent

3.1.2 Similized Idioms by Animals

i) Similized Idioms by Animals in English

Structurally, it is realized that a similized idiom by animals is similar

to an ordinary comparison; however, they differ from each other in some ways An ordinary comparison refers to two things belonging to the same category to show the degree of their similarity or difference On the contrary, a similized idiom involves one thing which is put in the same line with another of a different category to emphasize or exaggerate certain properties It is called idiomatic comparison which is used to make the language more vivid

In our English data, similized idioms by animals can be adjective

phrases (e.g as rare as hen’s teeth (very rare), etc), verb phrases (e.g die

like flies (die in very large numbers), etc), prepositional phrases (e.g like a dog with two tails (delightedly), like a cat on hot bricks (nervously), etc), or

clauses (e.g as the crow flies (in a straight line))

In English, a similized idiom by animals is singled out by its specific

structure of comparison The idiom as rare as hen’s teeth (very rare) is an example Rare as A is regarded as the topic of comparison and hen’s teeth

as B being the subject compared A and B are connected via a conjunction

as…as The structural components of similized idioms by animals are

categorized as follows:

as A as B

A and B are together connected by a conjunction as…as which is not

always present in full When not in full, the first element ‘as’ can often be omitted A is usually an adjective or an adverb, which is obligatory, and B

can be a noun/noun phrase (e.g busy as a beaver (very busy), dead as a

dodo (no longer important or popular), etc) Therefore, a similized idiom with

the form as A as B can be an adjective phrase or an adverbial phrase

A like B

Like is a connector used to combine A and B A is usually a verb, or a

verb phrase (e.g work like a dog (to work very hard), grin like a Cheshire cat

(have a broad fixed smile on one's face), etc) and B can often be a noun/noun

phrase (e.g eat like a bird (to eat only small amounts of food; to peck at one’s

food) Thus, a similized idiom with the form A like B is usually a verb phrase (e.g die like flies (die in very large numbers)

idiom with the form […] like B is usually a prepositional phrase (e.g like

a dog with two tails (delightedly), like a cat on hot bricks (nervously), etc.)

[…] as B

A as the topic of comparison is also omitted While as is a preposition functioning as a connector, B can be a clause when as works as a conjunction A similized idiom with the form […] as B can be a

prepositional phrase (e.g as the crow flies (the measurement of the

distance in a straight line)

In summary, there are 56 similized idioms by animals among 180

idioms by animals in English, which means that they account for 31%

ii) Similized Idioms by Animals in Vietnamese

To realize Vietnamese similized idioms by animals, Hoàng Văn Hành (2008: 101) states that similized idioms are fixed groups of words coming

from comparisons and having the figurative meanings such as khỏe như voi (very strong), như cá nằm trên thớt (be in a dangerous situation), etc

Structurally, it is realized that a similized idiom by animals is similar to an ordinary comparison; however, they differ from each other in some ways

An ordinary comparison refers to two things belonging to the same category

to show the degree of their similarity or difference On the contrary, a similized idiom involves one thing which is put in the same line with another

of a different category to emphasize or exaggerate certain properties It is called idiomatic comparison which is used to make the language more vivid Like English counterparts, similized idioms by animals in our Vietnamese

data can be adjective phrases (e.g khỏe như voi (very strong), chậm như sên (very slow), etc), verb phrases (e.g lẩn như chạch (unwilling to see), etc), prepositional phrases, or sentences (e.g mặt tái như gà cắt tiết (so scary),

etc) Specially, a similized idiom is also singled out by its specific structure

of comparison (Trương Đông San 1974, Hoàng Văn Hành 1976, Nguyễn

Công Đức 1995) The idiom khỏe như voi (very strong) is an example Khỏe

as A is regarded as the topic of comparison and voi as B being the subject

compared The structural components of similized idioms by animals are categorized as follows:

A như B

A usually denotes the nature of B and is usually an adjective: dữ như

cọp (very fierce) However, in some cases, A can be a verb (e.g nói như rồng leo, làm như mèo mửa (loud talking, little doing), etc) B is regarded

as the subject compared It can be a noun/noun phrase (e.g chậm như sên (very slow), a verb/verb phrase (e.g cãi nhau như mổ bò (very conflictive),

or a clause (e.g cấm cẳn như chó cắn ma (nghĩa?)) In a word, a similized

idiom by animals with the form A như B can be: an adjective phrase: chậm

như sên (very slow); a verb phrase: ăn như rồng cuốn (eat very fast and a

lot); a sentence (e.g mặt tái như gà cắt tiết (very scary))

(A) như B

Within this form, A is optional (Nguyễn Công Đức 1995, Hoàng Văn

Hành 2008) When A is present, it can be an adjective (e.g (chậm) như rùa (very slowly), a noun (e.g (mặt tái) như gà cắt tiết (a person is so frightened when being caught red - handed)), or a verb (e.g (học) như vẹt (learn

something by heart without understanding)) B can be a noun/noun phrase

(e.g như chó với mèo (very conflictive)), a verb phrase (e.g cãi nhau như mổ

bò (row noisily and bitterly)), a clause (e.g (mặt tái) như gà cắt tiết (turn

pale because of extreme fear)) A similized idiom with the form (A) như B

can be: an adjective phrase: (chậm) như rùa (very slowly), (yếu) như sên (very weak); a verb phrase (e.g (cãi nhau) như mổ bò); a sentence (e.g như

ếch ngồi đáy giếng (see no further than someone’s nose))

như B

A is omitted from the form The idiom is introduced by như And

B can be a noun phrase (e.g như chó với mèo (usually conflictive)), or a clause (e.g như nước đổ đầu vịt (have no effect), như ong vỡ tổ (in a pandemonium), như vịt nghe sấm (understand nothing), etc) Như is a preposition; therefore, A similized idiom with the form như B is a

animals

3.1.3 Non-Symmetrical Idioms by Animals

i) Non-Symmetrical Idioms by Animals in English

Non-symmetrical idioms in general and ones by animals are idioms whose structural components are different from those of symmetrical and similized idioms In detail, a non-symmetrical idiom does not contain two symmetrical parts, or it is not formed by its specific comparative means

such as as…as, like, as, in English

In our English data, non-symmetrical idioms by animals can be noun

phrases (e.g a bull in a China shop (a very clumsy person), bird’s eye view (a view or perspective from above or at a distance), etc), adjective phrases (e.g

lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut (a person of low moral standing),

prepositional phrases (e.g with the lark (to be awake, out of bed, and active at

a particular early hour of the morning ), verb phrases (e.g rain cats and dogs (rain very heavily)), or sentences (e.g the bird has flown (somebody who is

being sought, or pursued, has gone away, has escaped)

Non-symmetrical idioms by animals are quite common in English They do not have two symmetrical parts as well as comparative means The structure of the idiom is a solid combination of certain components The forms of these idioms are classified under three general headings: phrase, clause and sentence

The phrase heading is sub-divided as follows:

Non-symmetrical idioms by animal as noun phrases

The noun phrases themselves contain the head nouns; therefore,

non-symmetrical idioms as noun phrases are specified in A HN (B) form A can be

a determiner and/or modifier B (sometimes omitted from the form) is usually

a prepositional phrase (e.g crocodile tears (an insincere show of sorrow), big

fish in a small pond (a person seen as important and influential only within

the limited scope of a small organization or group), etc.) Additionally, a

negative particle is sometimes used before the noun phrase (e.g no spring

chicken (someone who is no longer young, probably past his young

adulthood, and sometimes doesn’t realize it and tries to look and act younger

than his age, not enough room to swing a cat (a place or space that is

very small), etc.)

Non-symmetrical idioms by animals as adjective phrases

AB is considered as the form of non-symmetrical idioms as adjective

phrases A can be an adjective/adjective phrase B can be a prepositional

phrase (e.g high on the hog (a luxurious lifestyle))

Non-symmetrical idioms as prepositional phrases

Non-symmetrical idioms as prepositional phrases usually start with

prepositions; thus, they are summarized in Prep B form The preposition can

be on, at, in, for, with, from, within, over, etc B is usually a noun or a noun phrase (e.g in donkey's years (in a very long time))

Non-symmetrical idioms by animals as verb Phrases

Non-symmetrical idioms as verb phrases usually start with verbs or phrasal verbs, i.e they have verbs or phrasal verbs as their central

elements or heads (e.g water off a duck's back (with no effect or reaction))

These types of idioms sometimes start with operators or negative particles Due to these, the forms of non-symmetrical idioms as verb phrases are possibly specified in (A) V/PV B A can be an operator, or a negative particle

(e.g not hurt a fly (to be particularly gentle, shy, diffident, or timid by

nature)) B can be a noun/noun phrase (e.g don't look a gift horse in the mouth (take advantage of an opportunity and try not to find faults or

difficulties), an adjective/adjective phrase (e.g live high off the hog (to prosper or live very well), or a prepositional phrase (e.g swim with the

fishes) In addition, some verbs of the idioms can take both direct and indirect

object or object and object complement which are regarded as noun phrases in

the present study (e.g you can't teach an old dog new tricks (it is very

difficult to teach someone new skills or to change someone’s habits or

characteristics)

The clause heading consists of non-symmetrical idioms as clauses

introduced by subordinators such as if, unless, when, while, etc (e.g when the

chickens come home to roost (bad deeds or words return to discomfort their

perpetrator)

The sentence heading consists of non-symmetrical idioms as sentences, i.e the patterns of idioms are sentences They can be simple sentences (e.g

the bird has flown (somebody who is being sought, or pursued, has gone

away, has escaped), early bird catches the worm (the person who arrives first

in a place is most likely to get what they want), compound sentences (e.g You

can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink (you can make

it easy for someone to do something, but you cannot force them to do it)), or

complex sentences (e.g Don't catch your chickens before they're hatched

(you should not make plans that depend on something good happening before you know that it has actually happened)) The simple

sentences are specified in AB (A is the subject which can be a noun or noun phrase for B being the predicate (a verb phrase)) A coordinator B is applied

to the compound sentences (both A and B are clauses) The complex

sentences are specified in A subordinator B (both A and B are clauses),

or A which is a superordinate containing itself non-finite clause(s) In some cases, the idioms can start with coordinators or subordinators; however, they are still regarded as compound or complex sentences

In short, in our English data, the number of non-symmetrical idioms by animals is the biggest of the three kinds There exist about 116 English non-

symmetrical idioms among 180 idioms by animals, accounting for 65 % of all

ii) Non-Symmetrical Idioms by Animals in Vietnamese

Non-symmetrical idioms in Vietnamese are said not to have two symmetrical component parts and their idiomatic meanings are formed in a figurative way (Hoàng Văn Hành 2008: 77) Indeed, the idioms whose structural components are different from those of symmetrical and similized idioms are regarded as non-symmetrical ones In other words, a non-symmetrical idiom does not contain two symmetrical parts, or it is not

formed by its specific comparative means như in Vietnamese

Non-symmetrical idioms in our Vietnamese data can be noun phrases

(e.g cá mè một lứa (in the same class or level), nước mắt cá sấu (artificial tears), etc), adjective phrases (e.g lo bò trắng răng (unnecessarily worried)) , verb phrases (e.g bắt cá hai tay (to run after two sides to get benefit), or sentences (e.g chim chích vào rừng (do something confusedly), một con

ngựa đau cả tàu bỏ cỏ (deeply sympathize with the other’s difficulty), cà cuống chết đến đít còn cay (one who is very stubborn and conservative

never makes up his mind), etc)

In Vietnamese, the structural components of non-symmetrical idioms by animals are classified under two general headings: phrase and sentence

The phrase heading is sub-divided as follows:

Non-symmetrical idioms by animals as noun phrases

Non-symmetrical idioms as noun phrases are composed of at least two lexical words, which the noun element is regarded as the head or the central one called A A is followed by constitutive words of various parts of

speech called B Therefore, AB is the form of non-symmetrical idioms as noun phrases A can be a noun/noun phrase (in the same class or level) (e.g

nước mắt cá sấu (insincere), etc) B can be a noun phrase (e.g mỡ để miệng mèo), or an adjective phrase (e.g lo bò trắng răng (unnecessarily worried))

Non-symmetrical idioms by animals as verb phrases

Non-symmetrical idioms as verb phrases are usually introduced by a verb as the head called A A is followed by constitutive words of various parts of speech called B Thus, non-symmetrical idioms as verb phrases are

specified in AB form A is usually a verb/verb phrase (e.g bắt cá hai tay (to run after two sides to get benefit) B can be a noun/noun phrase (e.g.bắt

chạch đằng đuôi (vain effort)), a verb phrase (e.g bán bò tậu ếch ương) (not

know to get out of the rain), or a clause (e.g vứt xương cho chó cắn nhau

(purposefully cause conflicts)) Additionally, a negative particle is sometimes used before the verb phrase Furthermore, some verbs of the idioms can take both direct and indirect object or object and object complement which are regarded as noun phrases in the present study

The sentence heading consists of non-symmetrical idioms as

sentences, i.e the structural patterns of idioms are sentences They can be

simple sentences (e.g chim chích vào rừng (do something confusedly), compound sentences (e.g một con ngựa đau cả tàu bỏ cỏ (deeply sympathize with the other’s difficulty)), or complex sentences (e.g cà cuống chết đến đít

còn cay (one who is very stubborn and conservative never makes up his

mind)) The simple sentences are specified in AB (A is the subject which can

be a noun or noun phrase for B being the predicate (verb phrase)) AB is

applied to the compound sentences (A is a clause and B is also a clause) The

complex sentences are specified in AB (A is the subject which is usually a

clause and B is the predicate (verb phrase))

Like English non-symmetrical idioms by animals, the number of Vietnamese non-symmetrical idioms by animals is the biggest of the three kinds There exist about 94 non-symmetrical idioms among 186 Vietnamese idioms by

animals They account for 50.5 per cent of all

3.2 Semantic components of idioms by animals in English and in Vietnamese

In terms of semantic components, idioms are classified according to the motivation degree which is sub-divided into four degrees: transparent, semi-transparent, semi-opaque and opaque

Transparent idioms are idioms whose idiomatic meanings can be derived from the meanings of their constituent parts The constituents of these idioms are explicit, i.e the idioms are completely transparent

Semi- transparent idioms refer to the idioms having both explicit and implicit component parts The meanings of these idioms are from one component or one component part of the idioms (Nguyễn Công Đức 1995; Hoàng Văn Hành 2008)

Semi-opaque idioms are regarded as idioms whose component parts are implicit but possibly analyzable According to Langlotz (2006: 91),

‘analysability is a dimension potentially affecting the internal semantic structure of an idiomatic construction’

Opaque idioms are idioms all the constituents of which are implicit In other word, that the idioms are completely opaque means that there is no link between the literal reading and the idiomatic meaning However, to some extent they can be motivated by conventional knowledge