Idioms denoting Intelligence and understanding" in English and Vietnamese: a contrastive analysis and teaching implications

This thesis has two major purposes: 1 to find out not only the syntactic but also semantic similarities as well as differences in the idioms of this type in English and Vietnamese, and 2

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ KIM OANH

IDIOMS DENOTING “INTELLIGENCE AND UNDERSTANDING” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS AND

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ KIM OANH

IDIOMS DENOTING “INTELLIGENCE AND UNDERSTANDING” IN

ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS AND

TEACHING IMPLICATIONS

PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU VÀ GỢI Ý GIẢNG DẠY CÁC THÀNH NGỮ CHỈ SỰ

THÔNG MINH HIỂU BIẾT TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field : English Linguistics Code : 60 22 02 01 Supervisor : Nguyễn Huy Kỷ, Ph.D

HANOI – 2014

DECLARATION

I, Nguyễn Thị Kim Oanh, hereby certify that the thesis entitled Idioms denoting

“Intelligence and understanding” in English and Vietnamese: A contrastive analysis and teaching implication is my own study in the fulfillment of the

requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at VNU University of Languages and

Hanoi, July, 2014

Nguyễn Thị Kim Oanh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Apart from the efforts of myself, the success of any study depends largely on the encouragement and guidelines of many others I take this opportunity to express

my gratitude to the people who have been instrumental in the successful completion

of this MA thesis I would like to show my greatest appreciation to Dr Nguyễn Huy

Kỷ for his valuable instructions, critical but constructive criticisms, his share of personal experience and expertise I also would like to send my sincere thanks to all the teachers in M.A course at VNU University of Languages and International Studies for their training and their assistance that has helped me to complete this thesis Last but not least, my profound thanks and deep gratitude go to my family and my friends for their valuable support and encouragement

ABSTRACT

Although great attention has been paid to idioms by researchers and linguists

in Vietnam as well as in the world, there has been no study conducted on idioms denoting intelligence and understanding in English and Vietnamese This is the

reason for the author‟s choice of the study This thesis has two major purposes: (1)

to find out not only the syntactic but also semantic similarities as well as differences

in the idioms of this type in English and Vietnamese, and (2) to give some teaching implications for teachers English

In order to fulfill the objectives of the study, contrastive analysis method was used Moreover, 50 English and 50 Vietnamese idioms were collected various sources, mainly from dictionaries They were then carefully analyzed with the main focus on their syntactic and semantic features

The results of the analysis mentioned above shows that although the idioms under investigation share some similarities, they have notable and interesting differences in terms of their syntactic features especially with regard to their clause and phrase patterns as well as their semantic ones The study suggests that the above-mentioned idioms in English are more difficult to learn than their Vietnamese counterparts Therefore, more attention should be paid to the teaching of these idioms, especially to such factors as the number of idioms, student level and frequency of practice

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Objectives of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Significance of the study 2

5 Scope of the study 3

6 Organization of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Previous studies related to the research 4

1.2 The author's framework 5

1.3 Idioms 6

1.3.1 Definitions of idioms 6

1.3.2 Definition of idioms denoting intelligence and understanding 6

1.3.3 Distinctive features of English idioms 7

1.3.3.1 Syntactic features of English idioms 7

1.3.3.2 Semantic features of English idioms 11

1.3.3.3 Cultural features of English idioms 13

1.4 Distinction between idioms, metaphors, proverbs and fixed expressions 14

1.4.1 Idioms and Metaphors 14

1.4.2 Idioms and Proverbs 15

1.4.3 Idioms and Fixed Expressions 15

1.5 Summary 16

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 17

2.1 Research methods 17

2.2 Data collections instruments 17

2.3 Data analysis techniques 18

2.4 Data analysis procedure 18

2.5 Summary 19

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 20

3.1 Syntactic features of English idioms denoting intelligence and understanding in contrastive analysis with Vietnamese counterparts 20

3.1.1 Structural features of English idioms denoting intelligences and understanding 20

3.1.1.1 English idioms denoting intelligences and understanding have clause patterns 20

3.1.1.2 English idioms denoting intelligence and understanding have phrase patterns 25

3.1.2 An English – Vietnamese contrasting of syntactic features of idioms denoting intelligence and understanding 27

3.1.2.1 Similarities 27

3.1.2.2 Differences 30

3.2 Semantic features of English idioms denoting intelligence and understanding in contrasting with Vietnamese counterparts 32

3.2.1 Semantic features in idioms denoting intelligence and understanding 32

3.2.2.An English – Vietnamese contrasting of semantic features of idioms denoting intelligence and understanding 34

3.2.2.1 Similarities 34

3.2.2.2 Differences 36

3.3 Summary 38

CHAPTER 4: TEACHING IMPLICATIONS 39

4.1 Number of idioms 39

4.2 Theme 39

4.3 Level 40

4.4 Comprehension 40

4.5 Practice 40

4.6 Summary 41

PART C: CONCLUSION 42

1 Recapitulation 42

2 Concluding remarks 42

3 Limitations of the study 43

4 Suggestions for further study 44

REFERENCES 45 APPENDIX I I APPENDIX II II

PART A

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

English is a language particularly rich in idioms - those modes of expression peculiar to a language (or dialect) which frequently defy logical and grammatical rules Without idioms English would lose much of its variety and humor both in speech and writing However, the background and etymological origins of most idioms are at best obscure

There are many students who have the chance to travel abroad and when these students were in the United States, they experienced many difficulties because they did not understand the meaning of many idioms that native speakers used in their daily conversations They even felt embarrassed and frustrated because they could not understand the idioms they heard A strong knowledge of idioms, therefore, will help students be better speakers and facilitate communication

The fact that a large number of idioms are frequently used in discourse makes them an important aspect of vocabulary Nonetheless, their characteristic features cause many difficulties to learners of English First of all, idioms not only have brief and extraordinary forms, contain key words but also hold profound meanings They manifest much what the speakers want to say and do not want to say in words This means that the idioms can express speakers‟ viewpoints, feelings, attitudes and even personalities and culture is their ways of idioms usage Secondly, idioms are based not only on several aspects of language such as semantics, syntax, phonetics and phonology, pragmatics but also on their flexibilities in language usage Moreover, they are the combination of culture, language usage and creative competence They are everlasting and passed from generation to generation because

of their own distinctive features Therefore, learning idioms helps learners understand more about cultures, people, languages which they are studying

Idioms have attracted a number of researchers and linguists who have

researched on idioms and the application in teaching and learning Such as" The

Study of Idioms and its Application to ESL and Intercultural Communication"(Ito, Yoko, 1993) In the thesis the author made an attempt to investigate into English idioms from different aspects

However, there has been no study on idioms denoting intelligence and

understanding in English and Vietnamese This study is therefore conducted in

order to fill the gap We hope that it will make contribution to improving learners‟ understanding and knowledge of this particular type of idioms and give some suggestions to their teaching and learning

2 Objectives of the study

The study is carried out for the following objectives:

First of all, the study tries to analyze and contrast idioms to detect some similarities, basic differences between idioms denoting intelligence and understanding in English and Vietnamese in terms of their syntactic and semantic features

Secondly, it presents some implications in teaching and learning English idioms denoting intelligence and understanding

3 Research questions

The study attempts to answer the following questions:

1 What are some similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms denoting intelligence and understanding in terms of syntactic and semantic

features?

2 What are some teaching implications for using appropriate idioms denoting

intelligence and understanding in teaching English?

4 Significance of the study

Idioms are considered an interesting and popular phenomenon of every language Thus, they play an important role in all languages in general, in both English and Vietnamese in particular They also add color to the language and make the communication more lively and interesting Therefore, effective communication cannot be achieved successfully without idioms

This kind of study has significance not only for contrasting language in use, but also for teaching and learning of this type of idioms It also contributes to the translation of the idioms from English into Vietnamese and vice-versa

5 Scope of the study

Due to the limited time, space and the author‟s ability, the present paper just analyzes and contrasts the idioms denoting intelligence and understanding in Vietnamese, English in terms of their syntactic and semantic features

6 Organization of the study

The study consists of three parts with four chapters as follows:

Part A (Introduction) is spared for the presentation of the rationale, objectives, significance, scope, and the structure of the study

Part C (Conclusions) provides a recapitulation of the main issues and problems presented in the study and suggestions for further research have been supplied References

Appendices

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Previous studies related to the research

Idioms as an abstract field have drawn much attention from many linguists and scholars, and so far many studies of idioms from different angles have been

done First of all, the research by Ifill (2002), he has an attempt to analyze and seek

the nature of idioms in studying in idiomatic structure The researcher pointed out the importance of idioms in the natural language and its existence in the language

system In particular, he analyzes and clarifies the structure of idioms such as case

for the lexicon, the variability of idioms discussed shows is that all idioms have internal structure of some kind This distinction dictates how the idioms are allowed

to behave

Another notable researcher is Moreno (2003), who claimed that the meaning the speaker intends to convey by the use of an idiom is pragmatically (re)constructed on-line by relevance-driven inferential mechanisms which take as input a set of highly accessible encyclopedic assumptions from the concepts encoded by the idiom string and its constituent words The amount of processing effort invested, and the depth of processing of the encoded concepts, is highly constrained at every stage by the search for an optimally relevant interpretation He added that in understanding idioms, conceptual adjustment takes place at word and phrase level that this model can account for why idioms often swing between literal and figurative meanings, and for why they often exhibit different degrees of

flexibility and productivity in the flow of conversation

Another research on this theme was conducted by Doãn Ngọc Diệp

(Unpublished M.A thesis, 2007) "A Study on Structural and Semantic Features of English Idioms of Anger in Comparison with Vietnamese Equivalents" One more paper is "An Investigation into The English Words and Idioms Denoting Happiness"

conducted by Nguyễn Thị Vân Lam, Nguyễn Lực, Lương Văn Đang (1978) who

made the first significant contribution to the field Since then, a great number of collections of Vietnamese idioms alone and those of Vietnamese idioms in comparison with English idioms have been carried out by Lã Thành (1988), Bùi Phụng (1996), Nguyễn Lân (1997), Vũ Dung, Vũ Thúy Anh, Vũ Quang Hào (2000), Trân Quang Mân (2002)…

These researchers in general try to find out the similarities and differences in the use of conceptual idioms for anger, happiness… and time in English and Vietnamese The studies have made contribution to not only the theory and the appropriate use of conceptual idioms but the translation work as well

The studies also point out that cultural awareness is at the heart of intercultural communication A lot of this has to do with language and behavior; with pragmatics, beliefs and values But intercultural communication should also highlight the areas of commonality as well as divergence in terms of cultural and linguistic behavior All too often culturally stereotypical behavior is objectified and described with insufficient reference to underlying factors that help explain and elucidate A conceptual approach to language can draw into focus areas of divergence and commonality at another level of awareness and provides an extra dimension to the understanding of linguistic and cultural norms

1.2 The author’s framework

The study has been carried out according to the following framework:

Firstly, the author has pointed out the background knowledge of the idioms,

defining of the idioms in general and idioms denoting intelligence and understanding in particular, the distinctive features of English idioms, syntactic,

semantic, cultural features of English idioms The researcher also shows the distinction between idioms and metaphors, proverbs, fixed expressions

Secondly, basing on the theoretical background of Cowie, Mackin and McCaig (1975) in syntactic and Hallyday (1985) in semantic, the author has analyzed and contrasted idioms in order to find out the similarities and differences

of idioms denoting intelligence and understanding in English and Vietnamese

Lastly, the researcher is dealing with some teaching implications to help teachers in

teaching English idioms involving intelligence and understanding

1.3 Idioms

1.3.1 Definitions of idioms

Idioms are an abstract concept and it is therefore difficult to define them Each linguist who specializes in different branches tends to have a different way to

understand and describe idioms as illustrated below:

Cruse defines idiom as "an expression whose meaning cannot be inferred from the meanings of its parts.” (1986:37) Two other authors Seidle and Mordie (1978:8) believes that “an idiom is a number of words which, taken together, mean something different from the individual words of the idiom when they stand alone”

Collins (1995) has a different way to define idioms but shares the idea He considers

an idiom as a special kind of phrase It is a group of words which has a different meaning when used together from the one it would have if the meaning of each

word was taken individually […]

Vietnamese linguistic researchers have also tried to define idioms Hoàng Văn Hành (1994) states 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 (thành ngữ là những cụm từ cố định, có hình thái cấu trúc bền vững, có tính bong bẩy về ý nghĩa và được sử dụng rộng rãi trong giao tiếp )

(1994:21)

1.3.2 Definition of idioms denoting intelligence and understanding

There are no definitions of idioms denoting intelligence and understanding

but it is not difficult to understand them Idioms denoting intelligence and understanding are idioms which point out the ability to learn about, learn from,

understand, and interact with one‟s environment They also consist of a number of

specific abilities, which include the following specific abilities:

● Adaptability to a new environment or to changes in the current environment

● Capacity for knowledge and the ability to acquire it

● Capacity for reason and abstract thought

● Ability to comprehend relationships

● Ability to evaluate and judge

Additional specific abilities might be added to the list, but they would all be abilities allowing a person to learn about, learn from, understand, and interact with the environment Environment in this definition does not mean the environment of the earth, such as the desert, the mountains, etc., although it can mean that kind of environment It has a wider range of meanings that include a person‟s immediate surroundings, including the people around him or her Environment in this case can also be something as small as a family, the workplace, or a classroom

1.3.3 Distinctive features of English idioms

Every language has its own vivid and colorful idioms which were created by people when using for a long time Idioms have long and deep national history as well as local color Therefore, they have many interesting features

1.3.3.1 Syntactic features of English idioms

According to Bell (1974:3), there are certain essential features which help in the recognition of idioms Some of these features are:

1.2.3.1 1 Alteration of grammatical rules

The idiomatic expression is not always grammatical, but it is established, accepted and used by native speakers of the language with a fixed structure and meaning

E.g It‟s ages since we met (singular with a plural noun)

1.3.3.1.2 Conventional phrases

Idioms are special expressions which are almost known and agreed by all the members of a particular community

E.g How are you doing? (Expression used to ask someone about his health)

Once in a blue moon (rarely, infrequently)

1.3.3.1 3 Alteration of Word Order

English Idiomatic expressions, usually, do not respect the English word

order

E.g It may be well ahead of time (normal word order)

It may well be ahead of time (probably): idiomatic expression

the whole expression

1.3.3.1 5 Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are the most common type of idioms in English Many of them carry idiomatic meanings that cannot be inferred from the form, unless the phrase is already known

E.g After the war began, the two countries broke off diplomatic relations

(discontinue)

Most automobile companies bring out new modals each year (to show or introduce) According to Baker (1992:63), there can be some grammatical and syntactic restrictions of idioms, i.e a speaker or a writer cannot normally do any of the following with an idiom because the meaning would be changed:

+ Addition: Adding any word to an idiomatic expression may alter its meaning, or

remove its idiomatic sense For instance, adding the adverb very to the adjective red

in red herring (Very red herring) affects the figurativeness of its meaning

completely

+ Deletion: Deleting the adjective sweet and the article from the expressions have

a sweet tooth and spill the beans would change totally their meanings Hence, (have

a tooth) and (spill beans) have no idiomatic sense

+ Substitution: Idioms accept no replacement of words even if those words are synonyms

For example, "the long and short of it" means the basic facts of a situation The adjective long cannot be substituted by another adjective, like tall; despite they have

nearly the same meaning

+ Modification: Any change in the grammatical structure of an idiom leads to the destruction of the idiom meaning For instance, the expression (stock and barrel lock) is no more idiomatic because of the altered order of the items in the

expression lock, stock and barrel completely

+ Comparative: Adding the comparative form -er to the adjective hot in the expression "be in hot water" changes the conventional sense of the idiom which has the meaning of "be in trouble"

+ Passive: The passive form "some beans were spilled" has a different meaning from its active one

These restrictions affect the degree of idiomaticality of lexical items, and they may remove their main feature of figurativeness These characteristics explain why idioms are considered as rigid structures, almost impossible to be decoded However, through a cautious approach, explanations and continuous interest, idioms may become vital elements in the acquisition of proficiency in a foreign language

According to Strässler (1982:42), Makkai‟s book Idiom structure in English (1972) is the most extensive work ever written on idioms Makkai (1972:117)

identifies two major types of idioms: those of encoding and those of decoding He further classifies the later into lexemic and sememic idioms

+ Idioms of Encoding (Identifiable)

Idioms of encoding are those idiosyncratic lexical combinations that have transparent meanings This type of idioms could be best recognized through making

a comparison between different languages by the use of proper prepositions Therefore, „at‟ is used instead of "with" in the English expression „drive at 70 mph‟ (not drive with as in French)

+ Idioms of Decoding (Non-Identifiable)

Idioms of decoding refer to those non-identifiable and misleading lexical expressions whose interpretation could not be figured out by using only independently learned linguistic conventions They include expressions like "beat around the bush" and "fly off the handle" This type of idioms could be classified into lexemic and sememic

+ Lexemic idioms include:

a Phrasal verbs: e.g., to come up with, to turn off, to take part in

b Phrasal compounds: e.g black ice, black board

c Incorporating Verbs: e.g man-handle

d Pseudo-Idioms: e.g spick and span, kit and kin

+ Sememic Idioms, on the other hand, usually, convey pragmatic meanings related

to a particular culture They include:

a Proverbs: e.g Chew of something over, A bird in hand is worth two in the bush

b Familiar Quotations: e.g Not a mouse stirring

McCarthy and O‟Dell (2003:6) give another classification to the English idioms types focusing on their possible combinations:

(i)Verb + object/complement (and /or adverbial)

Kill two birds with one stone (=Produce two useful results by just doing one action.)

(ii) Prepositional phrase

In the blink of an eye (= In an extremely short time.)

(iii) Compound

A bone of contention (= Something which people argue and disagree over.)

(iv) Simile (as + adjective + as or like + a noun)

As dry as a bone (= Very dry indeed)

(vi) Binominal (word + and + word )

Rough and ready (= Crude and lacking sophistication)

(vii) Trinomial (word + word + and+ word)

Cool, calm and collected (= Relaxed, in control, not nervous)

(viii) Whole clause or sentence

To cut a long story short (= To tell the main points, but not all the fine details) Different from McCarthy and O‟Dell (2003:6), Cowie, Mackin and McCaig (1975) point out that English idiom can be classified clause patterns as follow:

English idioms could be in the following clause patterns:

● Verb – Adverbial, such as whistle in the dark, prey on sb‟s mind

● Verb – Subject Complement, such as turn sour, sound asleep

● Verb – Direct Object, such as bend the truth, bury the hatchet

● Verb – Direct Object - Adverbial, such as play it by ear, string someone along

● Verb – Direct Object – Object Complement, such as leave someone high and dry, paint the town red

● Verb – Indirect Object – Direct Object, such as give someone the slip, feed someone a line

● Subject – Verb, such as sb‟s knees are knocking

English idioms could be divided in the following phrase patterns:

● Noun phrase, such as somebody‟s blue-eyed boy, a big girl‟s blouse

● Adjective phrase, such as black and blue, a bit thick/ strong

● Prepositional phrase, such as on the blink, in black and white

● Adverbial phrase, such as out of the blue, as regular as clockwork

● Verb phrase, such as scare the pants off sb, get the shivers

1.3.3.2 Semantic features of English idioms

According to Fernando (1996: 35-36), idioms can be grouped into three classes: pure idioms, semi-idioms and literal idioms

+ Pure idioms: A pure idiom a type of conventionalized, non-literal multiword expression whose meaning cannot be understood by adding up the meanings of the words that makes up the phrase For example, the expression "spill the beans" is a pure idiom, because its real meaning has nothing to do with beans

+ Semi-idioms: A semi-pure, on the other hand, has at least one literal element and one with a non-literal meaning For example, "foot the bill" (i.e pay) is one

example of a semi-idiom, in which foot is the non-literal element, whereas the word bill is used literally

+ Literal idioms: Literal idioms, such as "on foot" or "on the contrary" are semantically less complex than the other two, and therefore easier to understand even if one is not familiar with these expressions These expressions may be considered idioms because they are either completely invariant or allow only restricted variation Fernando (1996:37) admits the difficulty of drawing a clear boundary between these three idiom types

Taking into consideration the function of the phrase, Halliday (1985, as quoted by Fernando (1996:72) groups idioms into ideational, interpersonal and relational idioms

+ Ideational idioms: Ideational idioms either signify message content, experiential phenomena including the sensory, the affective, and the evaluative, or they characterize the nature of the message (Fernando 1996:72) These expressions may describe:

- actions (tear down, spill the beans),

- events (turning point),

- situations (be in a pickle),

- people and things (a red herring),

- attributes (cut-and-dried),

- evaluations (a watched pot never boils)

- emotions (green with envy)

+ Interpersonal idioms: Interpersonal idioms, on the other hand, “fulfill either an interactional function or they characterize the nature of the message" They can, for instance, initiate or keep up an interaction between people and maintain politeness (Fernando 1996:73) These expressions include:

- greetings and farewells (good morning),

- directives (let‟s face it),

- agreements (say no more),

- "feelers" which elicit opinions (what do you think?) and

- rejections (come off it)

+ Relational idioms: Halliday (1985:74) distinguishes relational (or textual) idioms, which ensure that the discourse is cohesive and coherent Examples of relational idioms are “on the contrary”, “in addition to” and “on the other hand.”

1.3.3.3 Cultural features of English idioms

It is common knowledge that language is closely related to culture, and can

be regarded as a part of culture From this view, language and culture interact with each other and shape each other Language is considered as the carrier of culture which in turn is the content of language We can dig out cultural features from language and explain language phenomena with culture Idioms as a special form of language exist in both of these fields and are affected by the factors such as history, geography, religion, custom, etc They are the heritage of history and product of cultural evolvement Consequently, we can learn a lot about culture through studying idioms and in turn get better understanding of idioms by learning the cultural background behind them

+ The Geographical Factor

Geographical environment plays an important role in shaping one country‟s culture and human beings have no choices and opacities to change the geography

As a result, idioms based on geographical features appear different from one country to another For example, Britain is an island country with long and has good, deep harbors The great ports of London, Liverpool and Glasgow are all connected to the sea by rivers All these conditions make the ocean shipping of Britain so flourishing As a result, there are a lot of English idioms related to navigation For example, the phrase “go by the board” means that somebody or something fall from sheep and disappear in the sea It implies that someone is neglected

Surrounded by the ocean, British people also have a special passion for water For instance, to say how extravagant someone is in English, the idiom “spend money like water” is often used British people also regard themselves as fish such

as in “cold fish”, “shy fish” The former means “a person who is very strange” and the latter means “a person who is very shy” When someone feels "not easy", they say “feel like a fish out of water”, etc

+The historical Factors

As we know, any language in a long and splendid history has its magic power and great influence on the people who speak or learn it and the development

of the social history influences the language tremendously with the change of the dynasty, the new languages instead of the old languages continuously In the change

of languages, more and more idioms are caused in such trace of the historical culture

1.4 Distinction between idioms, metaphors, proverbs and fixed expressions

1.4.1 Idioms and Metaphors

Metaphors constitute a large part of the everyday language They have been recognized as rhetorical devices that compare two seemingly different objects King (2000:216) defines metaphors as „describing something by using an analogy with something quite different‟ For example, „the words are clear as crystal‟ is an idiom that expresses the similarity between the words and the crystal in terms of the degree of clarity Some other examples of metaphors include "new ideas blossomed

in her mind”, “his temper boiled over” and “inner peace is a stairway to heaven” King (2000:216) considers that metaphors are beautiful due to their ability to explain a complex vague expression making it more understandable and clear

According to Maalej (2005), both idioms and metaphors have in common the fact that they cannot be understood if taken literally He identifies idioms and metaphors as culture-specific aspects of a particular language, i.e., the non-existence of a direct one to one correspondence between a target language and a source language is the result of culture-specific metaphors He adds that culture-

specific metaphors are best represented in phraseology Native language idioms and set phrases can blend together ethno-specific concepts pertaining to the world view

of it speakers, to their national character, as well as their traditional social relations, thus becoming an embodiment of national dispositions and spiritual values They are presented metaphorically indirectly and figuratively, which is why culture-specific metaphors produce idioms that have no corresponding counterparts in another language (Maalej 2005:215)

1.4.2 Idioms and Proverbs

Just like idioms, proverbs „are special, fixed, unchanged phrases which have special, fixed, unchanged meanings‟ (Ghazala 1995:142) They differ from idioms

in that they display shared cultural wisdom Therefore, proverbs are easily understandable and, sometimes, the first part of the proverb might be enough to express the whole meaning For instance, „do not count your chickens‟ is used instead of „do not count your chickens before they have hatched‟

1.4.3 Idioms and Fixed Expressions

There are fixed expressions like "having said that", "as a matter of fact", "not

at all" etc which allow a little or no variation in form, just as idioms do Fixed expressions, however, are distinguished from idioms since they have almost transparent meanings Thus, the meaning of "as a matter of fact", for example, can easily be inferred from the meaning of its constituents In contrast to idioms is like

"pull a fast one" or "fill the bill" where the meaning of the whole expression is different from the meaning of its parts In spite of its clarity, the meaning of a fixed expression, as that of an idiom, is not just the sum of meanings of its components Fixed expressions may bring up in the mind of the reader all the aspects of experience associated with the different contexts in which the expression is used This characteristic seems to be the cause of the widespread use of fixed and semi-fixed expressions in any language (Baker 1992: 63)

Although they have many features in common with other forms of non-literal language, idioms have their own characteristics Generally speaking, an idiom is a

kind of lexical unit in which the whole meaning of the expression is not apparent from the meanings of its components

1.5 Summary

In the chapter 1, the author has expounded in detail (i) the previous studies related to the research which is foundation for the author to further to develop her own research.(ii) the background knowledge of idioms denoting intelligence and understanding , definition of idioms in general and idioms denoting intelligence and understanding in particular with the distinctive features of idioms from

syntactic, semantic to cultural feature as well as difference between idioms and

metaphors, proverbs, fixed expressions

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

In any research, method plays an important role, is an effective tool to gain the aim of the study In this chapter, the author uses “contrastive analysis” as a method to contrast, to compare for finding out the similarities and difference between English and Vietnamese idioms denoting intelligence and understanding with the teaching implications

2.1 Methods employed for the research

The major method which is used for this research is contrastive analysis According to Gast (2011), contrastive analysis narrowly defined investigates the differences between pairs (or small sets) of languages against the background of similarities and with the purpose of providing input to applied disciplines such as foreign language teaching and translation studies With its largely descriptive focus, contrastive linguistics provides an interface between theory and application It makes use of theoretical findings and models of language description but is driven

by the objective of applicability Contrastive studies mostly deal with the comparison of languages that are „socio-culturally linked‟, i.e languages whose speech communities overlap in some way, typically through (natural or instructed) bilingualism First of all, official documents include journals and textbooks involving the background knowledge of the idioms or the dictionaries of idioms are collected And then the researcher analyses and contrasts the idioms denoting intelligence and understanding in English and Vietnamese basing on the data which are collected

2.2 Data collections instruments

Because of the particular characteristics of the study, it seems that reading and reviewing documents are the most important and effective way to collect materials for the research Since it‟s very hard to find the idioms involving the research, the researcher try to look for and collect the idioms from the dictionaries and websites in the Internet As for first source, books which are concerned with idioms are collected and studied to gather necessary knowledge Main materials are

Oxford Idioms (2010), Từ Điển Thành Ngữ Anh-Anh-Việt (2004), Thành Ngữ Tiếng Việt (2009), Từ Điển Thành Ngữ và Tục Ngữ Việt Nam (2008), Từ Điển Thành Ngữ và Tục Ngữ Việt Nam (2006) As for the second, they are websites, the efficient tools that are a huge source of idioms Three basic websites are En.wikipedia.org, News.google.com and Books.google.com In addition, other previous theses related to our study are also collected to grab relevant data

After the process of researching and collecting data, the information continues to be classified into different categories depending on the requirements of the research in order to make it easy for the researcher to find and to analyze the data Besides collecting and reading the materials from the Internet, the most

relevant references from the library at University of languages and international

studies- Hanoi National University have been selectively read in order to support the researcher with necessary and useful information

2.3 Data analysis techniques

After the process of reading and collecting data from, the researcher starts to analyze, contrast the idioms denoting intelligence and understanding basing on syntactic and semantic features between two languages From numerous samples taken from dictionaries, in the internet the researcher tries to choose the most interesting and concrete ones to illustrate important points under the investigation From that the researcher concludes the implications for teaching and studying

idioms denoting intelligence and understanding

2.4 Data analysis procedure

The study begins with a presentation of the theoretical background of idioms with the syntactic and semantic features, and for the purpose of the study, the researcher collects data While reading these references, an action of selecting relevant information is taken simultaneously After the data is collected, the researcher starts analyzing and classifying the data into the suitable categories of the thesis purpose After that, the researcher contrasts all the idioms to come the conclusion on the first research question: some similarities and differences between

English and Vietnamese idioms denoting intelligence and understanding in terms of syntactic and semantic feature

2.5 Summary

To conclude, in this chapter the main methodological points have been presented (i) The major methodology the research (ii) The main methods employed for the research which includes data collections instrument, data analysis

techniques and data analysis procedure

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the author tries to analyze the idioms collected to detect the similarities and differences in their syntactic and semantic features The former focuses on clause and phrase patterns while the latter concentrates on the three

groups of ideational, interpersonal and relational idioms

3.1 Syntactic features of English idioms denoting intelligence and understanding in contrastive analysis with Vietnamese counterparts

3.1.1 Structural features of English idioms denoting intelligences and understanding

3.1.1.1 English idioms denoting intelligences and understanding have clause patterns

With 50 English idioms denoting intelligence and understanding collected by

the author, there are 32 idioms in clause patterns (64%) and 18 idioms in phrase patterns (36%)

According to Cowie, Mackin and McCaig (1975), English idioms can be classified seven distinguishable clause patterns They are (1) Verb _ Adverbial (V-A); (2) Verb _ Complement (V-C); (3) Verb _ Direct Object (V-O); (4) Verb _ Direct Object _ Adverbial (V-O-A); (5) Verb _ Direct Object _ Object Complement (V-O-C); (6) Verb _ Indirect Object _ Direct Object (V-O-O); (7) Verb (S-V) Similarly, Quirk proposed seven clause types (S-V, S-V-C, S-V-O, S-V-A, S-V-O-

O, S-V-O-A, S-V-O-C) However, in the clause patterns proposed by Cowie, Mackin and Mccaig, there are optional and obligatory elements while Quirk‟s clauses only have obligatory parts Therefore, the author is going to apply the clauses of Cowie, Mackin and McCaig as the main foundation for her own study with reference to Quirk‟s classification

A great number of idioms that denoting intelligence and understanding follow the

basic clause patterns:

Order Clause pattern Idioms denote intelligences and

understanding

3 Verb – Direct Object Get the message

4 Verb – Direct Object – Adverbial Hit the nail on the head

5 Verb – Direct Object – Object

Complement

Get wires crossed

6 Verb – Indirect Object – Direct

Object

Make sense of something

Table 1: Original Clause Pattern and Examples of Idioms of intelligences and understanding

It can be seen from the table that English idioms that indicates intelligence and understanding exist in all of the clause patterns They are summed up from the main

sources: Oxford Idioms Dictionary (2006), English – English – Vietnamese Dictionary (2004), Learn-English-today.com (2010), Figurative language cross-cultural and cross-linguistics perspective (2005) and statistically analyzed basing on

100 idioms of English and Vietnamese denoting intelligence and understanding

● Verb - Direct Object pattern (V-Od)

With 12 idioms, this pattern makes up 26% of 50 English idioms denoting

intelligence and understanding and is the most popular type among the clause

patterns The pattern is illustrated by the following examples

“Put on your thinking cap”: If you tell someone to put their thinking cap on, you

ask them to find an idea or solve a problem by thinking about it

Now here's this week's quiz; it's time to put your thinking caps on!

(Anh-ngu-cho-nguoi-viet.blogspot.com; Retrieved on 3 rd June 2014)

“Get the picture”: A person who gets the picture understands what is being

explained or described