A study on idiomatic expressions containing words denoting heart, liver, gut and stomach in english and vietnamese from cultural perspective

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ---- VŨ MỸ LINH A STUDY ON IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES



VŨ MỸ LINH

A STUDY ON IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING WORDS

DENOTING HEART, LIVER, GUT AND STOMACH IN ENGLISH

AND VIETNAMESE FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ THÀNH NGỮ CÓ CHỨA CÁC TỪ CHỈ

TIM, GAN, RUỘT VÀ BỤNG (DẠ) TRONG TIẾNG ANH

VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT NHÌN TỪ GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HÓA)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60 22 02 01

HANOI – 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES



VŨ MỸ LINH

A STUDY ON IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING WORDS

DENOTING HEART, LIVER, GUT AND STOMACH IN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ THÀNH NGỮ CÓ CHỨA CÁC TỪ CHỈ

TIM, GAN, RUỘT VÀ BỤNG (DẠ) TRONG TIẾNG ANH

VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT NHÌN TỪ GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HÓA)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 02 01

Supervisor: Assoc Prof., Dr Nguyễn Văn Độ

HANOI - 2017

DECLARATION

I certify that this thesis is the result of my own research and all the material and sources collected in conducting the thesis have been identified and acknowledged the thesis has not been submitted for any other degree or for any other purposes, and, it partly meets requirements for the degree of Master of Education

Hanoi, 2017

V M Linh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my

supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Văn Do for his enthusiastic guidance and great encouragement at all stages of the thesis

I am also grateful to all the teachers of the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their useful explanations and constant support

One more thing I have made my best efforts to accomplishing the thesis, however, there are still inadequacies and shortcomings I am loking forward to receiving all comments of teachers and friends Thank you so much!

ABSTRACT

In today‟s global world, the importance of English can not be denied and ignored since English is the most common language spoken everwhere With the help of developing technology, English has been playing a major role in many sectors To follow this trend, mastering English is very important

However, it is quite difficult to master all English aspects, especiall idioms

In order to understand a language, we must know what the idioms in that language mean Idioms reflect certain cultural traditions and depict the national character

With a view to exloring English and Vietnamese idioms in the light of culture, this thesis has focused on idiomsatic expressions containing words denoting heart, liver, gut and stomach in English and Vietnamese

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Research aims and research questions 2

3 Scope of the research 2

4 Methods of the study 3

5 Significance of the research 3

6 Design of the research 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 9

2.1 Overview of Idioms 9

2.1.1 Definition of idioms 9

2.1.2 Typical features of idioms 10

2.1.3 Idioms and other similar language units 13

2.2 The relationship of Language and Culture 16

2.2.1 Concept of Culture 16

2.2.2 The inseparable Relationship between Language and Culture 16

2.2.3 The Relationship between Idioms and Culture 16

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE 18

3.1 Research design 18

3.2 Research methodology 18

3.3 Data collection 18

3.4 Data analysis 19

3.5 Reliability and validity 20

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 21

4.1 Syntactic features of idioms containing heart, liver, gut, and stomach in

English and Vietnamese 21

4.1.1 Idioms in the form of phrase structures 21

4.1.2 Idioms in the form of sentence structures 23

4.2 Semantic features of idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach in English and Vietnamese 23

4.2.1 Idioms describing people’s appearance 24

4.2.2 Idioms expressing people’s wisdom 24

4.2.3 Idioms expressing people’s emotions and adttitudes 25

4.3 Similarities and differences in syntactic and semantic features of idioms containing heart, gut, stomach and liver in English and Vietnamese 30

4.3.1 Similarities 30

4.3.2 Differences 32

4.4 Cultural characteristics of English and Vietnamese idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach 33

4.5 Implications for teaching and learning idioms containing heart, gut, stomach and liver 34

PART III: CONCLUSION 1 Concluding remarks 36

2 Limitations of the thesis and further study 36

3 Suggestions for further study 37

REFERENCES 38 APPENDIX I

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

It is undeniable to say that English has become an important international language; therefore, mastering English is full of great importance In Vietnam, English has become an essential and obligatory communication language since the opening of its doors to the world in 1986 Many English-speaking foreigners from across Asia, Australia, America and Europe started coming to invest in Vietnam, which has motivated the Vietnamese to learn English to promote English communication effectively among their counterparts The importance of English was immediately acknowledged by the Vietnamese government and as a result the English language programs were made compulsory beginning with the secondary schools and subsequently the high schools and finally universities

Learning a second language involves learning a second culture to varying degrees On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture It reflects culture Cultural differences are the most serious areas causing misunderstanding, unpleasantness and even conflict in cross-cultural communication Therefore, learning English can not be seperated from learning its culture According to gaining the knowledge of culture, learners can have better understanding of the language and use it in communication as native speakers do The English language being very flexible constantly enriches its vocabulary with words invented by language speakers, making it more colourful with idiomatic expressions

In a language system, idioms share cultural and historical information and broaden people‟s understanding and manipulation of a language Idioms are special language units in which the cultural value of a nation is crystallized and the view of world, the view of life of people can be showed the most truthfully, obviously and copiously, the author considers that studying idioms in the connection between language and culture is a good and effective way for a comparative study of idioms

in two or more languages

Thus, having a good knowledge of idioms plays a key role in helping learners have information in their mind about every language to avoid its culture shocks in communication as well as comprehend the similarities and differences of two languages and cultures However, due to the limited time and knowledge, I

would like to focus on a very small part of the huge idiomatic treasure: “ A study on

idiomatic expressions containing words denoting heart, liver, gut and stomach in English and Vietnamese from cutural perspective”

2 Research aims and research questions

The purpose of the study:

 To find out the English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting heart, liver, gut and stomach by using cutural elements

 To explore syntactic and semantic features of the English and Vietnamese idioms relating to heart, liver, gut and stomach

 To point out the the similarities and differences in the cutural values of two countries through the idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach

 To help leaners reinforce their knowledge of both English and Vietnamese idioms in general and on heart, liver, gut and stomach in particular, which assists them to know how to use these idioms exactly in communication

To achieve the above aims, the following research questions are put forward:

stomach idioms in both English and Vietnamese?

cultures through idioms related to heart, liver, gut and stomach from cultural perspective? What factors lead to such diffferences?

3 Scope of the research

- Idioms are large parts in both English and Vietnamese; thus it is impossible for the author to carry out a comprehensive study on them; thus, the study just focuses on some idioms relating to heart, liver, gut and stomach

- In this study, similarities and differences in syntactic and semantic features

of idioms containing heart, gut, stomach and liver in English and Vietnamese are discussed; English idioms denoting human feelings or emotions through the internal organs are compared with Vietnamese ones

- All English and Vietnamese idioms are collected from dictionaries, books, websites; hence, this research may not cover all idioms relating to heart, liver, gut and stomach, just those of common use

4 Methods of the study

Due to the scientific missions, the study uses several reseach methods to meet the research aims

- The statistic method: The purpose of this method is to collect idioms contaning words denoting heart, liver, gut and stomach in both English and Vietnamese from various reliable sources (referent books, stories, novels, dictionaries and Internet websites) and then categorize them

- The analysis method: the method is used to analyze the syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach as well as the cultural features of English and Vietnamese hidden behind those idioms

- The comparative - contrastive method: It is the important method to compare and find the differences and similarities between English and Vietnamese idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach from cultural perspective

5 Significance of the research

(i) Theoretical significance: The study supplies Vietnamese teachers and

learners with a deeper awareness understanding of idioms in general and idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach in particular in terms of their syntactic, semantic, and cultural features

(ii) Practical significance: The study provides Vietnamese learners with

suggestions to improve their language skills when using idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach, particularly communicative skill and avoid culture shock

6 Design of the research

This research consists of three main parts

Part one is the Introduction, which consists of the rationale, the aims and research questions, the objectives, the scope, the methods, the significance and the design of the study

Part two is the Development, which is the main part of the study dealing with English idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach and their equivalents in Vietnamese This part is divided into four chapters:

Chapter I: Literature Review

Chapter II: Theoretical background including Overview of idioms, The Relationship of Language and Culture, Idioms and Culture

Chapter III: Methodology and procedure

Chapter IV: Findings and discussion as well as some implications for teaching and learning

The last part is the Conclusion of the study and suggestions for further studies

The References and Appendixes are at the end of the thesis

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

In the recent years, linguists are interested in doing research cutural implications through language And, there are a lot of studies which are related idioms Especially, studying idioms expressing human emotion are one of common topics that researchers are keen on

In the journal of Language “ Đặc trưng tư duy của người Việt qua ẩn dụ tri

nhận trong thành ngữ”, Nguyễn Đức Tồn (2009) has summarized that the

psychological world of the Russian has no correlation with the body parts, and, the

heart is the only to show the love In the book “Ngôn ngữ và văn hóa: Tri thức nền

và việc giảng dạy tiếng nước ngoài”, Trịnh Thị Kim Ngọc (1999) has the same

opinion as Nguyễn Đức Tồn, she claimed that “heart” is the key word in the

Russian language in common and in the Russian idioms in particular In the

Oriental ideology, both Japanese and China people uses “heart”idioms for

conceptualizing different emotions

The Southern thinking in the agricultural traditional culture shows the concrete and practical characteristics Vietnamese country not only experienced many challenges from living environment (storm, flood), but also being invaded by other ones in the history, so, just to survive, food and drink are attached much importance

to everyone to live through the day Vietnamese thought, herefore, and, is directly related to the digestion organs such as gut (lòng, ruột), stomach (bụng, dạ)…The

below picture in the “Dictionnaire franco-tonkinois illustré” of P.G Vallot (1898):

According to the article “ Con người suy nghĩ bằng bụng, dạ, ruột, gan hay

tim, …óc”, Nguyễn Cung Thông shows that in English/France belonging to the

Indo-European language, the people think by brain and express emotions by heart, the Chinese has the tendency of cardiocentrism which is different from the abdominocentrism of the Vietnamese After analyzing a lot of materials in using the body organs of many coutries, the author sees that there are main trends to express emotions and attitudes (thoughts):

i) Cerebrocentrism (quy-não, dùng não bộ hay đầu óc là trung tâm tư duy,) ii) Cardiocentrism (quy-tâm, dùng tim làm trung tâm tư duy)

iii) Abdominocentrism (quy-phúc, dùng bụng làm trung tâm tư duy)

Besides, the paper “ Một số vấn đề ngôn ngữ và văn hóa thông qua ý niệm

lòng, ruột bụng, dạ trong tiếng Việt” Trần Thị Hồng Hạnh supposed that Long, ruot, bung, da are terms for body parts so they share some characteristics common with

other body terms They can be used to nominate human body parts, be extended to nominate different parts of things and to express human emotions By comparing the use of these terms in Vietnamese with their equivalents in some other languages and through an analysis of literary work, this paper shows that there are some

differences, especially when these terms are used to express emotions in

Vietnamese The results of this paper indicates that among these words, long

occupies the most central position in expressing emotion in Vietnamese

In addition, there is also much investigation of idioms in English and

Vietnamese in general and idioms of the human body in particular such as “ A

contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese idioms of comparision ” M.A

thesis of Đỗ Quỳnh Anh (2004) In this thesis, she focused on idioms of

comparision with the structure “ as…as” in English and “như…như” in

Vietnamese Then, she concludes that there are the similarities between idioms of comparision in English and Vietnamese equivalents IT is a contrastive analysis from linguistic perspectives, there is no contrast between these idioms in the light

of culture In another linguistic thesis “ Đặc trưng ngôn ngữ văn hóa của các từ chỉ

bộ phận con người trong thành ngữ tiếng Việt ( so sánh với tiếng Anh)” Nguyễn

Thị Phương analyzed words denoting human body parts in English and Vietnamese idioms to find out similarities and differences in terms of semantics to express appearance, knowledge, feelings, will She also emphasized the effect of cultural features in languages to learners, which makes them have difficulties in learning a foreign language

Moreover, some papers such as “ Về thành ngữ có chứa yếu tố ruột trong tiếng Việt” ( Nguyễn Thanh Thủy), or “Một số thành ngữ có từ bụng” (Tạ Đức

Tú)… have the same opinion that gut, stomach (bụng, ruột, lòng, dạ) are containers,

an inside organs symbolized feelings or emotions of Vietnamese people

With undeniable significance of idiomatic meanings in people‟s practical life

as well as relevant cultural values that have been crystallized during the last 20 centuries, a number of researches on idioms are conducted for the diverse use in real life and for development of Literature Particularly, books, dictionaries, references and even documentary films which collect and take example of idioms have been published and projected with a view to bringing both traditional and modern look at every aspect of life

Usually, for ease in finding, idioms and idiomatic expressions are alphabetically categorized and arrangedby metaphor and topic More importantly, their meanings and their how - to - use in different languages are well explained

For English idioms, there have been a wide variety of books which are of huge benefit to learners such as “Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms” by Cowie, Mackin &McCaig, “Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English” by A.P Cowie, R Mackin & I.R McCaig (1983), “Collins COBUILD Dictionary of Idioms” (2002), “Longman Dictionary of English Idioms” (1979), Longman Dictionary of Idioms” (1998), “CHAMBERS Dictionary of Idioms” (1996),

“Idioms for Everyday Use” by Broukal and Milada (1994) and “Idioms Organiser organized by metaphor, topic and keyword” by John Wright, Edited by Jimmie Hill and Morgan Lewis, Illustrated by Bill Stott

Besides, Vietnamese researchers have carried out studies on idioms namely

“Từ điển Thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt - Anh” (2006), “Thành ngữ Tục ngữ tiếng Anh” (2008), „Kể chuyện thành ngữ tiếng Anh” (2006), “Tuyển tập Thành ngữ Tục ngữ

Ca dao Việt - Anh thông dụng” (2007)…

To sum up, all these studies above are closely related to thesis The author made every effort to have a lot of viewsas well as make a comparision culture of different countries to discover mental activities through language In this thesis, the author focused on studying on similarities and differences in syntactic and semantic features of idioms containing heart, gut, stomach and liver in English and Vietnamese

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

As affirmed in Part I, languages and cultures have dialectical relationship Thus, exploring any aspect of any language is of utmost importance to indicate cultural features of those who speak that language In terms of literature and practical life, we can reach a huge reservoir of idiomatic knowledge whereby profound implications are perfectly but distinctly expressed in different countries

However, for deeper and further analysis, this study concentrates on only a tiny aspect of idioms to make it a typical phenomenon for idiom - related studies -

idiomatic expressions containing words denoting heart, liver, gut and stomach

in English and Vietnamese from cultural perspective

2.1 Overview of Idioms

2.1.1 Definition of idioms

“Idiom” is divergently defined in divergent materials, according to the concepts of authors or groups of authors And, idioms are believed as a colorful and fascinating aspect of English and are commonly used in all types of language, formal and informal, spoken or written The following idiom definitions are mostly popular

The Longman Dictionary of English Idioms (1979) defines: An idiom is a

group of words with a special different meaning from the meanings of the separate words

The Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary of Current English (Oxford

University Press - 1995) regards an idiom as “a phrase or sentence whose meaning

is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit” (1995:67)

The Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics

determines an idiom to be “an expression which functions as a single unit and

whose meaning cannot be worked out from its separate parts” (2010:270)

Collins explains: An idiom is a special kind of phrase It is a group of words which

have a different meaning when used together from the one it would have if the meaning of each word were taken individually

Manser (1997) shares the same opinion that “Idioms are fairly fixed phrases

that consist of more than one word, with a meaning that cannot be understood from putting together the meanings of the individual words”

Chambers English Dictionary of Idioms (1996:5) also has a similar look at

what is an idiom defined: The term “idiom” is not an easily defined one - it can

refer to many kinds of words and phrases The traditional definition of an idiom is

“a group of words which has a different meaning from the sum of its parts”

In addition, “idiom” is like a breath of fresh air to the evolution of Vietnamese Literature and it is also explained clearly in almost Literature textbooks

as well as idiom references: Thành ngữ là những cụm từ mang ngữ nghĩa cố định

(phần lớn không tạo thành câu hoàn chỉnh về mặt ngữ pháp; không thể thay thế và sửa đổi về mặt ngôn từ) và độc lập riêng rẽ với từ ngữ hay hình ảnh mà thành ngữ

sử dụng, thành ngữ thường được sử dụng trong việc tạo thành những câu nói hoàn chỉnh hay: Thành ngữ là tập hợp từ cố định đã quen dùng mà nghĩa của nó thường không thể giải thích được một cách đơn giản bằng nghĩ của các từ tạo nên nó

(According to Wikiquote and Vietnamese Literature Textbook 7)

Shortly, there are various words for defining what an idiom is In general, almost all the definitions show the similarity that an idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning cannot be worked out by looking at the meaning of its individual

words However, in this study, the following definition is used: “an idiom is a fixed

phrase whose meaning cannot be exposed by looking at the meaning of its

individual words”

2.1.2 Typical features of idioms

Both English and Vietnamese idioms have their own features which make them unique in the variety of literary genres To understand idioms in general or a specific one in particular, it is vital to analyze their features under syntactic and semantic angle

2.1.2.1 Syntactic features of idioms

As mentioned in the previous part,,“idiom‟ is a complex language unit Hence, it is pretty difficult in literature to determine its characteristics as well as organize idioms by structures Many groups of authors choose to categorize idioms

by the number of words forming an idiom:

The number of

gan thỏ đế

bền gan

It is clearly seen from one of the above idioms Take the well - known phrase

“From the bottom of one‟s heart” as an instance, the idiom shows the sincerity and love of someone that he/she puts into his/her actions for the others In case words are rearranged: “from bottom the of heart one‟s” or “bottom heart from the of one‟s”, the idiom will be meaningless and it will not be called “an idiom” any longer

b The number of words in an idiom is unchanged

To put it another way, no component in an existing idiom can be deducted or

no extra words can be added to it In particular, if the word “spill” in the idiom „spill

one‟s gut” is removed, the idiom cannot keep its original meaning: to confess, to tell the truth Obviously, it is the same in case of adding one more word to the idiom

c No word can substitute for any word in an idiom

Indeed, word substitution in forming idiom is not permitted Look at the following example to make sense of this situation The phrase “a heart of gold” indicated the kindness of someone and it is usually used for praising (She has a heart of gold) Replacing the word “heart” with “shoulder” or “gold” with “silver”

or even “diamond” will erase the idiom in the dictionary

In addition to 3 most important syntactic features analyzed above, idioms

denoting heart, liver, gut and stomach can be grouped by the combination and

order of word kinds which create the idioms

The idiom can be a noun phrase

The idiom can be formed in the structure: Verb + somebody’s + heart/liver/gut/stomach

The idiom can be created from an adjective and a noun

Idioms can be built in a variety of structures but they are short and usually a phrase rather than a full sentence However, the idioms are the crystallization of the ancient experience and contemplation in specific situations; thus we cannot imitate the structures above and use our own words to form an idiom

2.1.2.2 Semantic features of idioms

It is the fact that an idiom owns metaphorical meanings rather than literal ones Each idiom is formed in a special historic situations and it certainly refer to cultural characteristics of the country where the idiom is used Therefore, to understand an idiom, it is vital to look at its hidden meaning after defining the literal implications from the idiom components

For the words denoting body parts such as heart, liver, gut and stomach, they are all indispensable for people‟s existence In other words, without any part above,

a person cannot survive The idiom “Have the gut” is a typical instance Someone

“having the gut” is the one that has enough bravery and courage to do something

Equivalently in Vietnamese reservoir of idioms, “to gan” is an idiomatic expression with the similar meaning to “have the gut” At the first sight, a lot of

peoplecan deal with confusion in interpreting the idiom on the ground that it may originate from historical and cultural knowledge.Hence, digging deeper in history and culture of one country will make it much of ease to deduce the metaphoric meaning of an idiom

In addition to the positive meaning as the examples above, an idiom can

bring a negative color For example, “have butterflies in one’s stomach” means

feeling nervous and worried.This is an easy idiom to interpret by its surface structure and all its components More specific, the stomach will get irritated if there is something inside while butterflies always fly and move As a consequence, this stomach will create discomfort From this analysis, the metaphoric meaning can

be easily realized: having the feel of nervousness The idiom is equal to “Cồn cào

ruột gan”in Vietnamese idiom dictionary, also expressing anxiety about something

With such explicit idioms, their meanings can be guessed by their word - cover

The semantic features of an idiom are shown under various angles: by every word forming it, by the hidden image (metaphor) and leaning on special history of the idiom In short, both syntactic and semantic features of idioms are indispensable

in the fields of exploring and conquering idiom knowledge Gathering more idioms containing words denoting heart, liver, gut and stomach will help broaden the vision about idiom world as well as make it easier to deduce its metaphoric meanings

2.1.3 Idioms and other similar language units

Like idioms, metaphors are defined in different ways According to King

(2000:216), a metaphor describes something by using an analogy with something

quite different Or as defined in Oxford Advanced Learners‟ Dictionary a metaphor

is a word or phrase used to describe somebody or something else, in a way that is different from its normal use, in order to show that the two things have the same qualities and to make the description more powerful

In English, we have “a heart of gold” as an idiom and “a heart of stone” as a metaphor These two phrases are the same structured In terms of meaning, the former is kindness while the latter is the coldness, ignorance and not sympathy of someone However, in terms of the ease to understand, it is more difficult to explain

an idiom than a metaphor due to idiom owning hidden cultures The latter is said to

be more understandable and even can be understood by its lateral meaning thanks to its flexible usage in a sentence

Besides, with a metaphor, we can use it in other form created by ourselves as

long as it ensures the grammar accuracy For instance, we can change “She has a

heart of stone” to a comparative form such as “Her heart is as cold as a stone”

Such a change is still acceptable in using English language Nonetheless, it is impossible to do the same to the idiom

2.1.3.2 Idioms and proverbs

The confusion also occurs when people distinguish idioms and proverbs To clarify, the definition of proverb should be discussed to compare with that of idiom

The Dictionary of Proverbs (2007) states that “A proverb is a saying, usually

short, that expresses a general truth about life Proverbs give advance, make an observation, or present a teaching in a succinct and memorable way”

The other definition of proverb is from Mieder (1993:5): “A proverb is a

short, generally known sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and tradition views in a metaphorical, fixed and memorable form and which is handed down from generation to generation”

Some examples about proverbs that contain words denoting heart and

stomach: “A light heart lives long” (If someone has an open mind and usually think

positively and optimistically, he will enjoy his life better and hence, have a better

health); “A hungry stomach has no ears” (Indicate the hungry person that is totally

focus on nothing but their demand for food and other things have no meaning to him)

Similarities and differences between idioms and proverbs

It cannot be denied that a large number of people who are using English and Vietnamese language have misled proverbs for idioms In reality, these two language units have both similarities and differences to be differentiated

Similarities

From the definition of idioms and proverbs, it is of ease to realize that these two units have similarity in their syntactic and semantic features Firstly, they have unchangeable form It means that the words in an idiom and a proverb cannot be removed or replaced Secondly, both idioms and proverbs are explained with their metaphorical image rather than literal one It seems to be impossible to give a meaning to an idiom or a proverb with each separate component

About functions, “aproverb contains wisdom, truth, morals and tradition

views”; it means proverbs teach people moral lessons, provide advices and indicate

the truth about life “Dreams are wishes your heart makes” is a very beautiful

proverb which advices people to dream what they are passionate from the bottom of their hearts, not with a quick thought in their mind

On the contrary, we cannot find any judgment, advice or truth about life in

an idiom, which indicates that idioms are not responsible for passing perception or educating people but only providing more beautiful words to diversify words used

in real life Take “chopped liver” as an example, it means someone or something

worthless Besides, it does not mean to advice people to do something or judge somebody

2.2 The relationship of Language and Culture

2.2.1 Concept of Culture

Stated in Brock (1970), “Culture in its broadest sense, is what makes you a

stranger when y are away from home It includes all those beliefs and expectations about how people should speak and act which have become a kind of second nature

to you as a result of social learning”

According to Tran Ngoc Them (1999), “Văn hoá là một hệ thống hữu cơ các

giá trị vật chất và tinh thần do con người sáng tạo và tích luỹ qua quá trình hoạt động thực tiễn, trong sự tương tác giữa con người với môi trường tự nhiên xã hội” ( Culture is an organic system of spiritual and material values created by human beings ans accumulated from the process of practice activities in the interaction between people and social -natural environment )

2.2.2.The inseparable Relationship between Language and Culture

Undoubtedly, language and culture has dialectical relationship Inseparable from culture, language performs 3 functions, including expressing, embodying and symbolizing cultural reality, from Claire Kramsch‟s point of view

It is supposed in “Việt Nam - Những vấn đề ngôn ngữ và văn hóa” by

professor Tran Ngoc Them that language is the origin of every culture If language, along with working, creates human being, it is language, along with working, that is the origin of every culture

From the perspectives about the relationship between language and culture, it

is clear that they are inseparable It means that each of them will shape and reflect the other The culture images are seen in every language unit and how to use the language in practical life Vice versa, the language can be interpreted from cultural perspectives or leaning on cultural events

2.2.3 The Relationship between Idioms and Culture

Language is a special product of human beings as all the other cultural

products According to E.D Sapir - a linguist from the United State, language is a

cultural product, not a functional entity or other concept: behind the language of a

nation, we can always see its cultures; language does not stand separately from culture The author from the United Kingdom L.R Palmer also indicates that the history of language and culture is companied by each other, cooperate and complement each other In Vietnam book “Tiến tới xác lập vốn từ tựng văn hóa

Việt” by Nguyen Van Chien also affirms that Language is exactly a cultural

phenomenon Culture has large external functions while language has more narrow ones but larger catalepsy Culture and language contains each other in spite of their differences

Logically, language and culture are mutually connected Language is the right means of transportation, storage and reflection of featured cultures in the country which uses that language Also, cultures of each nation have a desirable influence on its language development and evolution

To illustrate this inseparable relationship, according to Trinh Thi Thanh Hue

- the author of the book “So sánh hàm nghĩa văn hóa các từ chỉ động vật tiếng Hán

và tiếng Việt” and Nguyen Van Chien - the author of “Tiến tới xác lập vốn từ vựng văn hóa Việt”, the lexical resource can be divided into various groups: cultural and

normal lexicon While the latter brings common meaning, the former reveals cultural messages and express both physical and spiritual cultures

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE 3.1 Research design

The research design has been made with the purpose of providing guidelines for systematic data gathering and finding the diversity of idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach in English and Vietnamese It further helps discover the

typical underlying cultural features of these idioms

3.2 Research methodology

The study describes and compare the syntactic, semantic and cultural features of idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese In order to achieve the aims and objectives of the study, the statistic method is utilized to collect a lot of idioms from various reliable sources (referent books, stories, novels, dictionaries and Internet websites) and then categorize them

Besides, the analysis method is used to analyze the syntactic, semantic and cultural features of the listed idioms

In addition, the comparative - contrastive method is very important to compare and find the differences and similarities between English and Vietnamese idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach from cultural perspective

3.3 Data collection

In terms of phisiology, heart is a very important organ, which is responsible for making sure that blood is supplied to every part of the body According to

Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, “heart” is the organ in the chest that sends blood

around the body , usually on the left in humans If the heart stops working properly,

a person also stops living Because of this, the most important something is referred

to “heart” Especially, the heart is placed in the centre of the body where the

feelings and emotions are thought to be, especially those connected with love ( a

heavy heart)

Besides, liver is a large organ in the body that cleans the blood and produces bile Gut is the digestive organ through which food passes when it leaves

the stomach, in the figurative meaning, it means the courage and determination that

it takes to do something difficult or unpleasant (have the guts - có can đảm để làm

gì) And, stomach is the organ inside the body where food goes when you swallow

it; the front part of the body below the chest

From those definitions of heart, liver, gut and stomach including literal and figurative meanings, all idioms related to heart, liver, gut and stomach are called

“idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach” or “idioms of heart, liver, gut and

stomach”, such as “ aching heart”, “ chopped liver”, “ bust a gut”, “ can’t stomach”,

“ lú gan lú ruột” , “ bà chúa đứt tay bằng ăn mày sổ ruột”, “bụng bồ kết”…

In general, the researcher collected data from dictionaries, books, and the websites on the Internet of idioms After that, the researcher read and pick out all idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach literally and sort them out figuratively In order to select them easily and quickly while doing analysis, all the

idioms are put in alphabetical order

3.4 Data analysis

After collecting 206 idioms including 88 English idioms and 118 Vietnamese ones of heart, liver, gut and stomach from various sources, they are categorized into two main aspects: syntactic and semantic ones

Syntactically, the data are classified based on the different structural categories, such as noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases and prepositional phrases

Semantically, the classification is carried out on the basis of typical semantic and pragmatic features of idioms of heart, liver, gut and stomach in both languages

The steps of data analysis will be involved:

- Collecting idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach in both languages from a variety of sources

- Analyzing the syntactic features of idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach in English and Vietnamese

- Analyzing the semantic features of idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach in English and Vietnamese

- Identifying the similarities and differences between the two languages containing heart, liver, gut and stomach with regard to syntactic and semantic features

- Analyzing the cultural features of idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach in English and Vietnamese

- Suggesting some implications for teaching and learning this popular kind

of idioms in English and Vietnamese as a foreign language

3.5 Reliability and validity

The data was selected from English, American and Vietnamese linguistic and grammatical books and dictionaries which are reliable

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Syntactic features of idioms containing heart, liver, gut, and stomach in English and Vietnamese

As mentioned in Part II, both English and Vietnamese idioms vary in its structures An idiom can be put in either phrase form or sentence form In this Chapter, the most popular structures of idioms will be fully and clearly presented

4.1.1 Idioms in the form of phrase structures

4.1.1.1 Idioms in the form of Verb phrase patterns

Verb + Noun/ Noun phrase

Have a heart, have the gut, break

one‟s heart, eat one‟s liver, turn

someone‟ stomach

Verb + Noun/ Noun phrase + Preposition

Eat one‟s heart out

Set one‟s heart on

Pour one‟s heart out

Verb + Preposition

Dear to sb‟s heart

Get to the heart of

Strike at the heart of

Chôn vào dạ

Ăn như con tằm lại rút ruột ra

Verb + (Noun/ Noun phrase) + Preposition + Noun

Put one‟s hands on one‟s heart

Get butterflies in one‟ stomach

Suy bụng ta ra bụng người Sống để bụng chết mang theo Verb + Noun/ Noun phrase + Verb + Noun/ Noun phrase