Idioms referring to head in english and vietnamese a contrastive analysis from cultural perspectives

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG VÂN IDIOMS REFERRING TO “HE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG VÂN

IDIOMS REFERRING TO “HEAD” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU CÁC CÂU THÀNH NGỮ

CÓ CHỨA THÀNH TỐ “HEAD” TRONG TIẾNG ANH

VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT DƯỚI GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HÓA

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG VÂN

IDIOMS REFERRING TO “HEAD” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU CÁC CÂU THÀNH NGỮ

CÓ CHỨA THÀNH TỐ “HEAD” TRONG TIẾNG ANH

VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT DƯỚI GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HÓA

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Dr Đỗ Tuấn Minh

HANOI - 2017

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT -***** -

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

IDIOMS REFERRING TO “HEAD” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE: A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES

submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master Degree at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and that this thesis has not been submitted to any degree at any other universities or institutions 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

Nguyễn Thi ̣ Hồng Vân

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

On completing this study, I owe a profound indebtedness to many people for

their invaluable help during the conduct of my research

First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Dr Do Tuan Minh, my supervisor for his useful and critical comments and continual guidance

My appreciation is also offered to my lecturers and my friends of graduate studies for their valuable lessons and precious helps

Post-Finally, I would like to express my profound gratitude towards my parents for their continual encouragement and immeasurable support

ABSTRACT

There is a close relationship between Language and culture Culture has a strong influence on language and vice versa, language reflects culture One of the most effective ways to transfer cultures is utilizing idioms which may be a hindrance for English learners in the process of mastering a foreign language Hence, in order to help learners have a better understanding of idioms, the

researcher decided to conduct “Idioms referring to “Head” in English and

Vietnamese: A contrastive analysis from cultural perspectives.” This research aims

to explore the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms containing the word “Head” in terms of syntactic, semantic and especially cultural features At the end of the study, some educational implications for English teachers, learners and translators are offered to make teaching, learning and translating more effective Hopefully, this paper will increase the knowledge of idioms referring to “Head” and enhance cultural understanding of Vietnamese and English people to a great extent

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE‟S STATEMENT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Objective of the Study 1

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the Study 2

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 3

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 3

1.1 Theoretical Background 3

1.1.1 Idioms 3

1.1.2 Cultural and the Relationship between Language and Culture 12

1.2 Previous Studies Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES 19

2.1 Research Design 19

2.2 Research Methods 19

2.3 Research Procedures 19

2.4 Data Collection 20

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 21

3.1.2 Sentence structures 26

3.1.3 Similarities and Differences of Syntactic features of Idioms referring to “Head” in English and Vietnamese 26

3.2 Semantic features of Idioms referring to “Head” in English & Vietnamese 28

3.2.1 Similarities 28

3.2.2 Differences 30

3.3 Cultural Features in Idioms referring to “Head” in English and Vietnamese 31

PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 35

1 Conclusion 35

2 Implications for Learning, Teaching and Translation Idioms 37

2.1 Implications for Learning 37

2.2 Implications for Teaching 38

2.3 Implications for Translation 39

2.4 Limitations and Suggestion for Further Research 40

REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX I

LIST OF TABLES

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

English is an interesting language to learn, however, to master English is not easy One of the phenomenons that make English learners find difficult is idiom whose meaning cannot be always inferred from the meaning of its parts because they contain not only the literal meanings but also the figurative ones For example, when we say “He is big-headed”, we do not mean that the man‟s head is big but a man who is very conservative

There are a large number of idioms in English as well as in other languages like Vietnamese Idioms can be seen everywhere, in newspapers, novels, short stories, and in our daily conversation In addition, idioms make a language more interesting, vibrant and colorful This is the reason why language learners should learn about idioms in order to make their own communications and writings livelier and to avoid misunderstanding the meaning of speakers or documents that use idioms

I am attracted by idioms, especially idioms referring to “Head” which is one

of the most important parts in human body The researcher found many idioms

denoting “Head” in both English and Vietnamese whose meanings are extremely interesting For example: “fall head over heels” means to be in love with someone very much; and “đầu tắt mặt tối” which means very busy In fact, English and Vietnamese idioms referring to “Head” share the similarities and differences in the

light of culture

From all these reasons above, the researcher decided to choose the topic

Idioms referring to “Head” in English and Vietnamese: A contrastive analysis from

cultural perspectives to take detailed exploration Hopefully, the study can enlarge

writer‟s knowledge about idioms referring to “Head” from cultural perspective and

contribute a small part of learning and teaching idioms

2 Objective of the Study

The purpose of this study is to supply learners of English a basic knowledge

about syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting “Head” in comparison

the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms which

denote “Head” in term of culture In addition, some implications for teaching,

learning and translating will be explored at the end of the study in order to provide readers useful resources of idioms Finally, the study is implemented to satisfy researcher‟s interest in idioms

3 Research questions

In accordance with the objectives of the study, the research is conducted to find out answers to the following research questions:

1 What syntactic and semantic features are reflected in the “Head” idioms

in both English and Vietnamese?

2 What are cultural features of idioms referring to “Head” in English and

Vietnamese?

4 Scope of the Study

It is impossible to cover all English and Vietnamese idioms in general and human body idioms in particular in a scope of a minor study Therefore, I would

like to focus on idioms referring to “Head” to get deeper analysis Idioms denoting

“Head” in English and Vietnamese are collected from many reliable dictionaries

The study would investigate the following points:

- General view of idioms in English and Vietnamese

- Syntactic and semantic features of “Head” idioms in English and

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

of problem Phrases or sentences of this type are usually said to be idiomatic (Spears, 1991)

According to Oxford Dictionary of English idioms (p 57) “An idiom is a word or phrase which means something different from what it says.” - it is usually a metaphor It means that the meaning of an idiom cannot be inferred from the

meaning of individual words in that idiom For example, the phrase “a pain in the

neck” can be literally understood that one‟s neck is painful However, it also has

another figurative meaning in the sentence “Tom always goes mad if others do not

obey him He is really a pain in the neck.” A pain in the neck here refers to a

nuisance, or something or someone that causes nuisance

In the same sense, J Seidl and W McMordie (1988, p.13) defined idioms as

“a number of words which, when taken together, have a different meaning from the

individual meanings of each word.” For example, “twiddle one’s thumbs” in the sentence “It is not equal when Tim only comes to the office and twiddles his

thumbs” has the idiomatic meaning “doing nothing” This meaning is very different

from the meaning of each word in the idiom Twiddle indicates an action and

thumbs are biggest fingers of hand

In the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1992), an idiom is seen as “an expression which functions as a single unit and

In general, these linguists and dictionaries have the similar opinions about the definition of English idiom which is a phrase whose meanings cannot be predicted from the individual meaning of the components it contains

In Vietnam, Hoàng Văn Hành (1994) defined 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.” The idiom “chõ

mũi vào chuyện người khác” in the sentence “Bà ta chuyên chõ mũi vào chuyện của người khác” (She always pokes her nose into other‟s life.) is an example for this

definition

According to Hoàng Phê (1997) an idiom is “a set expression whose meaning is generally inexplicable simple through the meaning of individual words

it contains.” For instance the phrase “da mồi tóc sương” (scaly skin and grey hair)

means very old, aged, used to indicate an aged person in the following sentence:

“Chốc đà mười mấy năm trời Còn ra khi đã da mồi tóc sương”

(Truyện Kiều, Nguyễn Du) (With more than ten years gone

If still alive, they must have scaly skin and grey hair)

1.1.1.2 Features of Idioms

Idiomatic expressions can be diagnosed by some properties that are extracted from its practical use in variable discourses The features that are set below are extracted from an anonymous writer in an article labeled Anonymous “Czech and English Idioms of Body Parts: A View from Cognitive Semantics, English Language”:

unable to be substituted in the same place of its context

 Idioms are transformational anomalous, i.e they are a unique group of words that cannot be created according to a specific pattern

identical with the combinatory abilities of a regular language

i.e the total meaning of an idiom cannot be predicted from the meaning of its individual parts

words which function as a unit of meaning and that exactly what is called semantic unity

the literal language in terms of their structure and semantic features

changed

1.1.1.2.1 Syntactic Features

First of all, idioms are commonly said to be the “set-expressions”, which means we cannot add, omit or freely substitute the components in an idiom In other words, almost all idioms have fixed structures, and their components cannot be varied or modified In addition, we cannot transform an idiom into passive form, either, especially when it is utilized in a full sentence This is true in both English

and Vietnamese For example, “ba đầu sáu tay”, “đầu đội trời, chân đạp đất” or

“have eyes in the back of your head” If we make a change in these idioms, they are

not idioms any more

Secondly, idioms can take many forms as well as structures like phrase structures with noun phrase (“a good head”, “a cool head”), verb phrase (“bury your head in the sand”, “fall head over heels”), or prepositional phrase (“from head

to toe”) and sentence structure (“eyes pop out of your head”) Moreover, some

idioms have grammatically incorrect structures For instance, “give someone a

heads up”, or “to go through thick and thin” However, it is widely accepted despite

the improper structure

1.1.1.2.2 Semantic Features

According to Vinogradow (1997), the meaning of an idiom is cleverly

likened to “the special chemical mixture” of all the components‟ meaning “Have

your head in the clouds” is a good example to illustrate his point It would be

inappropriate to translate every word and understand the meaning literally because

it is impossible to have your head in the clouds Actually, the true meaning of that

idiom is to be unaware of what is going on from fantasies or daydreams This case

is also true in Vietnamese For example, “Đầu tắt mặt tối” means very busy No

doubt, the real meaning of the idiom is far different from that of the set phrase It means that although we may know the meanings of all the components of an idiom,

it is quite hard to comprehend its true meaning Therefore, we cannot draw out its meaning by just basing on the component words We have to translate and interpret idioms figuratively and metaphorically, instead

However, this case is not always true There are many idioms whose literal meaning and figurative one are almost identical This point was supported by the opinion of Kunin, A.V (2006) that was “the meaning of an idiom is either partly or completely different from the meaning of all components “Give and take”, “as busy

as a bee” are some instances for this because we can, more or less, guess their meanings There are also some Vietnamese idioms which have literal sense and

their meaning can be deduced correctly from the components such as “Đẹp như

tranh” (as pretty as a picture) and “Bán tín bán nghi” (half doubtful)

1.1.1.3 Metaphor and Metonymy in idioms

1.1.1.3.1 Metaphor

Metaphor is a term that comes from Greek which means “transference” In

Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (1995:734), metaphor is defined as “the

imaginative use of a word or a phrase to describe somebody/ something as another

object in order to show that they have the same qualities and as to make the description more forceful” For example: “Tom is a snake” Snake is a dangerous

animal Therefore, the word “snake” is used to refer to one of characteristics of a person This example implies “Tom is a dangerous person” However, the sentence which uses metaphor is more forceful and face-saving to the hearer than the sentence that does not

According to Barcelona (2000:3), “Metaphor is the cognitive mechanism

whereby one experienced domain is partially mapped or projected onto a different experiential domain so that the second domain is partially understood in terms of the first one.”

In Vietnam, Vo Dai Quang (2003:33) defines metaphor as “word meaning

transference based on similarity between two things regards function, character, size, shape, age, color, etc.”

In general, there are many linguistic definitions of “metaphor”, but all of them share the same point that is metaphor always is the transference of name based

on the association of similarity

According to Kövecses and Radden (1999), metonymy is a cognitive process

in which one conceptual entity, the vehicle, provides mental access to another conceptual entity, the target, within the same idealized cognitive model

Gibbs (1994: 320) further defines metonymy as “an aspect of something to represent or stand for the thing as a whole” Gibbs proposes „is like‟ test to distinguish metaphor from metonymy If one thing can be said to be like another, then it is a metaphor If it would be nonsensical to say this, then it is a metonymy

To make it clear, Gibbs provides the following examples as used in the American English contexts:

1 The cream puff was knocked out in the first round of the fight (Metaphor)

2 We need a new glove to play the third base (Metonymy)

The only meaningful comparison is metaphor, in that it is meaningful to say that „the boxer is like a creampuff‟ but would be nonsensical to say „the third baseman is like glove.‟

1.1.1.3.3 Metaphor and Metonymy in Idioms

Metaphors and metonymies are applied prevalently in literature, written language as well as spoken language as a tool to make the language become more vivid, and in some cases, more profound Particularly, metaphors and metonymies can also be found in idioms which are considered as linguistic combinations mainly with figurative meaning

Kövecses (2010: 234) proposes that the motivation of idioms arises from knowledge of cognitive mechanisms (metaphor, metonymy, and conventional knowledge) In order to explain idioms based on metaphor, Kövecses (2010) uses

the example of spit fire where the domain of fire is used to refer to the domain of anger In this case, anger is comprehended via the anger is fire conceptual

metaphor Because conceptual metaphor is not the only cognitive mechanism that can motivate idioms, Kövecses goes on to explain idioms based on conventional knowledge and metonymy For this purpose, he collects a large number of idioms relevant to the human hand from a variety of sources As conventional knowledge is also cognitive mechanism, Kövecses means that people in a given culture have the shared knowledge regarding a conceptual domain like the human hand They have the standard information about the parts, shape, size, use, and function of the human hand The meaning of the idiomatic expression of have one‟s hands full is to be busy This can be easily understood because if someone holds things in the hand, it

is hard for them to pick up other things or use the hand to do another activity

According to Kövecses, this is not the only explanation for this idiom, yet it is the conventional (neither metaphoric nor metonymic) knowledge that motivates this

idiom As for metonymy-based idioms, Kövecses uses the example of hold one’s

hand meaning „wait and see‟ This meaning arises as a result of the metonymy the hand stands for the activity which seems to be the basis for the hand stands for the person

1.1.1.4 Proverbs and Idioms

According to Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, a proverb is “a short

well-known sentence or phrase that states a general truth about life or gives advice” Due

to the similarities between idioms and proverbs that they both have figurative meanings, for example, it makes many people confused to distinguish idioms from proverbs However, the border between a proverb and an idiom is not very solid It means that they are different in some points

Firstly, idioms and proverbs have different structures or the stability of

structures According to Nguyễn Đình Hùng (1999) in Tuyển tập thành ngữ, tục ngữ

cao dao Việt - Anh thông dụng, a proverb is different from an idiom in terms of

syntax A proverb is often a complete sentence meanwhile an idiom is just only a fixed phrase or a group of words which is a constituent part of a sentence Therefore, the individual words in an idiom cannot be changed or omitted, or added with any other elements In contrast, a proverb is often elliptical in their nature For example, the idiom “with a high hand” cannot be shortened in any circumstances, while the proverb “so many men, so many minds” can be shortened into “many men, many minds” without any change in meaning

Secondly, idioms can be distinguished from proverbs in terms of semantics

as well Nguyễn Lân in “Từ điển thành ngữ, tục ngữ Việt Nam” states that: “Thành

ngữ là những cụm từ cố định dùng để diễn đạt một khái niệm” and “Tục ngữ là những câu hoàn chỉnh, có ý nghĩa trọn vẹn, nói lên hoặc một nhận xét về tâm lý, hoặc một lời phê phán, khen hay chê, hoặc một câu khuyên nhủ, hoặc một kinh

nghiệm về nhận thức tự nhiên hay xã hội” In other words, the content of an idiom is

that of concept and the content of a proverb is that of judgment For example: “head and front” is an idiom expressing a person who proposes and lead a movement or a launch; “two heads are better than one” is a proverb because it is an advice which means it is better to have a discussion before making a decision

In general, idioms and proverbs are different from each other in terms of both syntax and semantics Therefore, syntactic and semantic features of idioms and proverbs are effective means to distinguish between them

1.1.1.5 Idioms referring to “Head” in English and Vietnamese

1.1.1.5.1 Literal and figurative meanings of “Head” in English

In Modern English Dictionary, “Head” is defined as follow:

a The part of body containing eyes, nose, mouth and brain

For example: the ball hit her on the head

b A head (singular): as measure of length

For example: Tom is taller than John by a head

c Headache

For example: I have got a terrible head this morning

d The mind, the brain

For example: The thought never entered mind head

e (Singular) a mental or natural ability of the specified nature

For example: have a good head for figures/ business

f Heads (singular verb) the side of a coin with the head of a person on it For example: We tossed a coin and it came down heads

g (Plural) head individual animals in a herd, flock

For example: twenty head of cattle

h A thing like a head in form or position

For example: Cut off the dead heads of the roses

i The foam on the top of poured beer

j A device on a tape recorder that couches the moving tape and converts the electrical signals into sound

k The part of a spot or boil that contains

For example: the pimple came to a head before bursting

l The top or the highest part of something

For example: The title at the head of the page

m The more important or prominent end of something

For example: Place the pillow at the head of the bed

n The front of a line of people

For example: Stand at the head of a queue

o A leading position in something

For example: Be at the head of one‟s profession

p The person in charge of a group or an organization

For example: The head of the family

q The person in charge of a school or a college: headmaster or headmistress

r The pressure produced by an amount of water or steam in a confined space For example: they kept up a good head of steam

s A main division in a lecture, an essay, etc

For example: a meeting arranged under five heads

1.1.1.5.2 Literal and figurative meanings of “Head” in Vietnamese

The meanings of the word “Đầu” in Vietnamese are taken from the website: http://tratu.soha.vn/dict/vn_vn/Đầu

a The highest part if the human body, the front part of an animal, in which there are the brain and other senses

b The head of human beings, considered as symbol of thought, perception For example: Vấn đề đau đầu

c The part where there is hair on the human head, hair (in general)

For example: Gãi đầu gãi tai, mái đầu xanh

e The beginning points of time of space; opposite to “end”

For example: Đầu làng, đầu tháng, đầu mùa thu

f The ending part of two identical parts on two opposite directions of an object

For example: Hai bên đầu cầu

g The first point of time or location, highest or in front of all other points For example: Lần đầu, Hàng ghế đầu

h Indicating every unit to count the average of people, area units, etc

For example: Bình quân đầu người

1.1.2 Cultural and the Relationship between Language and Culture

1.1.2.1 Definition of Culture

In English, “culture” is a term that has been defined differently by various scholars In 1871, Edward Taylor, a British anthropologist, became the first to give

a full definition of culture in his book, Primitive Culture, that is “Culture is that

complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, custom and any other capacities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” Kroeber

"Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (i.e historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the one hand, be considered as products of action, and on the other as conditioning elements of further action."

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization (UNESCO), culture is defined as follow:

" Culture is a set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and that it encompasses, in addition to art and

Regarding to Matsumoto (1996), a set of attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors shared by a group of people, but different for each individual,

communicated from one generation to the next is considered as culture Lederach (1995:9) defined culture is "the shared knowledge and schemes created by a set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing, and responding to the social realities around them."

In Vietnamese, Nguyen Quang (1998:3) claimed that “Culture is a share background (for example, national, ethnic, religious) resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes, and values.” For

him, the nature of culture is compared to an iceberg, most of which is hidden under

water It means that culture has hidden aspects which have significant effects on behavior of an individual and on interactions with others but cannot be seen visually

In general, Moore‟s definition of culture (1985:4) is the shortest and most concise, in my opinion that is "Culture is the whole of knowledge, ideas and habits

of society that are transmitted from one generation to the next."

1.1.2.2 Definition of Language

There is no doubt that language is a communication tool used by humans, animals and even some plant species However, human language is apparently unique in being a symbolic communication system which is learnt instead of being biologically and naturally inherited One of the most concise definitions of language

is that “language is a human system of communication that uses arbitrary signals such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols” (Nordquist, n.d.) Li (2005, p.24) noted that language carries out these three crucial functions:

1 Language is the primary vehicle of communication;

2 Language reflects both the personality of the individual and the culture of his history In turn, it helps shape both personality and culture;

3 Language makes possible the growth and transmission of culture, the continuity of societies and the effective functioning and controlling of social group

Language contains many characteristic, one of which is that language is a means of communication and self-expressions It means language helps people

express their ideas, feelings and various traces or surges of emotions Language is also said to be irrefutably arbitrary; non-instinctive; conventional, symbolic, systematic and vocal In addition, as a means of fostering, stimulating and developing culture as well as establish and reinforcing human relations, language is clearly a form of social behaviour which must be utilized in a society or it would surely die In short, being extendable, modifiable and especially, structurally complex, language is a crucial factor that distinguishes humans from other creatures

or species

1.1.2.3 The relationship between Culture and Language

Language and culture have an inextricable and dialectical relationship According to Brown (1994), “language is a part of a culture and a culture is a part

of a language, the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture.” (p 165) Kramsch (2000) also proclaimed, “Language is the principle means whereby we conduct our social lives When it is used in contexts of communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways.” (p 3) To emphasize the essential and vital role of language to culture, Li (2005) stated that “without language, culture would not be possible” (p.25) On the other hand, culture, a set of values, demeanours and patterns of perception, also plays an important part in the formation and development of language It can be said that learning a language entails the learning

of a new culture These two processes always occur concurrently

In a nutshell, language is the indispensable vehicle for transmitting a large amount of culture and culture has a significantly strong influence on language They are closely and naturally interwoven It is widely known that each country has different cultures In fact, however, no culture is completely isolated and separately unique People of different cultures can sometimes share the same ways of thinking and viewing in some matters This is mentioned in the viewpoint of Li (2005)

“There are important resemblances that stem in part from diffusion and in part from the fact that all cultures are built around biological, psychological and social

characteristics common to all mankind.” (p 26) Universal concepts and similar points among cultures certainly reflect in languages Therefore, between two different languages, English and Vietnamese, for example, we can find some concepts or cases that are coincidentally similar or even the same

1.1.2.4 The Differences between English and Vietnamese Culture

Each country has different cultures due to various factors such as geographical features and climatic conditions Below are some differences between British and Vietnamese cultures Situated in North-western Europe, the United Kingdom (UK) includes the island of Great Britain, the North Eastern part of the island of Ireland and some other smaller islands England is widely known as the largest and also the most populous part of the island of Great Britain Over ninety percent of the population now dwells in towns or cities Among many cultural regions, the English culture is considered to be archetypal and often used to refer to the culture of the whole country In addition, surrounded by sea, Britain is considered as an island country which generally has varied temperate climate Therefore, it is hard to know exactly what the weather in Britain will be like from one day to another Furthermore, there are not remarkably high mountains or forests

in Britain; much of the land is utilized for human habitation The navigable rivers, although quite short and not very large, have served a significant role in the transport system

Vietnam, on the other hand, locates in the South East of the Asian continent

It is the largest and also most populous of the three Indochinese countries With fifty-four peoples, Vietnam is said to be a multi-ethnic country Unlike Britain, a majority of Vietnam‟s population still live in rural areas and small villages Generally, Vietnam is characterized by tropical monsoon type of climate Although about three quarters of its area are mountains and hills, Vietnam has vast and fertile plains with alluvial soil banked up by many rivers and seas which are utilized for agriculture which has always been a great of importance in the economy There are

a plenty of agriculture products, such as rice, fruits, ground-nut trees, vegetables,

various husbandry products and industrial trees, in which rice is regarded as the basic food of every meals Besides, Vietnamese people usually raise and breed buffaloes, pigs and poultry In fact, agriculture is intimately linked with aquaculture

In Vietnam, there are many long and navigable rivers The dense network of rivers, lakes, streams and ponds is considered as the assets of this country, multiplying Vietnam‟s grandeur in many ways

Unlike Vietnam, agriculture does not serve the most significant part in British economy The working population employed in agriculture is estimated at less than 3% Cereals, dairying of beef, cattle, poultry meat and eggs are some principle agricultural products in Britain Therefore, the staple foods in British meals are cereal and meat When it comes to husbandry, people often mention cows, cattle, sheep, poultry and horses British people, especially the English, are widely known for their modesty, humour and sportsmanship In addition, politeness

is believed to be a conspicuous characteristic of British society English people are also perceived as being “reserved” They often keep certain distance to strange people, they neither talk much about themselves nor have the habit of showing freely strong emotions The major and common religion in Britain is Christianity, while in Vietnam, Buddhism is the dominant one Being one of the Eastern countries, Vietnam has the Oriental cultures and values which are notably different from those of the West It has an old-aged and wonderful heroic history In order to protect the country from being taken as colony, Vietnamese people courageously and unyieldingly fought against lots of fierce enemies in many years to gain their independence and freedom Influenced by Confucianism, Vietnamese people pay much attention to the society hierarchy and the worship of ancestors Moreover, Oriental culture, including that of Vietnam, has dignified Yin-Yang philosophy, which highlights the perfect harmony between people with people as well as people with nature In general, Vietnamese people are patriotic, hard-working, faithful, intrepid, modest and self-controlled As Nguyen, M D (1985) stated, “Vietnamese cherish and uphold their ties with the past and their historical heritage of 4,000

years of civilization,…,Vietnamese prefer activities that develop the human

Admittedly, both Vietnam and Great Britain have their own significant culture features which are not similar As mentioning above, culture has a significantly strong influence on language and language, certainly, acts as a mirror reflecting most of the culture Therefore, it is easy to see that there will be lots of interesting dissimilarities between the language units of English and Vietnamese, especially idioms

1.1.2.5 Cultural features in Idioms

Every language has its own vivid and colorful idioms which were created by people when using for a long time and has deep nation history and local color Maalej (2005) identifies idioms as culture-specific aspect of a particular language Idioms as a special form of language exist in both of them and carry a large amount

of cultural information such as history, geography, religion, custom, national psychology and thought pattern; therefore, they are closely related to culture Idioms are the heritage of history and product of cultural evolvement Consequently, we can know much about culture through studying idioms and in turn get better understanding of idioms by learning the cultural background behind them

Despite the gap that exists between cultures, some idioms can be more universally used than others, and can be easily translated This fact of the culture has influences on guessing idioms Some linguists claim that idioms that are concerned with the head can be guessed more easily because human beings regardless of their cultures are familiar with the functions of their head

1.2 Previous Studies

Up to now, there are a large number of documents about idioms in English and Vietnamese For English dictionaries of idioms, there are some famous ones collected and written by researchers such as “Oxford Dictionary of idioms” by Judith Siefring which provides learners with updated idioms including clear

explanations in typical contexts; and “Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms”

by Paul Heacock giving clear examples on each idiom as well as their origins For English books about idioms, there are some widely used by many learners of English such as “Pocket English Idioms” by Jennifer Seidl and W.Mc Mordie which provides a list of 3,000 idioms with explanations and examples of use It also gives out many exercises with answers In “English Idioms in Use” by Michael McCarthy and Felicity O‟Dell, there are 60 units of vocabulary references and practices including over 1,000 idioms The book is divided into two parts Idioms with explanations, examples and special notes about their usages are presented on the left-hand pages and exercises for practicing them are shown on the right-hand pages

Idioms also attract the attention of many Vietnamese researchers like Nguyễn Lực and Lương Văn Đang who are two authors of the book “Thành ngữ Tiếng Việt”, which is a collection of Vietnamese idioms arranged in alphabetical order with clear explanations and examples extracted from Vietnamese novels, newspapers and magazines Vietnamese researchers also study, collect and write dictionaries of idioms like “Từ điển Thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam” by Đặng Hồng Chương and “Từ điển Thành ngữ Tục ngữ Việt Anh tường giải” by Bùi Phụng which displays the most popular Vietnamese idioms with similar ones in English so that it is easy for foreigners to understand, learn and use Vietnamese

Finally, there are also many dissertations about different kinds of English and Vietnamese idioms conducted by Vietnamese researchers such as “A contrastive analysis of cultural features in idioms of comparison in Vietnamese and English” by Trần Thị Vân Anh, “An study on idiomatic expressions containing words denoting food and drink in English and their Vietnamese equivalents from cultural perspectives” by Nguyễn Thị Thành

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES

2.1 Research Design

In order to reach the goal of the study, quantitative and qualitative approaches will be carried out After that, the collected data will be qualitatively analyzed, compared and generalized to highlight their characteristics

2.2 Research Methods

Due to the nature of the topic, three methods are used for this study, which

are descriptive method, analytical method and contrastive method

Descriptive method is used to demonstrate syntactic and semantic features of

idioms referring to “Head” in English and Vietnamese from some reliable

dictionaries as materials for the research process Then collected data is described, classified, generalized and analyzed systematically by applying the analytical method and contrastive method in order to figure out the similarities and differences between English idioms and Vietnamese idioms from cultural perspectives

According to Fisiak (1981:1), Contrastive Analysis or Contrastive Linguistics mainly concerns with comparing any two or more languages to identify similarities & differences and selected languages for study depends on researchers‟ practical & theoretical needs An exploration into such likeness and variation certainly helps learners sharpen their communicative competence effectively

2.3 Research Procedures

- Collecting English and Vietnamese idioms which contain the word “Head” and their meanings and examples from the sources of books, dictionaries and internet

- Analyzing and categorizing English and Vietnamese idioms containing

“Head” according to their syntactic and semantic features

- Figuring out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms referring to “Head” in terms of syntactic, semantic and cultural features

- Putting forward some implications for learning, teaching and translating idioms

- Showing study limitations and making some suggestions for further research

- Closing the study with References and Appendix

2.4 Data Collection

The number of idioms containing the word “Head” investigated in the research is 90 in English and 60 in Vietnamese These idioms are collected from books, dictionaries and internet All the collected idioms will be classified and put together in categories of different features of syntactic and semantic

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Syntactic features of Idioms containing “Head” in English and Vietnamese

In this part, the syntactic features of English and Vietnamese idioms containing word “Head” are investigated and compared carefully in order to find

out the similarities and differences between two languages

3 a full head of steam

4 an old head on young shoulders

5 good head

6 swelled head

7 a head of steam

8 a head on someone‟s shoulders

9 a roof over your head

10 head and shoulders above someone/something

11 head over heels (in love)

12 heads up

13 someone's head on a plate/platter

1 Đầu gối tay ấp

2 Đầu rơi máu chảy

3 Đầu trộm đuôi cướp

4 Đầu bạc răng long

5 Đầu bù tóc rối

6 Đầu tắt mặt tối

7 Đầu xanh tuổi trẻ

8 Đầu xuôi, đuôi lọt

9 Đầu bò đầu bướu

10 Đầu chày đít thớt

11 Đầu cua tai ếch

12 Đầu gio mặt muội

13 Đầu Ngô mình Sở

14 Đầu trâu mặt ngựa

15 Đầu voi, đuôi chuột

16 Tâm đầu ý hợp

17 Ba đầu sáu tay

18 Đầu chẳng phải, phải tai

19 Đầu hai thứ tóc

3.1.1.2 Verb phrase

1 keep your head

2 lose your head

3 raise/rear its (ugly) head

4 scratch your head

5 shake your head

6 turn heads

7 hang your head (in shame)

8 bang (hammer knock) something into

somebody‟s head

9 be banging your head against a brick wall

10 be hanging over you

11 beat somebody‟s head off

12 bite/snap someone's head off

13 bring something to a head

14 bury/ hide your head in the sand

15 do someone's head in

16 fall head over heels (in love)

17 get your head around something

18 get/ keep your head down

19 get your head out of the clouds

20 give a heads up

21 go head to head

22 harm a hair on someone's head

23 have a good head on your shoulders

24 have a head for something

25 have eyes in the back of your head

1 Bới đầu cá vạch đầu tôm

2 Cắm đầu cắm cổ

3 Chúi đầu chúi mũi

4 Cưỡi đầu cưỡi cổ

5 Đè đầu cưỡi cổ

6 Đâm đầu vào tròng

7 Gãi đầu gãi tai

8 Giật đầu cá, vá đầu tôm

9 Giấu đầu hở đuôi

10 Giơ đầu chịu bang

11 Nói ra đầu ra đũa

12 Quỳ gối cúi đầu

13 Treo đầu dê, bán thịt chó

14 Vặn đầu vặn tai

15 Xuất đầu lộ diện

English Vietnamese

26 have your head in the clouds

27 head someone/something off

28 hide your head in the sand

29 hit the nail right on the head

30 hold a gun to someone's head

31 hold your head up high

32 keep a civil tongue in your head

33 keep your head above water

34 knock something on the head

35 Laugh/ scream/ shout] your head off

36 like a bear with a sore head

37 make heads or tails (out) of something

38 pop your head out

39 put a gun to someone's head

40 put head/neck on the block

41 put ideas into someone's head

42 put one's head in the lion's mouth

43 put/stick your head above the parapet

44 stand/turn something on its head

45 stick/put one's head in a noose

46 trouble one's head about (someone or

something)

47 turn something on its head

48 build/get/work up a head of steam

49 come into your head

50 go over someone's head

51 go to someone's head

52 head off something