Nghiên cứu về thành ngữ có chứa các từ chỉ thời tiết trong tiếng anh và tiếng việt nhìn từ góc độ văn hóa

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIESFACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---- ----VŨ THỊ SINH A STUDY ON IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



VŨ THỊ SINH

A STUDY ON IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING WORDS DENOTING WEATHER

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM

CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

THÀNH NGƢ̃CÓCHƢ́A CÁC TƢ̀CHỈTHỜI TIÊ ́

T TRONG TIÊ ́

NG ANH VÀTIÊ ́

NG VIÊṬ NHÌN TƢ̀ GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HÓA)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



VŨ THỊ SINH

A STUDY ON IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING WORDS DENOTING WEATHER

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM

CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

THÀNH NGƢ̃CÓCHƢ́A CÁC TƢ̀CHỈTHỜI TIÊ ́

T TRONG TIÊ ́

NG ANH VÀTIÊ ́

NG VIÊṬ NHÌN TƢ̀ GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HÓA)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr Vũ Ngọc Tú

I certify that all the material in this study which is not my own work has been identified and acknowledged, and this thesis is the result of my own research andthe the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for any degree to any other universities or institutions

Author

Vu Thi Sinh

Finally, my thanks go to my family and friends who are always by my side to givethe unconditional financial and spiritual support during the process ofaccomplishing the thesis.

Learning a foreign language is not simply to interpret and communicate but bringslearners more than they can see Each language has its own particular features andvalues among which idioms are mentionable Idiomatic expressions are undoubtedlyencountered in almost every day conversations, newspapers, magazines, TVs orradios

Recognizing the importance of idioms as well as satisfying her own ambition, theauthor tries to figure out the features of idioms, specifically the idioms containingwords denoting weather, one of the respects familiar to everyone Moreover, it isbelieved that idioms are always associated with culture; hence, a cultural view onthis type of idioms might be helpful and interesting In this thesis, the authorfocuses on the importance of cultural awareness in understanding idioms; thenceshows the necessary of cultural knowledge in learning and teaching English ingeneral and weather idioms in particular

TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1.Rationale 1

2.Aims of the study 1

3.Objectives 2

4.Scope of the study 2

5.Methods of the study 2

6.Design of the study 2

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Culture and the relationship between language and culture 4

1.1.1 Culture and some characteristics of culture 4

1.1.2 Relationship between language and culture 7

1.2 Idioms 10

1.2.1 Definition 10

1.2.2 Types of idioms 11

1.2.3 Main features of idioms in English and Vietnamese 13

1.2.4 Idioms versus proverbs and slang 16

1.2.5 Culture in idiom 19

1.3 Weather definition 20

CHAPTER TWO: ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS CONTAINING WORDS DENOTING WEATHER 2.1 Syntactic features of EIWW and VIWW 22

2.2 Semantic features of EIWW and VIWW 26

CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Some characteristics of Vietnamese and English people, culture and weather conditions 33

3.2 Comparison of syntactic features between EIWW and VIWW from the cultural perspectives 35

3.3 Comparison of semantic features between EIWW and VIWW from the cultural

perspectives 37

PART 3: CONCLUSION 1 Review of the study 43

2 Implications 44

3 Suggestions for further studies 45

REFERENCES 46 APPENDIX I

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Nowadays, English is obviously considered as the international language that is atool for global connection and development Idioms, a special part of languages ingeneral and English in particular, seem to be the familiar element which occurs notonly in daily conversations but also in literature works People are likely familiarwith idioms which are used to express ideas in an attractive and figurative way.Therefore, understanding the meaning of idiomatic expressions is essential anduseful for English users However, understanding an idiom by understanding itscomponents is not enough because the meanings of idioms are unpredictable, whichderive from unusual forms, stylistic devices and knowledge on culture

Although idioms are not easy to comprehend, it is necessary for learners not todisregard idioms in studying languages because idioms are an unseparated element

of languages and so common in daily use As a second language teacher, this urges

me to conduct the thesis entitled “A study on idiomatic expressions containing words denoting weather in English and Vietnamese from cultural perspective” to

find out the similarities and differences between English idioms containing thewords denoting weather (EIWW) and Vietnamese idioms containing the wordsdenoting weather (VIWW) mainly from the cultural view Moreover, despite beingconsidered as the most important second language in Vietnam, English bringsvarious challenges for learners One of the reasons for this problem is thedissimilarities in the way of living and thinking or the differences of culture Theresult of the study, to some extent, is hoped to help Vietnamese learners of Englishuse EIWW and VIWW effectively in communication so that their speech is moreadequate, natural, interesting and imaginative

2 Aims of the study

The thesis is conducted in attempt to:

- Explore the English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting weather, with the main focus on the cultural point of view

- Point out the similarities and differences between these two languages in this particular aspect

- Motivate students to obtain the insight of Vietnamese and English idioms

containing words denoting weather

3 Objectives

The objectives of the study are:

- Investigate Vietnamese and English idioms consisting weather words

- Clarify the cultural intension inside the idioms

- Suggest some ideas for teaching idioms

- What are similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting weather from the cultural perspective?

- What cultural aspects influence the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting weather?

4 Scope of the study

This study focuses on English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denotingweather from the cultural perspective These idioms are listed in the appendix.Because of some limitation of time, not all idioms are covered

5 Methods of the study

In this study, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used It is carried out bycarefully collecting materials from numerous sources in both English andVietnamese including books, websites, newspapers and from observation in dailylife Then, the data are analyzed and synthesized to find out the similarities anddifferences in English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting weather

6 Design of the study

The thesis is divided into three main parts:

- The first part is the Introduction, which includes rationale, aim, scope, methods and design of the study

- Part 2 is the Development, which comprises three chapters Chapter one, as

implied by the title “Theoretical background”, reviews the literature related to language, culture and idioms in general Chapter two is concerned with “English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting weather” in which syntactic

and semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting

weather are investigated The last chapter in this part deals with “Findings and discussion” with the analysis of similarities and differences between EIWW and

VIWW from the cultural view

- Part 3 is the Conclusion and Implications for teaching and learning as well as some suggestions for further study

The thesis is concluded by the appendix and references

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Languages and cultures are closely related Hence, to study any phenomenon of anylanguage, it is of utmost importance to consider the culture of the people who speakthat language and to compare English idioms containing the words denotingweather (EIWW) and Vietnamese idioms containing the words denoting weather(VIWW) is no exception This chapter will present a brief theoretical introductionabout culture, language, and idioms, which will lay essential foundations for what isbeing analyzed in the next two chapters

1.1 Culture and the relationship between language and culture

1.1.1 Culture and some characteristics of culture

The term “culture” is undoubtedly familiar with many people, yet it is not reallysimple to define it Many linguists have spent a lot of efforts on working out thedefinitions of culture Hence, in this paper, the writer will introduce some in attempt

to provide a general view for the readers following easily Following are some ofthem:

Hofstede (1980, pp 21-23) defines culture as “the collective programming of themind which distinguishes the members of one group from another”, which is passedfrom generation to generation, it is changing all the time because each generationadds something of its own before passing it on It is usual that one‟s culture is takenfor granted and assumed to be correct because it is the only one, or at least the first,

to be learned

Samovar & Porter (2003) gives a typical definition on culture as follows:

“The deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings,hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of theuniverse, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in thecourse of generations through individual and group striving” (Samovar & Porter,

2003, p 8)

Sharing the same opinion, Edward Tylor, a famous British anthropologist, notes inhis book “Primitive Culture” (1871), culture “is that complex whole which includesknowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, custom and any other capacities and habitsacquired by man as a member of society”(p 1).

In the book “Language and Culture: Global flows and local complexity”, Risager(2005) considers culture from three dimensions of concept including hierarchical,differential and generic concept As regards to hierarchical concept, culture means

“something that the individual human being or individual society either „has‟ or

„does not has‟ at a higher or lower level” (p.32) Meanwhile, culture is thought asthe thing that can distinguish one society from others from, differential concept Thegeneric concept of culture focuses on what to distinguish humanity from nature andother living creatures

Also, Kramsch (1998) examines culture by comparing it to nature and showing itsdevelopment through social activities

“One way of thinking about culture is to contrast it with nature Nature refers to

what is born and grows organically (from the Latin nascere: to be born); culture

refers to what has been grown and groomed (from Latin colere: to cultivate)”

Subjective elements of culture may be the elements such as “values, attitudes,beliefs, orientations, and underlying assumptions prevalent among people in asociety” (Harrison and Huntington, 2000:xv)

One more definition that should also be mentioned is the one of Triandis (1994:23)cited in Porter, Samovar and McDaniel (2007): “Culture is a set of human-madeobjective and subjective elements that in the past have increased the probability of

survival and resulted in satisfaction for the participants in an ecological niche, andthus became share among those who could communicate with each other becausethey had a common language and they lived in the same time and place”.

In short, culture is defined in various ways as Harrison and Huntington (2000) note,

“The term „culture‟, of course, has had multiple meanings in different disciplinesand different contexts” (p xv) Thus, culture undeniably has many definitions butgenerally affects nearly everything people do in their society because of their ideas,values, attitudes, and normative or expected patterns of behavior Culture is notgenetically inherited, and cannot exist on its own, but is always shared by members

of a society (Hall 1976, p 16)

Culture is a complex concept, and no single definition of it has achieved consensus

in the literature Regardless of dozens of definitions, it is necessary to examinecharacteristics of culture because through them, one can see the connection betweenculture and other elements including language As Huntington (1996) notes, “Theheart of culture involves language, religion, values, traditions, and customs.”

Porter, Samovar and McDaniel (2007:21-30) point out six features of culture asfollows:

Firstly, culture is obtained from people‟s birth to the end of their life throughlearning which means that it is learned but not innate Learning here is understoodboth formal and informal Informal learning normally takes place throughinteraction, observation, and imitation The formal learning of culture is far morestructured and often left to the institutions of the culture such as schools andchurches Because culture influences you from the instant you are born, you arerarely aware of many of the messages that it sends Therefore, studying isconsidered as an essential process in one‟s person‟s whole life

Secondly, culture is shared The means of transmitting the culture can take a varietyforms (proverbs, stories, art) and can have numerous carriers (family, peers, church,schools, media), but the key elements of culture (values, ideas, perception) must beshared by other members of the culture

Thirdly, culture is transmitted from generation to generation If a culture is toendure, it must make certain that its crucial messages and elements are not onlyshared, but they also must be passed on to future generations In this way, the pastbecomes the present and helps prepare for the future.

Fourthly, culture is based on symbols While cultural symbols can take a host offorms, encompassing gestures, dress, objects, flags, or religious icons, “the mostimportant symbolic aspect of culture is language – using words to represent objectsand ideas.”(Haviland, Prins, Walrath, and McBride, 1005:38)

Fifthly, culture is dynamic Culture does not exist in a vacuum, because of “otherwaters continually flowing in”, they are subject to change (p.29) These changes arerelated to people‟s everyday lives including dress, food, transportation,entertainment, housing, and the like are normally compatible with the existingvalues of the culture However, values associated with such things as ethics andmoral, work and leisure, definitions and freedom, the importance of the past,religious practices, the pace of life, and attitudes toward gender and age are sodeeply embedded in a culture that they persist generation to generation

Finally, culture is an integrated system In reality, culture functions as an integratedwhole In fact, it has been said that if you touch one part of a culture you touch allthat culture The interrelationship of these various parts is so important thatHaviland states, “All aspects of culture must be reasonably well integrated in order

to function properly” (2005:39)

In brief, culture begins at birth and continues throughout life Culture exists in eventhe minor or unexpected things in most respects of daily life The integration ofculture makes it a stable unity and lasts everlastingly

1.1.2 Relationship between language and culture

As presented previously, in the cultural system, language is one of the most crucialparts which can be likened to a key factor, playing the role of an essential medium

to transmit much of culture In this subsection, the author attempts to provide somebasic issues in the relationship between language and culture

The fact that language is the primary means people use to communicate with oneanother may seem to be obvious One of the typical definitions of language isBonvillain‟s one (cited in Porter, Samovar and McDaniel, 2007:164) as follows:

“Language is the primary means of interactions between people Speakers uselanguage to convey their thoughts, feelings, intentions, and desires to others.Language links interlocutors in a dynamic, reflexive process We learn about peoplethrough what they say and how they say it; we learn about ourselves through theway that other people react to what we say; and we learn about our relationshipswith others through give-and-take of communicative interactions.”

Porter, Samovar and McDaniel (2007) also believe that “language use and stylereflex the personality of a culture in much the same way that they reflect thepersonality of an individual” (p.168) The relationship between language and culture

is further stressed by Saville-Stroike when she writes, “There is no doubt; however,that there is a correlation between the form and content of a language and thebeliefs, values, and needs present in the culture of its speakers.” (Saville-Stroike,2003:28)

Kramsch (1998) points out that when language is put in contexts of communication,

it variously and complicatedly relates to culture He also mentions to three issues ofthe relationship between language and culture as follows:

Firstly, the words people utter express facts, ideas or events that are communicable.Besides, writers or speakers‟ attitudes, feelings, opinions and trust are reflected

through words In both cases, language expresses cultural reality.

Moreover, people use language not only for expressing but also creating experience.They use many ways of interaction including face-to-face, writing a letter orsending an email message, reading the newspaper or interpreting a graph or a chartand add the meanings to communication through these spoken, written, or visualmedia The created meanings are able to understand by members of a community or

social group Through all its verbal and non-verbal aspects, language embodies cultural reality.

Finally, language is a system of signs that is seen as having itself a cultural value.Speakers identify themselves and others through their use of language; they viewtheir language as a symbol of their social identity The prohibition of its use is oftenperceived by its speakers as a rejection of their social group and their culture Thus

we can say that language symbolizes cultural reality.

Kramsch (2000) also proclaims, “Language is the principle means whereby weconduct our social lives When it is used in contexts of communication, it is bound

up with culture in multiple and complex ways.” (p 3) The importance of language

in expressing culture is seriously emphasized by Li (2005) when he states “withoutlanguage, culture would not be possible” (p 25)

According to Porter, Samovar and McDaniel (2007), the relationship betweenculture and language is a reciprocal one in which they emphasize the role of culture:

“…culture exerts an enormous influence on language because culture teaches notonly the symbols and rules for using those symbols, but, more importantly, themeaning associated with the symbols Further, culture influences the way peoplethink and perceive reality.” (Porter, Samovar and McDaniel:2007, p.173)

Explaining for this viewpoint, Porter et al (2007) believe that the symbols,responses are only understood optimally within the same cultural setting Whenpeople communicate from their own culture, the process of using words to representexperiences is much easier because within a culture people share many similarexperiences Nevertheless, when communication is between people from differentculture, the process becomes challenging because of various experiences involved.Consequently, culture, as the whole of human ways of living as well as a set ofvalues, demeanors and patterns of perception, has become extremely crucial tolanguage, having a great impact on the formation and development of language.Generally, language and culture are reciprocal and reinforce together Culture islikely the spirit of the language and vice versus, language reflects both thepersonality of the individual and the culture of his history Language helps shapeboth personality and culture as well as makes possible the growth and transmission

of culture, the continuity of societies, and the effective functioning and control ofsocial group As Brown (1994) proposed that “language is a part of a culture and aculture is a part of a language, the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannotseparate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture.” (p.165) Hence, with the inextricable relationship, we must know the one to understandthe other.

1.2 Idioms

1.2.1 Definition

Idioms are believed as a colorful and fascinating aspect of English and arecommonly used in all types of language, formal and informal, spoken or written.Although idioms are thought to be used in more informal situations, learners willbecome masters if they understand and use them confidently and correctly Inaddition, idioms often have a stronger meaning than non-idiomatic phrases.Following are some definitions of idioms collected from different sources:

In “Collins COBUILD Dictionary of Idioms” (2002), an idiom is defined as a kind

of special phrase whose meaning mostly differs from literal meaning of thecombined words “Idioms are typically metaphorical: they are effectively metaphorswhich have become „fixed‟ or „fossilized‟” (p.v)

“In some cases, it is fairly easy to see how the idiomatic meaning related to theliteral meaning Example: “kill two birds with one stone” means “achieve twothings at the same time”, and the image in metaphor supports this meaning In othercases, literal meanings may make no sense at all Example: “move heaven andearth” literally describes an action which is physically impossible In a few furthercases, the metaphors in the idioms are peculiar, so it is very difficult to see how orwhy idioms have come to have their current meanings” (2002:v)

Manser (1997) shares the same opinion that “Idioms are fairly fixed phrases thatconsist of more than one word, with a meaning that cannot be understood fromputting together the meanings of the individual words”

In “Chambers Dictionary of Idioms” (1996), the term “idiom” is not an easilydefined one – it can refer to many kinds of words and phrases In this dictionary, thetraditional definition of idiom is concerned that is “a group of words which has adifferent meaning from the sum of its parts” This means it is nearly impossible tomake a good guess at the meaning of an idiom when knowing the meaning of all thewords in the expressions Nonetheless, in some cases, it is possible to guess themeaning of an idiom because the image created is an obvious one, for instance, theidiom “Look like thunder” means look angry Otherwise, most of idioms aredifficult for people to understand such as the idiom “sit on the fence” which meansnot to make any clear choice or decision between two possibilities or opposinggroups of people Sharing the same viewpoint, Hornby (1995) states in his OxfordAdvanced Learner‟s Dictionary, an idiom is “a phrase or sentence whose meaning

is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as awhole unit”

As can be seen from given definitions, there are numerous ways of defining idioms

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” In addition, idioms have often been associated with not only conversation

and informal language but also in journalism and magazines – to make their articlesand stories more vivid, interesting, and appealing to their readers, and to get theiropinions across effectively

1.2.2 Types of idioms

It is commonly stated that there are varied forms of idioms, so the learners wouldfeel it really challenging to recognize which one is a real idiom Therefore, it isreally important to mention some types of idioms Chambers Dictionary of idioms(1996:v) points out 5 main types of idioms:

- Metaphorical expressions, e.g “Make someone‟s blood boil” means “to makesomeone extremely angry”

- Sayings, e.g “That‟s the way the cookie crumbles” – that‟s how things are andone must accept them (used when something unfortunate, unpleasant)

- Some phrasal verbs which have a fixed element, e.g “Live it up” – to enjoy oneself, especially in a lively and expensive manner

- Proverbs and variations on proverbs, e.g “A bird in the hand is worth two in thebush” - said when you recognize that you should not risk losing something you already have by trying to get something you think might be better

- Some foreign or Latin phrases which are commonly used in English, e.g “Faitaccompli” means something that has already happened or been done and cannot bechanged

Longman (1979) also indicates some types of idioms:

- Traditional idioms: traditional idioms are firstly related to full sentences in whichonly subjects need to be added to make full sentences For example, the idiom

“Spill the beans” in sentence “He spilt the bean” – He revealed a secret or a piece ofinformation Another example is “It never rains but it pours” which means whentroubles or unwelcome events happen they do not come singly but arrive in greatquantity Other types of idioms are not almost full sentences but rather function likeparticular parts of speech An idiomatic noun phrase, for example, will oftenfunction in a sentence in the same way a noun would, as a subject, direct object, or a

complement E.g He is the salt of the earth (He is a person having the best personal

qualities, the best character)

- Idioms in which actions stand for emotions or feelings The distinctions of cultureamong regions are specially reminded in this type of idiom It is important to note thatthese actions are not literal and that the meaning associated with a particular action inparticular culture The meaning of idioms in different communities may

not be associated with one another For instance, “I wash my hands of it” does notmean that the speaker really performs the action but means she/he refuses to acceptany responsibility for something or someone

- Pairs of words: a large number of idioms consist of pairs of words joined by “and”

or “or” Many belong to the first group and function as particular parts of speech

The noun phrase “cats and dogs” in “It is raining cats and dogs” (It is raining

heavily) functions as an adverb

- Idioms with “it”: many idiomatic verb phrases have the pronoun it as a fixed part

of the idiom The pronoun does not refer to the word coming before it as normally itdoes Considering the idiom “It stands to reason (that)” – It is quite clear

- Allusions: certain common phrases and a few single words have specialsignificance in English society E.g “Whitehall” means the government or the civil

service

- Sayings: these are usually complete sentences; e.g “A bird in the hand is worthtwo in the bush” (It is better to content with something one is sure to receive than tolose it by trying to get something better that one may perhaps not obtain)

- Typical conversation phrases: some fixed conversational phrases whose meaningsare not literal and which therefore may be difficult to understand; e.g so to speak,

now you‟re talking, how do you do, etc

- Similes: a large number of idioms, which compare a quality, condition, action, etc.with a noun; e.g as easy as a pie (very easy), as free as air (very free, with no limits)

1.2.3 Main features of idioms in English and Vietnamese

For a deeper understanding of idioms, some main features of this type of expressionare highly recommended Since the purpose of this study is to discover therelationship between EIWW and VIWW, the emphasis is laid on semantics andstructural features

1.2.3.1 Semantic features

Vinogradow (1977) once cleverly likened the meaning of an idiom to “the specialchemical mixture” of the meaning of all the components, which is, notably andcompletely new in quality This means that the meaning of an idiom can rarely bedrawn from its components Hence, we need to translate and interpret idioms

figuratively and metaphorically For instance, the idiom “The apple of someone‟seye” must be understood metaphorically as “a person who is most dear to the personspecified”.

However, some idioms whose literal meaning and figurative one is almost identical

so that readers can guess the meaning The idiom “As busy as a bee”, for example,one can guess its meaning without any difficulty

That is the same in Vietnamese with the examples of “Cá nằm trên thớt” (to takegreat risk), “Con ông cháu cha” (born into a wealthy family, born with a silverspoon in one's mouth) Obviously, one cannot interpret them literally but mustperceive them as separate semantic units which have figurative meanings, revealingthe reflection of things and concepts While most of idioms are difficult to guess themeaning from their words element, some idioms are possible for people tounderstand This can be illustrated with the idioms “Cứng nhƣ đá” (as hard as astone), “Đẹp nhƣ tranh” (as pretty as a picture)

Another feature related to semantics is that idioms can convey positive, neutral ornegative meanings Idiomatic phrases “On cloud nine” (very happy) and “A willinghorse” (a keen worker) are good examples for the idioms which have positivemeaning Some examples of idioms with negative meanings are “A fair-weatheredfriend” (a friend who stays beside you in good times, but forgets about you oncethings become difficult), “To shed crocodile tears” (to pretend, make believe thatone is weeping) Some idioms such as “In somebody‟s shoes” (in one‟s position),

“To watch the world go by” (to observe other while doing nothing oneself) areconsidered as idioms with neutral meanings Interestingly, some idioms can haveboth positive and negative meanings, such as “To take advantage of” It can mean

“to make use of an opportunity” (positive meaning), or “to exploit, to make use ofsomebody or something in an dishonest way” (negative meaning)

1.2.3.2 Structural features

It is obvious that idioms are fixed or set expressions that cannot be separated or added.For instance, the idiom “Safe and sound” makes no sense if it is changed into

“Sound and safe” In addition, an idiom cannot be transformed into passive form,especially when it is utilized in a full sentence Let‟s consider the idiom “Throwone‟s hand in” in the sentence “He threw his hand in that competition when herealized that he could not obtain enough points to win” (he gave up in acompetition); it would be unnatural to say “His hand was thrown in that competitionwhen he realized that he could not obtain enough points to win”.

Secondly, idioms can differ at length There are many idioms which just have one ortwo words, for example: “Lemon” (something defective) or “Fishy” (suspicious andstrange), “Horse around” (play around), “On ice” (to set aside for future use),…There are also idioms which are quite long, such as “Get up on the wrong side of thebed” (wake up in bad mood),

Thirdly, it is evident that idioms can take many forms as well as structures There are many ways to classify idioms based on function, origin, meaning, etc However, the way of classification based on function seems to be the most effective and usefulfor learners From this point of view, idioms are considered as noun phrase,

adjective phrase, adverbial phrase, prepositional phrase and interjection - Idioms as noun phrase:

A dead duck (a subject or idea that is no longer important, interesting or valued):

Although women in general earn more money than they used to, the question ofwomen‟s rights is not a dead duck

- Idioms as verb phrase:

Get wind of something (to hear a piece of information that someone else was trying

to keep secret): He got wind of my plan to travel north and asked if he could come

with me

- Idioms as adjective phrase

Safe and sound (safe and unharmed): All of his sons returned safe and sound from

the war

- Idioms as adverbial phrase

Night and day (all the time without stopping): I think of her night and day.

- Idioms as prepositional phrase

On cloud nine (extremely happy): I was on cloud nine after hearing that I passed the

exam

- Idioms as interjection:

Never say die! (never give up hope)

Well, I never! (used to express surprise or disbelief)

1.2.4 Idioms versus proverbs and slang

Recognizing the importance of idioms in daily life, one finds it necessary to have aclear distinction between idioms and proverbs and slang Actually, they have manythings in common that cause a lot of difficulties to users This subsection attempts tothrow some light on these issues that are deemed to be the spice of language

1.2.4.1 Idioms versus proverbs

It is necessary to spend some time distinguishing idioms from proverbs Althoughmany people believe the boundary between them is very small and unclear, it isindisputable that there should be some plausible and significant points which cansomehow tell them apart

As was mentioned above, an idiom is a group of words which, as a whole, has adifferent meaning from that of the individual items out of which it is composed.That is, the meaning of an idiomatic expression is not the sum total of its constituentparts taken together A good example is the English expression “Kick the bucket”

A person knowing only the meaning of the words “kick” and bucket” would beunable to deduce the real meaning of the whole expression, namely to die Although

it can refer literally to the act of striking a specific bucket, native speakers rarely usethis idiom that way Accordingly, an idiom is learnt and used as a single unit oflanguage It should not be analyzed into its constituent elements Idioms aresometimes referred as “fixed expressions” because in many cases users should notmake linguistic changes such as adding or dropping words, replacing a word withanother, or changing the order of words (Cowie and Makin, 1975)

A proverb (from Latin “proverbium”) is a simple and concrete saying popularlyknown and repeated which expresses a truth based on common sense or the practicalexperience of humanity In Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (2006), aproverb is “a short well-known phrase or sentence that gives advice or sayssomething that is generally true” For example, “Don‟t put all your eggs in onebasket”, “Waste not, want not” Vu Ngoc Phan (2000) particularly considers aproverb as “a complete saying expressing one idea of comment, experience,morality, justice or criticism” (p.39) Some Vietnamese proverbs are “Mật ngọt chếtruồi”, “Con có cha nhƣ nhà có nóc”, “Phép vua thua lệ làng”, etc.

The barrier between idioms and proverbs is sometimes ambiguous because theyhave many in common Firstly, idioms and proverbs conventionally employlanguage metaphorically That is the reason why it is arduous to discover their truemeanings just by looking up all the individual words in a dictionary Not onlyidioms but also proverbs are “set-expressions” whose meanings cannot be easilyinferred from their components but must be understood as a whole Generally, wecannot add, omit or replace any components of an idiom or a proverb because thatwill inevitably result in unwanted changes in the meaning of the whole group,making them lose their figurative meanings Moreover, idioms and proverbs areassociated to the results of human‟s thinking, cultures and experiences accumulatedfrom the processes of laborious working, discovering and learning Both of them areprimarily passed along from generation to generation

Besides the similarities, both idioms and proverbs have their own typical featuresthat distinguish one from the other Specifically, proverbs are short but completelypopular phrases or sentences which express a judgment, give useful advice or reveal

a moral or empirical truth about life They are widely evaluated to have three majorfunctions including educational function, perceptive function and finally, aestheticfunction For example, the proverb “Money makes the mare go” indicates the power

as well as the bad influence of money in the society from which people will thinkabout this issue and learn something Idioms, on the other hand, mainly have the

functions of naming, depicting things, properties or various phenomena In general,they do not pass judgments, offer advice or state the universal truth In other words,idioms rarely have perceptive and educational functions The idiom “As quick aslightning”, for instance, is used to describe someone or something that is very fastbut not pointing out any moral lesson Furthermore, we can differentiate proverbsfrom idioms by examining their grammatical structures While proverbs arecomplete phrases or sentences that can convey a whole idea (for instance, “Wherethere is a will, there is a way”), idioms are just phrases which serve as parts ofsentences (eg, “smell a rat”, “on ice”,…) Actually, idioms are commensurate towords only.

1.2.4.2 Idioms versus slang

Slang is defined in Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary as “very informal words, phrases, etc., commonly used in speech, especially between people from the same social group or who work together, not considered suitable for formal contexts and often not in use for long” Slang can appear as a brand new word, a new meaning for an existing word, an abbreviation for a word, or a word that

becomes more generalized than its former, narrow meaning

Although both idioms and slangs are almost fixed expressions, they differ from eachother in some aspects It can be inferred from the definition that slang is used byonly some specific communities whereas idioms are used more commonly In otherwords, slang terms are often known only within an in-group Despite not being usedwidely like idioms, not all slang terms are taboos The slang “awesome” (great andimpressive), “cool" and "hot” (very good, impressive, or good-looking) are slangwords used by variety of people from different social class

Another point is that slang is trendy or fashionable Considering the slangs “topehole” used before World War II, “wizard” in 1940s, 1970s “ace, comic” and in the1980s “brills, wicked” are the ones to indicate the beauty Different regions havedifferent slang words, hence the users must be really careful to avoid using tabooedslang For example, when mentioning to money, Vietnamese people often think

about “dollar” However, the slang “buck” and “grand” are acceptable andunderstandable in America with the same meaning.

Briefly, idioms, proverbs and slang have lots of similarities Consequently, the usersmust raise their awareness and attention to utilize these expressions correctly andproperly

1.2.5 Culture in idiom

As mentioned in the previous part, language is closely related to culture and can besaid as a part of culture From a dynamic view, language and culture interact andshape each other Kaplan (1966) also goes through this pattern by pointing outdifferent thoughts by different linguistic groups:

Kaplan’s Graphic representations of thoughts processes of linguistic groups (1966:21)

Through this graphic, it is interesting that English thinking and writing is direct(vertical line) while Oriental thoughts are marked by indirection (torturous line).Hence, it can be inferred that each region has its own specific features of culturesthat influence the way of living, thinking and behaving Language is the carrier ofculture, which in turn is the content of language Idioms as a special form oflanguage; therefore, carry a large amount of cultural information and are rich incultural connotation as they present the unique culture of language Consequently,people can extend their knowledge of culture through studying idioms and in turnget better understanding of idioms by investigating them through their culturalbackground

“day-to-day variation of climate and atmospheric conditions at any one place, or thestate of these conditions at a place at any one time Such conditions includehumidity, precipitation, temperature, cloud cover visibility and wind To ameteorologist, the term “weather” is limited to the state of the sky, precipitation andvisibility as affected by fog and mist” (1994:894)

Also, in “Oxford Advanced learners dictionary” (1995), the term weather isunderstood “the condition of the atmosphere at a particular place and time, such asthe temperature, and if there is wind, rain, sun, etc”

Because of its strong connection to people‟s lives, weather becomes one of theleading concerns and topic of daily conversations as well as included in idioms.People use weather idioms to express their ideas, emotions figuratively Theseidioms are not purely the description of true weather conditions but are put somemessages The words denoting weather such as wind, rain, sun, cold, hot, etc areincluded in these idiomatic expressions in various structures and with differentmeanings To get the best understanding of weather idioms, these idioms will beanalyzed from the syntactic and semantic view Then, under the light of culture, thethesis will examine the similarities and differences between EIWW and VIWW

In short, language and culture are closely related with one being part of another.Idioms – a part of language must reflect the culture of the people who speak thatlanguage In that connection, this chapter has reviewed the literature relating tolanguage, culture in general and idioms and its different types with the hope that itwill provide a theoretical background for what is being presented in the followingchapters

CHAPTER TWO: ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS CONTAINING

WORDS DENOTING WEATHER

On the basis of what has already been dealt with, this chapter will analyze thesyntactic and semantic features of EIWW and VIWW so as to shed light on thedistinction between EIWW and VIWW

2.1 Syntactic features of EIWW and VIWW

In his book named “A Grammar of Contemporary English”, Quirk (1973) mentionsthe term “New traditional grammar” This allows people to analyze structures intosuch phrases as noun phrase (NP), verb phrase (VP), prepositional phrase (PP),adjective phrase (AdjP) and so on The author will use this method to analyzeEnglish and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting weather However, withregards to syntactic analysis, there are also other degrees including sentencestructure Therefore, English and Vietnamese idioms in this study can be dividedinto two main parts including idioms having phrase structure and sentence structure.Since this thesis mainly focuses on investigating EIWW and VIWW from culturalpoint of view, the author will ignore too detailed analysis on structures of this kind

3 A fair-weather friend Chân mây cuối trời

́́

8 Bolt from the blue Lời nói gió bay

11 Eye of the hurricane Sóng to gió lớn (cả)

12 Seven sheets to the wind Tai bay vạ gió

2.1.1.2 IWW with verb phrase structure

2 Bring a storm about one‟s/someone‟s ăn gió nằm mưa

ears

5 Chill/freeze someone‟s blood Bắt gio chup ̣ bong

́́ ́́

6 Come rain or (come) shine/rain or shine Chọc trời khuấy (quấy) nước

2.1.1.3 IWW with adjective phrase structure

7 As right as rain Như (nắng) hạn gặp mưa rào

9 Cold enough to freeze the balls off Như ca găp ̣ nươc như rồn g găp ̣

́́ ́́

́̀ ́́́

2.1.1.4 IWW with prepositional phrase structure

prepositional phrase structure

10 With one‟s nose in the air

2.1.2 IWW with sentence structure

Besides phrase structures, EIWW and VIWW have some in sentence structurewhich may be simple or complex sentences

1 A red sky at night is the shepherd‟s Cây muốn lặng mà gió chẳng

2 Every cloud has a silver lining Mưa bão chết cò

24

4 It‟s an ill wind that blows nobody

Rồng găp ̣ mây(any) good

2.1.3 Comparison

Here is the statistical summary of syntactic features of EIWW and VIWW after

analyzing 160 English and 154 Vietnamese given idioms:

One more similarity between EIWW and VIWW is that both use a lot ofcomparison construction expressed by “as…as” or “like” in English and “nhƣ” inVietnamese Hence, there exists the linkage between weather issues and aspects ofhuman‟s life despite different regions and cultures For instance:

- white as driven snow - Trắng như tuyết

́́

́̃ ̃

With regard to phrasal forms, the number of EIWW as verb phrases is more than that in Vietnamese whereas VIWW as noun phrases are used more than those in English In addition, among samples, besides the difference in the use of

prepositional phrases, Vietnamese idioms differ from English idioms in applying parallelism Many words with the same grammatical category are repeated For example, the repetition of same part of speech in “Ăn sấm nói gió” in which “ăn” and “nói” are in the same grammatical category of verb, “sấm” and “gió” are in the same part of speech of noun Or in “Nắng trưa mưa tối”, the words “nắng” is parallel to “mưa” because they belong to the same semantic category of weather phenomena, “trưa” is parallel to “tối” because they belong to the same semantic category of time The symmetric structures in VIWW are diversified, for instance V+ N/V + N (Gội gió tắm mưa), N + N/N + N (Màn sương chiếu đất), V + Adj/V+Adj (Ăn đói mặc rét)

Moreover, the words in Vietnamese idiomatic expressions are separated to obtain the euphonic property and the parallelism in the structure of four -word term As in the case “Nắng giữmưa gin”̀ , the word “giữgin”̀ is separated into two parts then combined with two nouns to set up a four -word idiom Another case is “Nói bóngnói gió”, “bóng gió” are split into “bóng” and “gió” and the word “nói” is repeated All these usages of parallelism, repetition and word separation help Vietnameseidioms are easy to remember with rhythm

2.2 Semantic features of EIWW and VIWW

According to the theory of semantic fields which “contain words that belong to adefined area of meaning” (Jackson and Amvela, 2000:92), EIWW and VIWW can

be grouped into the following themes:

E.g It is raining cats and dogs outside.

́…

- A red sky at night is the shepherd‟s - Nắng nhƣ thiêu nhƣ đốt

- A red sky in the morning is the - Nóng chảy mỡ

́́

- Over the moon

E.g They’re going on holiday on

Wednesday so they’re all over the moon

(Oxford online dictionary)

2.2.4 Circumstances

- The calm/lull before the storm - Đau đẻ còn chờ trăng sáng

- Find which way the wind blew - Gió chiều nào che chiều ấy

́̀

- Know which way the wind blows - Mươṇ gióbẻmăng

- Make hay while the sun shines - Ngả theo chiều gió

- Not have enough - Nói bóng nói gió

sense/imagination/intelligence to come in - Tát nước theo mưa

from (or out of) the rain - Trời đánh không chết

- Sunshine one minute, rain the next

- Tempest in the teapot

- Throw caution to the winds

2.2.6 Bad fortunes and disadvantages

- Cloud on the horizon

- Feel the wind/draught

- It never rains but it pours

- Once in a blue moon

- Sunshine one minute, rain the next

- Ăn tuyết nằm sương

- Bán mặt cho đất bán lưng cho trời

- As quick as lightning - Ăn như gấu ăn (mặt) trăng

- Like greased (a steak of) lightning - Ăn vụng như chớp

- Like the wind - Lên như diều gặp/được gió

- In the teeth of the wind

No idioms express danger and - Đầu sóng ngọn gió

- Gần đất xa trơi

́̀

- Đeo heo hut gio

́̀ ́́ ́́

- Tai bay va ̣gió

- Tai trơi ach đất

́̀ ́

- Gió quét/táp mưa sa

2.2.11 Opportunities and advantages

No idioms express opportunities and - Cơm giơi nươc sông

́̀ ́́

- Mưa thuâṇ gióđều

- Như ca găp ̣ nươc như rồng găp ̣ mây

- Như diều găp ̣ gió

- Như nắng haṇ găp ̣ mưa rào

- Rồng găp ̣ mây

- Sóng yên bể lặng

- Thuâṇ buồm xuôi gió

- Xuôi chèo mát mái

2.2.12 Human actions

- Bleed dry

- Bring a storm about one‟s/someone‟s ears

- Cast a cloud over

- Chill/freeze someone‟s blood

- Find/see how/which way the wind is

blowing

- Give the cold shoulder

- Put the chill on

- Save (st) for rainy day

-Take a shine off/out of

- Weather the storm

- Ăn gió nằm mưa

- Bán mặt cho đất bán lưng cho trời

- Dãi gió dầm mưa

- Gối đất nằm sương

- Hai sương môṭ nắng/môṭnắng haisương

- Màn sương chiếu đất