A study on english idioms of education with reference to the vietnamese equivalents

THESIS A STUDY ON ENGLISH IDIOMS OF EDUCATION WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH VỀ GIÁO DỤC TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT... 2 CERT

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

A STUDY ON ENGLISH IDIOMS OF

EDUCATION WITH REFERENCE TO THE

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH VỀ GIÁO

DỤC TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT)

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled A STUDY ON ENGLISH IDIOMS OF EDUCATION WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH VỀ GIÁO DỤC TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT) 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

Đặng Thu Trang Approved by

SUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Dr Lê Văn Thanh

Date:………

My sincere thanks also go to all lecturers and the staff of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies at Hanoi Open University for their useful lectures, assistance and enthusiasm during my course

Last but not least, special acknowledgement is also given to my lecturers at National College for Education for their precious knowledge, useful lectures in linguistics, which lay the foundation for this study

There are many others I should mention here, people who helped me along the way and provided me support Listing all of them would fill a book itself, so I merely will have to limit myself to a few words: I thank you ALL!

Đặng Thu Trang

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ABSTRACT

This study focused on English idioms of education with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents Through their syntactic and semantic features, we find out the similarities and differences between English idioms of education and Vietnamese ones under the light of contrastive analysis and cross-cultural perspective Data used for analysis in this study were mainly collected through dictionaries and the internet Through analysis of forms of idioms of education in English and Vietnamese, it is deduced that idioms are really important in communication Idioms are used to express ideas in figurative styles They bring the vividness and richness to the speakers' speeches This is the reason why the more skillfully a person uses idioms in his conversations, the more effectively he can establish his communicative relationship The findings of the thesis illustrate some implications for teachers, learners of English and translators from the use of linguistic features of idioms of education in English and focus on the meanings of the English idioms of education and a comparative analysis with Vietnamese ones Hopefully, the study may help learners, teachers, and translators of English avoid difficulties in realizing and translating English idioms into Vietnamese and vice versa

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 8

1.1 Rationale for the study 8

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 9

1.3 Research questions 9

1.4 Methods of the study 10

1.5 Scope of the study 10

1.6 Significance of the study 10

1.7 Design of the study 11

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 12

2.1 Previous studies 12

2.2 Overview of theory of phrase structure 13

2.2.1 Phrase structure 13

2.2.1.1 Adjective phrases 13

2.2.1.2 Noun phrases 15

2.2.1.3 Verb Phrases and Phrasal Verbs 16

2.2.1.4 Prepositional phrases 17

2.3 An overview of idiom 18

2.3.1 Definitions of idioms 18

2.3.2 Concept of education 20

2.3.3 Types of idioms 21

2.3.4 Main features of idioms 22

2.3.4.1 Syntactic features 22

2.3.4.2 Semantic features 23

2.4 Summary of the chapter 25

CHAPTER III: ENGLISH IDIOMS OF EDUCATION WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 26

3.1 Syntactic features of English idioms of education with reference to theirVietnamese equivalents 26

3.1.1 Idioms of Education in the form of VerbPhraseStructure 26

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3.1.2 Idioms of Education in the form ofNounPhraseStructure 29

3.1.3 Idioms of Education in the form of Adjective Phrase Structure 32

3.1.4 Idioms of Education in the form of Prepositional Phrase Structure 34

3.2 Semantic features of English idioms of education with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents 36

3.2.1 Relationship between Teachers and Learners 36

3.2.2 School and Class 38

3.2.3 Examinations 39

3.2.4 Methods/ Ways of Teaching andLearning 41

3.2.5 Learners' Personalities/Appearance 42

3.2.6 Level of education 44

3.3 Comparison between English Idioms of Education with Vietnamese ones 46

3.3.1 In terms of syntactic features 46

3.3.2 In terms of semantic features 47

3.4 Summary of the chapter 48

CHAPTER IV: APPLICATIONS FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS FROM THE USE OF LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH IDIOMS OF EDUCATION 50

4.1 Survey questionnaires 50

4.1.1 Subjects 50

4.1.2 Questionnaires 50

4.1.3 Procedure 50

4.2 Common factors hindering the students’s participation in speaking English idioms 51

4.2.1 Students’ perception of learning speaking English idioms 51

4.2.2 Learner’s factor that hinder the students’ participation in speaking English idioms 52

4.3 Suggestions for teaching and learning English idioms of education 61

4.3.1 Suggestions for learning English idioms of education 61

4.3.2 Suggestions for teaching English idioms of education 62

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4.4 Summary of the chapter 64

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 66

5.1 Recapitulation of the study 66

5.2 Concluding remarks 66

5.3 Limitation of the study 67

5.4 Recommendations/Suggestions for further study 68

REFERENCES 69

APPENDIXES 73

Appendix 1A: List of English idioms of education 73

Appendix 1B: List of Vietnamese idioms of education 79

Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students 83

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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study

English plays an important role in our lives English may be a foreign language, but it is international in its significance The importance of English language in our lives is that it is spoken, read or understood in most parts of the world Thanks to this language, we can belong to the whole world as well as to our own country, and especially using idioms is very important in every day communication for the following reasons

Firstly, idioms play an important part in a language both in written and spoken forms Using idioms in communication is the most effective and interesting way because they contain not only the literal meanings but the figurative and expressive meanings as well They are an integral part of a language and they make the language more beautiful and more dynamic In English, the demand for using idioms is becoming higher because it is taught, learned, and communicated worldwide

Secondly, idioms give us many difficulties in communication Although idioms help speakers and writers communicate more successfully and make languages more interesting, they are not easy at all to master and use idioms appropriately Listeners and readers also find it really hard to understand idioms because their meanings cannot often be deduced from the individual components Idioms are used both in written and spoken language to emphasize meaning and make our observation, judgment and explanations more lively and interesting, so they have aesthetic function In other words, they are really useful tools for communicating a great deal of meaning in just a few words For example, to

indicate the favourite pupil of the teacher, the English people are likely to say "to

be a/ the teacher's pet" or to indicate a person who succeeds easily, with very high

marks or grades, they would like to say "pass with flying colours" When we praise

a pupil who passes examinations and comes first in the test, the Vietnamese say "cá chép hóa rồng" We are attracted by the question how and why idioms differ from each other between English and Vietnamese in case of idioms of education

Moreover, as an English teacher, I find that students of English only tend to use non-idiomatic ways to express their ideas There are few students using idioms

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in their speaking and writing It means students of English miss the chance to reach the highest effect in communication in general and in communication with foreigners in particular If they try consciously to fill their speech and writing with idioms, the effect will probably be improved

Lastly, I am interested in the way English and Vietnamese people use idioms

to satisfy their own need in daily communication Here and there, there are several studies on idioms with certain linguistic units However, in range of Open University, there is no study on English idioms of education Thus, the topic “A study on English idioms of education with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents”, is chosen for my thesis Hopefully, the result of the study will be useful for learners of English and contribute a small part into the teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam and for people who are interested

in idioms in both English and Vietnamese

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The aims of the study:

This study aims to find out the linguistic features of English and Vietnamese idioms of education in order to help Vietnamese learners of English to study and use the idioms effectively

The objectives of the study:

To point out the syntactic and semantic features of English idioms of education and their Vietnamese equivalents

To compare between English with Vietnamese idioms of education with regard to syntactic and semantic features

To provide some suggestions for teaching and learning English idioms from the use of linguistic features of English idioms of education

1.3 Research questions

1 What are the syntactic and semantic features of English idioms of education and their Vietnamese equivalents?

2 What are the similarities and differences in syntactic and semantic features

of English and Vietnamese idioms of education?

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3 What are the possible applications for teachers and learners of English in the process of teaching and learning idioms of education?

1.4 Methods of the study

In order to achieve the aims given, the major method to be employed in the study is a descriptive one The descriptive method is used to describe in details the syntactic and semantic features through the examples of idioms of education collected from reference books, stories, novels, dictionaries and Internet websites Moreover, analysis method is used to point out the similarities or differences between English idioms of education and Vietnamese ones Also, the survey method is done to recognize most difficulties of students when they learn idioms This can surely help teachers anticipate problems in the lessons and seek the possible solutions to solve these problems

Therefore, the considerations, remarks, consumptions, comments and conclusions in the thesis are mainly based on data analysis A number of data relating to idioms of education in both English and Vietnamese publications are collected from textbooks, short stories, books on English and Vietnamese languages.Data collected will then be analyzed in order to find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms of education

1.5 Scope of the study

• In this study, semantic and syntactic features of idioms of educationin both English and Vietnamese are extensively discussed

• The study focuses only on English idioms of education are analyzed with reference to their equivalents in Vietnamese

• The English and Vietnamese idioms in this study are collected from dictionaries and the Internet; therefore this research may not cover all idioms

of education

1.6 Significance of the study

The study will be able to provide useful knowledge to enable better use of idioms of education in English and Vietnamese The findings of the study can be the potential source for the teaching and learning English and Vietnamese in particular as foreign languages

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1.7 Design of the study

The thesis consists of 5 main chapters, excluding the appendixes and the references

• Chapter I: Introduction, consists of the rationale, the aims and objectives,

the research questions, the methods of the study, the scope of the study, the significance of the study, and the design of the study

• Chapter II: Literature review, consists of previous studies, an overview of

theory of syntax and semantics, and an overview of idioms

• Chapter III: English idioms of education with reference to their

Vietnamese equivalents 1)Syntactic features of English idioms of education with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents, 2) Semantic features of English idioms of education with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents, 3) Comparison between English idioms of education with Vietnamese ones

• Chapter IV: Applications for English teachers, learners of English and

translators from the use of linguistic features of English idioms of education 1) Survey questionnaires, 2) Common difficulties made by learners of English when using English idioms, 3) Suggestions for translation, teaching and learning English idioms of education

• Chapter V: Conclusion, consist of concluding remarks, limitation of the

study, and recommendations for further study

of English idioms For example, Mc Modie(1909)with "English Idioms and How to Use Them" is considered among the first authors to study on the field of English idioms Other authers include Logan Pearsall Smith with "Idioms" (1922), Collins (1958) with "A book of English Idioms with Explanation" Collins (1986) with

"American English Idioms", Broke (1994) with "Idioms for Everyday Use" Cowies, Martin and Cairo (1994) with "Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English", Lord Quick, Douglas Bibber and Rod Bonito with "Longman Idiom Dictionary"(1998), Teachers and Researchers from Cambridge University with

"Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms" (1999) Their interests in idioms reveal the awareness of the persuasiveness of idioms in language productive skills and the perception of the difficulty of understanding idioms in terms of syntax and semantics as well as the differences between idioms and other language units In this field, Cruse (1986) mentioned the traditional definition of idioms as "an idiom maybe briefly characterized as a lexical complex which is semantically complex" in

"Lexical Semantics" (1987) He also made the conception of idioms in his book clearer by distinguishing idioms from collocations and "dead" metaphor According

to him, most idioms are homophonous with grammatically well- formed transparent expressions

Palmer, F.R.(1990), who defines idioms as sequences of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the words themselves

Cowie A.P.(1994) analyzes the way their grammar and meanings complemented each other to create idiomaticity as well as "the possibility of internal variation, or substitution of part for part" of idioms Besides, the author also suggested "techniques" to distinguish idiomatic units from other multiword expressions More principally, the author discussed about idiom's grammatical and lexical information clearly

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According to Halliday (1989), in the light of functional grammar and Đỗ Hữu Châu (1981) in "Từ vựng và ngữ nghĩa Tiếng Việt" observes idioms with different views as a class of words functioning as subject, predicator, complement and adjunct in idiomatic structure

In Vietnam, however, many authors show their interests in this new, difficult subject For example, Bùi Phụng (1997) with "Từ Điển Giải Thích Thành Ngữ Tục Ngữ Việt-Anh; Phạm Văn Bình (1986) with "Thành Ngữ và Tục Ngữ Tiếng Anh" ;

Lã Thành (1995) with "Từ Điển Thành Ngữ Anh-Việt"

In terms of Vietnamese idioms, many Vietnamese authors did research into and gave out worthy collections such as: Nguyễn Lực, Lương Văn Đang (1978), who made the first significant contribution to the field in "Thành ngữ Tiếng Việt"; Bùi Phụng (2006) explains the meanings of commonly used Vietnamese idioms and proverbs to help English learners understand more clearly their literal meanings in English; Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) analyzed idiom's structural and semantic features deeply

All in all, the above authors have presented every aspect related to idioms However, up to now no studies on the linguistic features of idioms related to education in English and Vietnamese This reason makes the researcher devote herself to the study of this topic

2.2 Overview of theory of phrase structure

2.2.1 Phrase structure

2.2.1.1 Adjective phrases

According to Greenbaumin the English Grammar [14, p.288], the adjective

phrase has as its head an adjective, which may be preceded by pre-modifiers and

followed by post-modifiers."

An adjective phrase does the work of an adjective They describe, modify, or

give some information about a noun or a pronoun

The adjective phrase in English has four functional constituents:

constituents which precede thehead

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• The head, which is an adjective or participle serving as the focus of

thephrase

• Post-modification, that modifying constituent which follows thehead

post-modificationhere)thatconstituent which follows any post-modification and

completes the specification of a meaning implied by the head

To see some examples of adjective phrases, examine the table below

Table 2.1 Function and Form of Adjective Phrase

(According to Greenbaum, in the English Grammar [14])

FORM

Adverb Adverb Adjective Prepositional Phrase Adverb Phrase Infinitive Clause

Notice that the order of constituents in the adjective phrase, like all other phrase structures in English, is relatively fixed, helping us determine the constituent elements

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2.2.1.2 Noun phrases

According to Greenbaum [14], the noun phrase has as its head a noun, a

pronoun, a nominal adjective, or a numeral

Like all phrases, the constituents of the English noun phrase can be analyzed into both functional constituents and formal constituents From a functional point of

view, the noun phrase has four major components, occurring in a fixed order:

• The determinative, the constituent which determines the reference of the

noun phrase in its linguistic or situationalcontext

• Pre-modification, that comprises all the modifying or describing constituents

before the head, other than thedeterminers

• The head, around which the other constituentscluster

constituents placed after thehead

Some of the possible arrangements of form and function in the noun phrase

are presented in the table below:

Table 2.2 Function and Form of Noun Phrase

(According to Greenbaum, in the English Grammar [14])

Function Determiner Pre-modifier Head Post-modifier

FORM

Pronoun Participle Noun Prepositional Phrase Article Noun Adjective Relative Clause Quantifier Adjectiv

e Phrase

Pronoun Nonfinite Clause

Complementation

auxiliaries (or auxiliary verbs)

The verb phrase (VP) in English has a noticeably different structure, since the information it carries about mood, tense, modality, aspect, and voice is quite different from the information carried by a noun phrase The verb phrase has two

functional parts:

• The auxiliary, a grammatical morpheme carrying information about mood,

tense, modality, andvoice

• The main verb, a lexical morpheme carrying its lexical information and,

usually, aninflection

Another way to illustrate some of the relationships between form and

function in the verb phrase is presented in the following table

Table 2.3 Function and Form of Verb Phrase

(According to Greenbaum, in the English Grammar [14])

FORM Modal Perfect Progressive Passive Auxiliary

Support Main Verb

The verb phrase can be expressed both as an experiential structure and logical structure While the experiential structure is extremely simple, most of the

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semantic load is carried by the logical structure There is not a regular distinction between finite and non finite verb forms in Vietnamese language like the way English is

+ Phrasal Verbs

A phrasal verb is a compound verb formed by one of the following combinations:

• verb and adverb, e.g breakout

• verb and preposition, eg breakin

• verb with both adverb and preposition, eg break outin

2.2.1.4 Prepositional phrases

According to Greenbaum[14], "a prepositional phrase consists of a preposition followed by a prepositional complement, which is characteristically a

noun phrase or a wh-clause or V-ing clause." The prepositional phrase is a

'non-headed' construction in English since no one constituent functions as the center

of the phrase, the center on which the other elements depend Instead, the structure is divided into two functional components - the preposition followed by its complement In general, a prepositional phrase expresses a relationship between the complement of the preposition and some other constituent of the sentence Diagrammatically, the structure of the prepositional phrase looks like the following table that is found in the English prepositionalphrase

Table 2.4 Function and Form of Prepositional Phrase

(According to Greenbaum, in the English Grammar [14])

Function Preposition Complement

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n

Adverb Pronoun Noun Noun Phrase -ing Clause Relative Clause

2.3 An overview of idiom

2.3.1 Definitions of idioms

Words have their own meanings They, however, do not just come individually; they also come in expressions or in groups Idioms are among the most common of these expressions And it is impossible to master a language without learning idioms – a very important part of the language What is an idiom? The

question may have many answers

According to Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture (2005),

an idiom is “a fixed phrase that has its own special meanings and it is impossible to

guess the meanings from separatedwords"

According to Oxford Dictionary of English (2010), "a group of words in a

fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word understood by its own" is called an idiom

In Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Crowder (1995) defines an idiom as “a

phrase whose meaning is difficult or sometimes impossible to guess by looking at the individual words it contains”; or, an idiom can be defined as a number of words which when taken together, have a different meaning from the individual meaning

of eachword

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Cowie (1994) defines that an idiom is "a group of words with set meanings

that cannot be calculated by adding up the separate meaning not deducible from

those of the separatewords "

As for Cruse (1986), an idiom is defined as "an expression the meaning of

which cannot be inferred from the meaning of its parts"

Jennifer Seidl and Mordie (1978) defines an idiom as “a number of words

which, when taken together, have different meanings from the individual meanings

of each word”

There are also many definitions of idioms in Vietnamese

Hoàng Phê (1997) states that an idiom is considered to be “a set of

expression whose meaning is generally inexplicable simply through the meanings of

individual words it contains”

Hoàng Văn Hành (2002) defines an idiom as “a stable word group with a

solid formation and structure, and a complete and figurative meaning, used in

everyday communication, especially in spoken language”

For example

"Cá vượt Vũ Môn" is used to indicate a student who passes the exams

"Cần công kiệm học" is used to refer to a person that has to both studyand

work hard

According to Đái Xuân Ninh (1978),"An idiom is a set of expressions whose

constituents lose their independence to some extent and combined into a rather complete and stable unit".

Idioms, like proverbs, are common sayings However, they usually do not

make sense at first sight and do not offer any advice For example, to sting to the

quick means to make someone angry So, idioms are fixed expressions that are commonly used They are not complete sentences but words – An idiom is equal to

a phrase

Idioms do not give comments, experiences, a moral lesson, advice that make idioms aesthetic not educated; that is the reason why an idiom does not become a literary work – idioms belong to the language Therefore, idioms do not bring about

(3) Lexical and grammatical: no lexical substitution is possible in an idiom in comparison with free or variable word-combinations (with an exception of some cases when such substitutions are made

by the author intentionally)

(4) Separability: the structure of an idiom is not indivisible something, certain modifications are possible within certain boundaries

(5) Expressivity and emotiveness: idioms are also characterized by stylistic coloring In other words, they evoke emotions or add expressiveness

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 that an idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning cannot be worked out by looking at the meaning of its individual words

Idioms don't usually cross language boundaries In some cases, when an idiom is translated into another language, the meaning of the idiom is changed or does not make any sense as it once did in another language Idioms are probably thehardest thing for a person to learn in the process of learning a new language This is because most people grow up using idioms as if their true meanings actually make sense

2.3.2 Concept of education

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2000), Education

is defined as “a process of teaching, training and learning, especially in schools or colleges to improve knowledge and develop skills” Therefore, we can work out the

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definition of idioms of education represent a kind of idioms relating to or concerning the process of teaching, training and learning, especially in schools or colleges to improve knowledge and develop skills Besides, idioms of education are

a special group in which the topics in idioms sometimes have little or no relation to teaching, training and learning in schools or in colleges This group of idioms

consists of idioms relating to experience from daily life

Some illustrations are as follows:

“My sister was always the teacher's pet when she was in thefirstgrade

results by just doing one action

time

argue and disagree over simile /'simili/ (as + adjective

+ as, or like + noun)

as dry as a bone very dry indeed

sophistication trinomial (word + word + and

+ word)

cool, calm and collected relaxed, in control, not

nervous

but not all the fine details

In terms of semantics, Fernando (1996) divides idioms into three types: pure idioms, semi-idioms, and literal idioms

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A pure idiom is known as “a type of conventionalized, non-literal multiword

expression” Spill the beans, for example, has nothing to do with beans In contrast

to its literal counterpartmeaning “letting fall leguminous seeds”, a non-literal

meaning is imposed on the idiom as awhole: “commit an indiscretion”

A semi-idiom has one or more literal constituents and at least one with a non-literal subsense, usually special to that co-occurrence relation and no other:

drop has the meaning “overuse” only when it co-occurs with names Other examples are catch one's breath “check”, foot the bill“pay”, etc Some of these

semi-idioms, like their kin, restricted collocations with specializedsubsenses, permit

lexical variation, for example, blue “obscene”film/joke/gag/story/comedian

Literal idioms (on foot, tall, dark and handsome, waste not, want not, on the

contrary , a (very) happy birthday, a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, etc.)

meet the salient criterion foridioms: invariance or restricted variation They are,

however, less semantically complex thenpure and semi-idioms

2.3.4 Main features of idioms

2.3.4.1 Syntactic features

The stability in idioms in both English and Vietnamese is very high Cruse [8, p.67] shows that "the typically resist interruption and reordering of parts" Actually, we cannot modify, omit or replace parts without breaking or distorting their real meaning Structurally, in an idiom the central part of an idiom may be

verbs (drop out of school, học hay cày giỏi), nouns (a walking dictionary, văn hay

chữ tốt) , or adjectives (loud and clear, dốt đặc cán mai)

An idiom is a fixed group of words or ready-made utterances The grammar and words that make up these idioms are almost impossible to change The elements

in idioms are usually bound together

For instance, we cannot put "important' before "basics" in the English idiom

"back to basics"or put "như" after "dốt" in the Vietnamese idiom "dốt có đuôi"

We cannot change words or the positions of components in these idioms because they are made by nonsense or just a common sentence For example, in the

Vietnamese idioms, we cannot say "thò lò học trò mũi xanh" instead of "học trò

thò lò mũi xanh" or the English idiom "town-and-gown" cannot be changed into

"gown-and-town"

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Doing so would hinder the temp of perception of the listener as well as the

reader and the above expressions are surely not idioms

However, there are also some idioms which can be broken or changed more

or less in their structures For example, we can sometimes say "bảng vàng bia đá" (bia đá bảng vàng), "a rough diamond"(a diamond in the rough)

Each idiom has a stable structure and meaning, so using idioms makes the sentences smoother and more flexible

2.3.4.2 Semantic features

Unlike common words, lexical meaning of an idiom follows a different rule Every idiom has a complete meaning as a set block generalized by all its forming elements Although an idiom is composed of words, they are not the combination of

the meaning of each element forming it For instance, an idiom "get a first" means

to obtain a honours first-class honours degree on graduation at auniversity.

Most idioms have the imaginary quality because of their symbolic expression Except metaphor and metonymy, the meaning of words is directly and rationally perceived in common word The perception of the general meaning can only come through lively imagines of forming elements For example, we use the image of "học như vẹt" to describe someone who learns something by heart but he/she doesn't understand it

Transference of meaning (those are simile, metaphor, metonymy and hyperbole) is the most important expression of an idiom Specific image is used to express as the symbol of characters, qualities, activities, etc

- He fights like alion

- She walks as gracefully and elegantly as acat

- I'm happier than a tornado in a trailerpark

+ Metaphor

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Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005) state that: "A metaphor consists of a comparison between two dissimilar notions where one notion is to be understood in terms of the other notion." We can see that metaphor is an expression that describes a person or object by referring to something that is considered having similar characteristics

For examples:

- He is always running after the skirt ("skirt" refers to a woman or girl)

+ Hyperbole

According to Crowder, J T (1995), "Hyperbole is deliberate overstatement

or exaggeration, the aim of which to intensify one of the features of the object in question to such a degree as will show its utter absurdity."

In the conversation the speaker usually uses utterances which describe his appraisal or attitude That is the reason why idioms have high evocativeness For

example, in order to talk about hard and diligence studying, we use the idiom "nấu

sử sôi kinh ", or "giùi mài kinh sử"

Idioms, in general, have connotative meaning with various meanings like comparative, metaphorical, metonymical one and so on The connotative meaning is the basic characteristic of idioms that helps investigate whether a certain phrase is idiomatic or not Guessing the meaning of an idiom through denotative meaning of the component parts is extremely difficult and almost impossible However, there are quite a few idioms whose connotative and denotative meanings are nearly

similar in both English and Vietnamese For instance,"learn parrot-fashion" in English and "học vẹt" in Vietnamese

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2.4 Summary of the chapter

The first part of chapter two has presented a review of related previous studies in English and Vietnamese

In the next part an overview of theory of phrase structure, and main features

of idioms is mentioned The next one an overview of idioms including definitions of idioms, concepts of education and types of idioms

In the last part, the relationship between language and culture is mentioned Language and culture always exist together and reinforce each other and the relationship between them is so close that we could not understand or appreciate the one without the knowledge of the other

In short, this chapter has reviewed the previous studies relating to this study Many researchers have studied idioms so far and discussed them in many books However, no studies have been carried out on Idioms of education in English and Vietnamese Moreover, this chapter has also presented general notions of idioms as well as syntactic and semantic structures which will all be the foundation for analysis in Chapter Three

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CHAPTER III: ENGLISH IDIOMS OF EDUCATION WITH REFERENCE

TO THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 3.1 Syntactic features of English idioms of education with reference to theirVietnamese equivalents

Idioms may take many different forms of phrases that are discussed in the previous chapter In this thesis, idioms which are collected from a large number of official sources which analyzed and presented under the form of phrasal structures including noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, and prepositional phrases

3.1.1 Idioms of Education in the form ofVerbPhraseStructure

There is a surprisingly big mount of patterns in Verb structure, both in English and Vietnamese idioms After collecting and classifying, 85 English idioms

and 45 Vietnamese ones are found in the form of Verb phrase

Pattern 1:

Verb + Noun/ Noun Phrase

Burn the midnight oil, Compare notes,

Make the grade, Get your head down,

Know your onions, crack a book, Call

the roll, Pick up a language, Play

truant, Pass with flying colours,

Crack out a paper, Get drift

Xếp bút nghiêng, Gõ đầu trẻ, Trượt vỏ chuối, Bán cháo phổi, Dùi mài kinh

sử, Tầm chương trích cú, tầm sư học

đạo, Lừa thầy phản bạn, Nấu sử sôi

kinh, học một biết mười

This type of structure is more popular in English idioms of education It is intersting that 63 Eglish idioms in this pattern are found in the total number of the idioms collected (38%) Meanwhile there are 45 Vietnamese idioms of this form, accounting 45.9%

To illustrate this structure, let us look at these examples:

English examples:

• “Before my exams, I was burning the midnight oil everynight.”[50, p.65] (Trước những kì thi, hằng đêm tôi học cho đến khuya)

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• “My German isn't very good, but I got drift of what hesaid.” [33, p.97]

(Tiếng Đức của tôi không giỏi lắm, nhưng tôi nắm được ý chính những điều anh ta nói.)

• “If you want to pass that French exam, you'll have to get your head down.” [58, p.286]

(Nếu anh muốn đỗ kì thi tiếng Pháp, anh phải học cật lực.)

• “Beyond about the age of twelve, it is almost impossible to pick up a

language so as to speak it like anative.” [21, p.46]

(Quá tuổi mười hai, quả thật là khó có thể học một ngôn ngữ để nói giống

như người bản xứ)

Vietnamese examples:

• " cái rét của một thời đầy hương và ngát hoa, trong đó có những chàng trai mặc quần đỏ ngồi bên án sách ngâm thơ, nhưng gặp lúc ngửa nghiêng

thì xếp bút nghiên theo việcbinhđao" [59, p.53]

• "Ông thầy phù thủy của những chương trình cải cách nông thôn cũng rời Sài

Gòn năm 1959 để về Mĩ tiếp tục nghề gõđầutrẻ." [47]

Pattern 2:

Verb + Noun/ Noun Phrase + Adverb Phrase

Put/turn sth to good account, Blind sb with

science, Cut your teeth on sth, Keep your

nose to the grindstone, Put pen to paper,

Have one’s nose in a book, Put sb/sth to

the test, Put your thinking cap on

Ø

From the appendix 1, rarely are the idioms of education of this pattern found

in English In this case Table 3.1 show that only 11 idioms (6.6%) can be collected

in English And there is no Vietnamese idiom of this form

Let’s consider some examples:

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• EverytimeIaskedherasimplequestion,shetriestoblindmewith science.[36,p.32] (Lần nào tôi hỏi cô ta một câu hỏi ñơn giản thì cô ta lại cố lòe tôi bằng cái sở

học của mình)

• Keep your nose to the grindstone and you should pass the exameasily

[36, p.466]

(Hãy học cật lực và bạn sẽ thi đỗ dễ dàng.)

The verb blind in the first sentence means show off one's ability Moreover,

in the example, the verb keep is understood as learn, learn hard, and learn

arduously

Pattern 3:

Verb + Prepositional Phrase

Learn by heart, Learn by rote, Goof off,

Read between the lines, Read sth into a

document, Tell tales out of school, Talk

like a book, Learn sth off by heart

Ø

It is not surprising from Appendix 1 that the number of English idioms in this form occupies 6.6% (11 idioms) And there is no Vietnamese idiom of this form

Some examples below illustrate this pattern

• The children learned all of the songs by heart for the schoolplay [32, p.172] (Những đứa trẻ đã học thuộc lòng tất cả các bài hát cho buổi ra chơi của

nhàtrường.)

• We learned many verbs by rote in the foreignlanguageclass [61]

(Chúng ta đã học vẹt nhiều động từ trong giờ học ngoạingữ.)

Most idioms have stable structures, but some relatively or extremely have loose structures In these idioms, we can put an object between the idioms without breaking meaning

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3.1.2 Idioms of Education in the form ofNounPhraseStructure

Noun phrase structures of English idioms account for a significant number of idioms collected After collecting and classifying, 32 English idioms and 35

Vietnamese ones are found in the form of Noun phrase

Pattern 1:

(Article)Noun/ Noun Phrase + Noun/ Noun Phrase

A pep talk, A cow college, A rough

diamond (A diamond in the rough),

Answer back, The old boy network, The

old school tie, Bookworm, Eager

beaver

Bảng vàng bia đá (Bia đá bảng vàng), Sân Trình cửa Khổng, Thiên kinh vạn quyển, Dòng dõi thi thư, Thầy nào trò nấy, Bất học vô thuật

This is the most common pattern of noun phrases The number of English idioms of education in this pattern is 19, accounting for 12% And there are 14 Vietnamese idioms (14.3%) equivalent of this pattern

Let us consider some examples

English examples:

• Just before the exams, our teacher gave us all a peptalk.[58, p.287]

(Ngay trước kì thi, thầy chúng tôi ñã có lời động viên khích lệ chúng tôi.) The idiom "a pep talk"describes a talk by the teacher to give her/ his

students confidence or encouragement before the exams The first noun modifies the second one

• My cousin plans to go to a cow college when he finishes highschool.[61] (Anh họ tôi dự kiến thi vàotrường nông nghiệp khi anh ấy học xong phổ

thông)

In this example, by using the image of an animal combined with a place,

college, this idiom conveys a school where farming/ agriculture is studied "Cow

college" is used as a compound noun with combining two nouns

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Vietnamese examples:

• Ông ta là người uyên bác thiên kinh vạn quyển, khó người nào sánh kịp

[45,p.210]

In the example the idiom "thiên kinh vạn quyển" is an idiom which has

Chinese origin When the Vietnamese borrow the idiom they can keep their form and semantics They can be also translated words one by one.The meaning of the idiom is that learners read a lot of books and have wide knowledge

• Nào những lúc quay mặt chào hướngBắc,

old days The meaning of this idiom is to gain one'slaurels

Pattern 2:

(Article) + Noun/ Noun Phrase + Preposition +

(Article) + Noun/ Noun Phrase

Word for word, A for effort, School of thought,

University of life, The school of hard knocks,

Ten out of ten, A brick short of a load, A mine

of information, A place in the Sun, Show of

hand

Ø

In this pattern, while only 6.6% idioms of education (11 idioms) are used by native English speakers And there is no Vietnamese idioms in this form

Let's consider the following examples

• There are many schools of thought related to the different ways to learn a

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foreignlanguage.[61]

(Có nhiều học thuyết đã dẫn ra những cách khác nhau để học một ngoại

ngữ.)

The idiom "school of thought" refers to theories or opinions as well as a

particular way or a philosophy of thinking about something

• The students received an A for effort for their work on the classproject.[61] (Những sinh viên này đã đạt điểm A trong việc học tập của họ)

The meaning of idiom “A for effort” means teachers recognize their students

try hard to learn even though they may not be successful

Pattern 3:

Noun/ Noun Phrase + V + Noun/ Noun Phrase

Nothing succeeds like success, Practice

makes perfect

Chữ tác đánh chữ tộ, Anh mù dạy anh lòa, cá chép hóa rồng, Cá vượt Vũ Môn,

Áo gấm về làng, Chó ông thánh cắn ra chữ, Nước đổ lá khoai, Nước đổ đầu vịt, Sách gối đầu giường, Chữ thầy trả thầy, Bảy mươi còn học bảy mươi mốt

In this structure, only 2 English idioms (1.2%) can be found In this case, Table 3.1 show that 21 idioms (21.4%) can be collected in Vietnamese

Some examples below illustrate this pattern

• “Chúng tôi vẫn cảm thấy không yên tâm Tuy có giấy thông hành đầy đủ,

nhưng bọn lính vào đây thấy chúng tôi lạ mặt, rồi chữ tác đánh chữ tộ, rất

có thể chúng sẽ làm phiền, tra hỏi lôi thôi.” [45, p.165]

It can be seen that the idiom in this example chữ tác đánh chữ tộ indicates

ignorance of a person who is not able to read and write fluently, read this word into another word

• "Giấc mơ "xênh xang áo gấm về làng, ngựa anh đi trước võng nàng theo

sau" chỉ còn là vang bóng của ngày qua.” [45, p.165]

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3.1.3 Idioms of Education in the form of Adjective Phrase Structure

There are not so many kinds of idioms in the structures of Verb Phrase and Noun Phrase, and Adjective Phrase structures occupy a small amount in English After collecting and classifying, 26 English idioms and 18 Vietnamese ones are

found in the form of Ạdjective phrase

Pattern 1:

Comparative form + Noun/Noun phrase

As easy as ABC, As easy as falling off

a log, As wise as a serpent, As wise as

an owl, Blind as a beetle, As stupid as

a bull, As stupid as a donkey, As silly

as a sheep, As deaf as an adder, As

thick as two short planks

Nghịch như quỷ sứ, Khôn như chấy, Dốt đặc cán mai, , Như vịt nghe sấm, Dốt như bò vực không thành, Dốt như bò, Dốt như chó

There are 14 idioms of education (8.5%) of this pattern in English And also there are 9 Vietnamese idioms (9.2%)

Let us look at examples

chó, dốt như chó, dại như chó, tham ăn nhưchó " [62]

• "Ở nhà, tôi chuyên môn ăn căp tiền để đem nướng cho mấy tên đánh đáo đánh bi, đi nói dối cha về nhà nói dối bố, đến trường thì học dốt như bò,trốn học, phá phách, chọc ghẹo bạn bè Thời giờ học bài, tôi lêu lổng ra bờ sông leo cây bàng " [61]

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In these examples the comparative structure is used This kind of structure is easily accepted as the compared properties are shown clearly Here the compared properties are adjectives They are also central components of an adjective phrase

that include a central adjective "dốt", a simile marker "như", and an objective is expressed by a noun "chó,bò"

Pattern 2:

Adjective + Preposition + Noun/ Noun Phrase

From the Appendix 1, rarely are the idioms of education of this pattern found

in English In this case, Table 3.1 shows that only 2 idioms (1.2%) can be collected

in English And there is no Vietnamese idiom of this form

• He's young teacher, still wet behindtheears.[33,p.444]

(Anh ta là một giáo viên trẻ, vẫn còn thiếu kinhnghiệm.)

This idiom denotes being young and with very little experience

Pattern 3:

Adjective + Noun/Noun Phrase

Honor roll, Higher education, A

hard/tough act to follow, A hard school,

A new boy, A second language, The

spoken/written word, sweet blood

Lười chảy thây, Thẹn đèn hổ lửa, Chậm

đến đâu học lâu cũng biết, Dài dòng

văn tự, Dốt có đuôi, Dài lưng tốn vải

The Appendix 1 reveals that English idioms of education of adjective phrase phrase patterns seem to be popular (10 idioms = 6%) and one of the most typical structures is under the comparative pattern And there are 9 Vietnamese idioms (9.2%)

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3.1.4 Idioms of Education in the form of Prepositional Phrase Structure

Prepositional phrase structures of English idioms account for a significant among the number of idioms collected After collecting and classifying, 22 English idioms are found in the form of Prepositional phrase Meanwhile, there is no Vietnamese one According to Do Huu Chau [26], prepositional phrases are not typical ones in Vietnamese because prepositions are not main parts of speech in Vietnamese As a result, the structures of prepositional phrases in Vietnamese do not contain in idioms in Vietnamese, just inEnglish

Pattern 1:

Preposition+ (Possessive Adjective) + Noun/ Noun Phrase

At her command, Over his head, At home,

Above average, Beyond/Outside your ken,

In loco parents, In rough, In a class of

one’s own, in pencil, In pen, In single file,

off campus, over the hump

Ø

There are 17 idioms of education (10.3%) of this pattern in English And also there is no Vietnamese idiom

With the above structure, the following examples will make it clear

• With four European languages at her command, she's thinking of working

(Nhờ nắm vững 4 ngôn ngữ Châu Âu mà cô ta tính làm việc cho EU.)

• It was clear from the expression on his face that the lecture went completely

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live in But in this example the meaning of the idiom "at home" is very interesting

because it cannot be translated as a normal sentence, its meaning is that someone knows about a subject and feels confident discussing it

Pattern 2:

Preposition+PrepositionalPhrase

Off by heart, Up to the mark, Not up to

much, In/Out of practice, Back to basics

Table 3.1: Statistical analyze of syntactic features of Idioms of education

Number Percent Number Percent

However, there appear to be some differences Based on the data in the above table the differences are clearly shown in same aspects of syntactic features between English and Vietnamese idioms of education With regard to noun phrase structures, English idioms possess a small number of 19.8% At the same time, the number of Vietnamese ones is 35.7% This particular difference may be caused by the difference in using words of two cultures The English people seem to have a preference in utilizing nouns to refer to objects while Vietnamese people do not seem to have the same habit What is more, among the samples investigated, we see that there are 15.7% of English idioms with the adjective phrase Meanwhile there are 18.4% of Vietnames idioms of education appear in this form One more difference is preposition phrase; there are 13.3% English idioms of education; meanwhile, there is no Vietnamese ones equivalent of this pattern

3.2 Semantic features of English idioms of education with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents

3.2.1 Relationship between Teachers and Learners

Relationship between Teachers and Learners here should be comprehended

as a part of our tradition to show respect for the older people, especially for the

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teachers who try hard to give the learners their knowledge and advice Learners need teachers' help to get a good profession and fulfill their aims in life although the relationship between teachers and students are not a relationship that made up of being the same flesh and blood Let us consider some English idioms about

relationship between Teachers and Learners

• “Teachers at boarding school are acting much more in loco parents than

those at adayschool.”[58,p.393]

(Các giáo viên ở trường nội trú chịu nhiều trách nhiệm chăm sóc trẻhơn các giáo viên ở trường ngoại trú.)

The origin of the idiom comes from the Latin phrase that means in the place

of a parent The idiom "in loco parents" is used in this example to talk about teachers have the same responsibility for a child as a parent has

• “Buller left journalism to teach school, and he wrote several books

(Buller đã rời bỏ nghề báo để đi đến trường học truyền kiến thức cho sinh

viên và anh đã viết vài cuốn sách nói về kinh nghiệm làm báo của anh.)

By using this idiom, the writer wants to denote the fact that a person who has much experience about his job, instructing students in a school

• “The children think the world of theirnewteachers.” [33,p.733]

(Các học sinh ñều rất ngưỡng mộ thầy giáo mới củachúng)

• “The professor was talking to a group of students, who hung on her

In Vietnamese, we can also find out a prevailing number of idioms in this

field such as một chữ nên thầy, tôn sư trọng đạo, tầm sư học đạo, bán tự vi sư, tạc

dạ ghi lòng, etc

Let’s look at some examples

• “Một chữ nên thầy, một ngày nênnghĩa

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Vị tình vị nghĩa, ai vị đĩaxôiđầy” [42]

• "Xưa nay với truyền thống tôn sư trọng đạo nhân dân ta vẫn quý trọng nghề

dạy học, coi là một nghề thanh cao, mô phạm liêm khiết, một nghề chỉ nói

và làm những lẽ phảiđiềuhay." [61]

• "Nhất tự vi sư, bán tự vi sư Cố nhân đã từng bảo vậy ! Về phần Dale, anh

đỏ mặt mỗi khi sinh viên gọi anh là professor Anh nhắc đi nhắc lại rằng anh chưa đủ học vị ñể làm professor Có sinh viên đề nghị gọi anh làMrDavidson " [57]

Three idioms "một chữ nên thầy", "tôn sư trọng đạo" and "bán tự vi sư"

above convey the meaning that the learners must pay tribute to their teachers and always remember acknowledgment of their valuable teaching to learners

• "Tập thể, nhà trường đã động viên anh, anh đã phấn đấu toàn diện vừa

3.2.2 School and Class

In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the noun "school" has some

following meanings: a place where children go to be educated; the process of learning in a school; the time during your life when you go to a school; the time during the day when children are working in a school; all the children or students and the teachers in a school, etc Due to the lexical nature of idioms of education, the idioms of expressing School and Class are much bigger in number in English

than in Vietnamese

We can find out many idioms expressing School and Class as follows

• Several of the company executives had gone to an Ivy Leagueschool.[61] (Một vài quản trị công ty đã đi đến một trường Đại học danh tiếng.)

This idiom "Ivy League" denotes a small group of older and famous eastern

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United States colleges and universities such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton

• The teacher took the roll and then we startedthelesson.[62]

(Giáo viên điểm danh và sau đó chúng tôi bắt đầu bàihọc)

The idiom "took the roll" indicates calling the names of students in an

attendance book and expects them to answer if they are there That is a way of checking attendance of learners when they study in a class

In Vietnamese, we can only find out only one idiom expressing School and Class

• "Trí thức của nước ta cũng có một số lớn được đào tạo ở cửa Khổng

sânTrình." [45,p.233]

In the example "Khổng" refers to Khổng Tử, "Trình" refers to Trình Tử

(Trình Di) who are typical people of Confucianism The idiom "cửa Khổng

sân Trình" is a place that instructed Confucianism and formed Confucian scholars in the oldday

3.2.3 Examinations

As we know examination is an act of examining, or state of being examined;

a careful search, investigation, or inquiry; scrutiny by study or experiment In other words, that is a process prescribed or assigned for test qualification; as, the examination of a learner, or of a candidate for admission to the ministry Therefore, there is always success or failure in the examination We can find out some English

idioms expressing examination such as make the grade, pit your wits (against

sb/sth), (earn/ get) straight A's (AmE), put sb/sth to the test, come unstuck (BrE), below average,etc

Some examples below illustrate these idioms

• You'll never make the grade if you don't work hard before theexams

[58, p.259]

(Bạn sẽ không bao giờ đạt điểm yêu cầu nếu bạn không học hành chăm chỉ

trước kì thi.)

• She got straight A's in allherexams.[33,p.385]

(Cô ta đạt toàn điểm A trong các kì thi.)

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The idiom got straight A's means that learners get the best marks or grades

in all their classes Both two idioms in example are about success in studying as well as in examination

• She came unstuck in the last part oftheexam [62]

(Cô ta tắc cứng ở phần cuối kìthi)

Beside success in the exams, there is also failure This idiom came

unstuckdenotes being unsuccessful or failure of learners in the examination

In Vietnamese, the examination of learners plays a very important role in the society Vietnamese idioms also show success or failure of the learners in the

examination, there are some idioms about this such as học tài thi phận, học thành

danh lập, bảng vàng bia đá, đua dại tranh khôn, vinh quy bái tổ, bõ công đèn sách, cá chép hóa rồng, cá vượt Vũ Môn, trượt vỏ chuối, etc

Let us consider these following examples

• "Ôngnhậnvếxướng,hứalúcvinhquysẽđối,vàrướcnàngvềluôn,đại đăng khoa và

tiểu đăng khoamộtthể." [58]

• "Đến ngày vinh quy bái tổ, ông vào chùa làm lễ tạ ơn sư thầy đã có công rèn

dạy ông thành người đức hạnh, tài giỏi để giúpnước."[60]

The idiom "đại đăng khoa" expresses getting a pass in the exam The idiom

"vinh quy bái tổ" told about learners in the old day passed the exam and became a

Doctor and the King gave commendation for this with flags for him when he returned to his homeland to worship the ancestors and was welcomed by hisvillagers

Although learners try their best and work hard, they still fail the examination Therefore, the learners need to have lucky destiny to pass the exam Let us see the

following example

• "Tôi lại lo cho Hương: Em có đảm bảo chắc chắn đỗ không? Học tài thi

phận biết thế nào Nhưng nếu có 10% số người dự thi đỗ, chắc là có em” [45]

The idiom "học tài thi phậnconveys that according to the idea of Vietnamese

people in the past, the learners took part in the exams could not get through an examination if they did not have their lucky destiny in spite of working hard