English idioms containing the word “ hand ” with reference to the vietnamse equivalents

vi Chapter 4: SEMANTIC AND CULTURAL FETURES OF ENGLISH IDIOMS CONTAINING THE WORD HAND WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS……….….34 4.1 Semantic features of English idioms conta

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS ENGLISH IDIOMS CONTAINING THE WORD

“ HAND” WITH REFERENCE TO THE

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (Thành ngữ tiếng Anh chứa từ tay tương đương

trong tiếng Việt )

LE THI MINH TUYET

Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

ENGLISH IDIOMS CONTAINING THE WORD

“ HAND” WITH REFERENCE TO THE

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (Thành ngữ tiếng Anh chứa từ tay tương đương

trong tiếng Việt )

LE THI MINH TUYET

Field: English Language

Supervisor:Assoc Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh

Hanoi - 2/ 2020

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

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

entitled“English idioms containing the word hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents”submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2020

Le Thi Minh Tuyet

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Hoang Tuyet Minh

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis could not have been able to accomplish this task without the

assistance and support from a number of people

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Assoc Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported since the stage of a critical thinking for a research proposal Her stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me throughout the process of completing this graduation research thesis

A special word of thanks goes to all the lectures and staff at Faculty for Graduate Studies at Hanoi Open University and many others, whose support and encouragement provided me with a great energy for overcoming all challenges of doing this research

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my husband and sons, for their sacrifice to my academic career

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality iii

Acknowledgements iv

Table of contents v

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION……….… 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and Objectives 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Methods of the study 3

1.6 Significance of the study 3

1.7 Structural organization of the study 4

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Previous studies 5

2.1.1 Previous studies overseas 5

2.1.2 Previous studies in Vietnam 7

2.2 An overview of idioms 8

2.2.1 Definitions of idioms 8

2.2.2 Typical features of English idioms 12

2.2.3 Classifications of idioms 17

2.3 Culture and Language 21

2.3.1 Culture 21

2.3.2 Language 23

2.3.3 The relationship between culture and language 24

2.3.4 The Differences between British and Vietnamese Cultures 25

2.4 Summary 27

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY……….… 28

3.1 Research approach 28

3.2 Research questions 28

3.3 Research methods 29

3.4 Data collection 29

3.5 Data analysis 31

3.6 Summary 33

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Chapter 4: SEMANTIC AND CULTURAL FETURES OF ENGLISH IDIOMS

CONTAINING THE WORD HAND WITH REFERENCE TO THE

VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS……….….34

4.1 Semantic features of English idioms containing the word hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents 34

4.1.1 Experience 34

4.1.2 Old (not new) 35

4.1.3 Money 35

4.1.4 Power and responsibility 36

4.1.5 Cooperation and Help at work 37

4.1.6 Value 38

4.1.7 Disability 39

4.1.8 Actions and Behaviour 39

4.1.9 Authority and Power 40

4.1.10 Law and Order 40

4.1.11 Business and Work 41

4.1.12 Relationship 42

4.1.13 Efficiency and Competence 42

4.1.14 Ambition and determination 43

4.2 Cultural features of English idioms containing the word hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents 44

4.2.1 The images of actions in the English idioms containing the word hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents 44

4.2.2 The images of things in the English idioms containing the word hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents 45

4.2.3 The images of parts of body in the English idioms containing the word hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents 46

4.2.4 Other images in the English idioms containing the word hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents 47

4.3 Implication for translating and teaching idioms containing the word hand in English and their Vietnamese equivalents 48

4.4 Summary 52

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Chapter 5 CONCLUSIONS ……… ……53

5.1 Recapitulation 53

5.2 Concluding remarks 53

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for future research 54

REFERENCES 55

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Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Idioms have always attracted attention of linguists, although they were not given enough recognition in the past The new trends in English lexical studies, however, have thrown a completely different light on these multi-word units with more or less unpredictable meanings Being regarded as something inherently linked with a successful acquisition of a foreign language, idioms are of great importance in any language system With different levels of figurativeness they represent indispensable lexical elements that help any foreign language speaker sound more native and proficient It is obvious that different languages will have different idioms, both in structure and meaning Also, the repertoire of idioms will vary from one person to another, depending on their social or intelectual background

Idiomatic expressions can be frequently encountered in magazines, newspapers, movies or TV shows They are used in everyday speech and to a certain extent they form a part of the core values of the culture Mastery of idioms facilitates communication and promotes an innovative environment of social interaction Since idioms convey meaning quickly and enable language users express themselves more efficiently, they should be integrated into the teaching and learning process of foreign languages The ready-made production of these figurative expressions contributes to the fluency making it possible for the speaker

to be more concentrated on the message that needs to be delivered than on the formation of a sentence with a long literal explanation

Nowadays, English has been used as a foreign language in Vietnam and gradually becomes more and more important in various fields of life and society in regard to the global communication However, it is a fact that all learners who desire to master one language as native speakers usually face a lot of difficulties preventing them from gaining successful conversations One of the reasons for these problems lies in the way people perceive and use idioms

Why do idioms sometimes make learners unable to communicate effectively? Firstly, that is because an idiom is ‘a group of words whose meaning is different from the meaning of the individual words’

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Secondly, idioms are considered as special factors of the vocabulary system

of a language because they reflect culturally specific characteristics of each nation, including material and spiritual values

As a result, if learners wish to master one language, one of the most effective ways is that they must learn that language by idioms with not only linguistic but

also cultural features English idioms containing the word hand is not an unfamiliar

subject, but there seems to have no research relating to all the idioms containing the

word hand, in terms of cultural and semantic features That is why English idioms

containing the word hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents has been

chosen for this graduation thesis It is hoped that the results of this research will make a small contribution to the implication for teaching and learning these idioms

1.2 Aims and Objectives

This research is carried out to aim at helping Vietnamese learners of English master the cultural and semantic features of English idioms containing the word

hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, thus being able to propose some

implication for teaching these idioms to them more effectively

To achieve the aims mentioned above, some following specific objectives are put forward:

- Describing the semantic and cultural features of the English idioms containing the

word hand

- Making a comparison between the English idioms containing the word hand with

the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of semantic and cultural features

- Suggesting some possible implications for translating, teaching and learning these idioms to Vietnamese learners of English

- What are the similarities and differences of English idioms containing the word

hand with the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of semantic and cultural features?

- What are possible implications for teaching and learning English idioms

containing the word hand?

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1.4 Scope of the study

In the framework of this study, only English idioms containing the word

hand are focused on in terms of semantic and cultural features A comparison

between these idioms and their Vietnamese equivalent are also put under investigation to find out the similarities and differences between them The data are taken from English and Vietnamese bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, English and Vietnamese idioms, especially idiomatic dictionaries such as Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms, Oxford Idioms Dictionary for learners of English, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms and Internet resources There

are 247 English idioms containing the word hand collected with its 105 idioms containing the word tay equivalents in Vietnamese

In this study, English is considered as source language and Vietnamese as target language Therefore, the comparative analysis in this study is mono-directed The equivalents in this study is meant that the meaings of the idioms containing the

word hand in English with those of idioms containing the word tay in Vietnamese

1.5 Methods of the study

In order to gain the aims of the study, the following methods are employed: Descriptive methods are used to describe semantic and cultural features of

English idioms containing the word hand and their Vietnamese equivalents

Comparative and contrastive analysis methods are also applied in order to find out the similarities and differences between English idioms containing the

word hand and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of semantic and cultural

features

1.6 Significance of the study

Theoretically, the study provides a comprehensive understanding about the

cultural and semantic features of English idioms containing the word hand and their

Vietnamese equivalents It is a great significance for anyone who desires to study

more about English idioms in general and English idioms containing the word hand

and their Vietnamese equivalents in particular

Practically, the results of the study value for Vietnamese teachers and learners of English in the process of teaching and learning English as a foreign language effectively The lists of English idioms containing the word hand is useful for them understanding more not only the cultural and semantic features of English these idioms but also those of Vietnamese equivalents

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1.7 Structural organization of the study

This study is designed with 5 chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 - Introduction - presents a brief account of relevant information for

carrying out the research such as the rationale, the aims, the objectives, the scope, the significance and the structural organization of the thesis

Chapter 2 - Literature Review - gives the overview of the previous researches

related to the thesis topic and covers a review of theoretical background related to semantics, cultures, the English idioms as well as idioms distingushed from proverbs considered as theoretical framework of the study

Chapter 3 - Methodology - provides a full description of the research

approach, research methods, data collection and data analysis which will be applied

to conduct the thesis research

Chapter 4 - Semantic and cultural features of English idioms containing the word hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents - describes and analyses the cultural and semantic features of containing the word hand with reference to the

Vietnamese equivalents

Chapter 5 - Conclusion - summaries the major findings resulted from the

investigation and data analysis, presents the limitations of the study, provides some suggestions for further research and proposes some possible implications for

teaching and learning English idioms containing the word hand effectively

The References and Appendix come at the end of the study

2.1 Previous studies

Idioms, which are an important factor in nativelike discourse by English as well as foreign language speakers, have attracted the great attention of linguistics all over the world Hence, it is no surprise that a large number of studies on English idioms in terms of various fields of language such as cultures, semantics and teaching, etc … have been undertaken

2.1.1 Previous studies overseas

There is no doubt that a considerable number of books and dictionaries have brought learners with great benefits in which idioms are carefully collected and categorized into alphabetical arrangement Besides their meaning, some examples

of usages in English are also given to illustrate and the explanation helps readers understand the origin of this idiom

In England and Europe, lots of linguists started their study in English idioms since the very beginning of 20th century Many Western and American authors gave great contributions to the collection of English idioms such as W.Mc Mordie (1909)

with English Idioms and How to Use Them considered as the first to research carefully on the field of English idioms; V.H.Collin (1958) with A Book of English Idioms with Explanation and American English Idioms (1986)

Another study on Comprehension of Idioms was carried out by Cristina,

Cacciari and Patrizia Tabossi in 1988 The access of idiomatic expression was investigated in three, cross-modal priming experiments When the idiomatic string was predictable, subjects were faster at performing a lexical decision to idiomatically related targets than to literally related targets (Experiment one) When the string was not recognizable as idiomatic until its completions, then subjects were faster on the target literally related to the last word (Experiment two) Lexical

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decision for the same materials used in Experiment two, when target words were presented 300 messages after the end of idiom was heard, was faster both for targets related to the last word and for the idiomatic meaning of the string, relative to control targets (Experiment three) The experimental results showed that the idiomatic interpretation of a string easier than or as easy to access as its literal interpretation were largely due to the inadequacy of the experimental paradigms used

The research on Idioms for everyday uses conducted by Milada Broukal

(1994) consisted of different related topics such as colors, food, numbers, parts of the body, animals, etc It was presented in form of reading comprehension practice

to help learners collecting the meanings for convenient reference

Felicity O’Dell and Michael McCarthy (2010) conducted a study on English idioms in use, which consisted of six sections with practice exercises In section

one, key aspects of what idioms are and how to use them were dealt with In section two, the authors presented specific individual types of idioms In section three, the units were organized around the topic or functional area where they are most likely

to be used The section four focused on some of the written contexts where idioms are frequently found The ways in which idioms are typically used in spoken language were focused on in the next section The last section concentrated on one keyword which gave rise to a particularly large number of English idioms

Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms (1998) explains the meaning and use of around 7,000 idioms in a clear and helpful way It is a truly international dictionary as it covers British, American and Australian idioms Besides traditional idioms, it includes idiomatic compounds; similes and comparisons; exclamations and sayings; and clichés Every idiom is illustrated with examples based on sentences from the Cambridge International Corpus This means that all of the examples reflect natural written and spoken English Information about grammar is shown clearly, without complicated grammar codes The origins of idioms are also explained, where appropriate, to help understanding In addition, there are theme panels showing idioms grouped according to their meaning or function This dictionary is not only a comprehensive reference book but also a valuable learning aid Another reliable dictionary for idioms is Oxford Idioms Dictionary for learners

of English (2nd ed., 2006) which contains over 10,000 English idioms with examples of how to use them Both of two dictionaries supply exercises to assist

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learners in practice “The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms” by Christine Ammer also proved to be the most comprehensive collection of idiomatic expressions and phrases as it defines nearly 10,000 idioms currently used in American English McGraw-Hill’s Essential American Idioms Dictionary (3rd ed.)

is an authoritative dictionary that is a selection of the frequently encountered idiomatic expressions found in everyday American English The collection is small enough to serve as a useful study guide for learners, and large enough to serve as a reference for daily use because it contains 2,000 idioms phrase

2.1.2 Previous studies in Vietnam

Although the study in English idioms was started much later than in Europe and other countries, many Vietnamese linguists show their interests in this new, difficult subject In Vietnamese, there have been a number of writers making

investigations into idioms with different points of view and objectives such as Về khái niệm thành ngữ tiếng Việt by Nguyễn Thiện Giáp, (1975); Thành ngữ tiếng Việt by Lương Văn Đang, (1978); Ngữ nghĩa thành ngữ và tục ngữ, sự vận dụng by Nguyễn Đức Dân, (1986); Kể chuyện thành ngữ, tục ngữ by Hoàng Văn Hành, (1994); Bình diện cấu trúc hình thái ngữ nghĩa của thành ngữ tiếng Việt by Nguyễn Công Duệ, (1995) and Tuyển tập Thành ngữ, Tục ngữ, Ca dao Việt - Anh thông dụng by Nguyễn Đình Hùng, (2002), Việt Chương with Từ điển Thành ngữ, Tục ngữ, Ca dao Việt Nam (published in 1996); Nguyễn Lân with Từ điển Thành ngữ và Tục ngữ Việt Nam (published in 1997), Vĩnh Bá with Từ điển Thành ngữ Tiếng Việt

(published in 1999);

After that, it is the appearance of Từ điển thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam by Đặng Hồng Chương, 1575 Thành ngữ - Tục ngữ cần bàn thêm by Lê Gia … and a

number of contrastive studies on the various aspects of idioms have been carried out

in Danang University by Vietnamese researchers

They are Bùi Phụng with Dictionary of Vietnamese-English Idioms and Proverbs explained (published in 1995) and English-Vietnamese Idioms Sayings (published in 1995) Đoàn Minh - Nguyễn Thị Tuyết with English – Vietnamese Common Idioms (published in 1994); Trần Tất Thắng with Idioms for Everyday Use (published in 1995); Phạm Văn Bình with English Idioms and Proverbs (published

in 1996); Lã Thành with Dictionary of Current English – Vietnamese Idioms

(translation published in 1995)

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So, through the time, idioms have been studied widely In order to master the base and the criteria to define an idiom, we will come to the next unit However, there have been no studies dealing with the structural and semantic features of

English idioms containing the word hand This study is being implemented to find

out some similarities and differences of the cultural and semantic features of idioms

in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, thus proposing some possible applications for teaching idioms on English idioms containing the word

hand and the Vietnamese equivalents effectively

Despite the fact that idioms containing the word hand are an extremely

common part of the normal everyday language use, it is still a largely neglected

area in scholarly studies There have been no studies dealing with the semantic

and cultural features of English idioms containg the word hand with reference

to Vietnamese equivalents This study is being implemented to find out some similarities and differences of the semantic and cultural features of those idioms in both languages, thus proposing some possible applications for

learning and translating English idioms containing the word hand

2.2 An overview of idioms

2.2.1 Definitions of idioms

In today's competitive world, languages are a key part of our modern culture,

as they help us to expand our knowledge and interact with people from other parts

of the world Languages also help us learn from the traditions of other countries, establish friendships and do business A very important and attractive part of every language are the phraseological expressions which embrace different expressions However, in English language, people usually use the term idioms for these expressions which are constituted of different words but convey different meaning when used together However, when it comes to the terms used for idioms, they both have the terms “expresiones fraseologicas’, which in English would be mean phraseological expressions In Spanish, the word “idioma” means “language” but they still use it sometimes as idiomatic expressions In order to keep the coherence

of the paper, the word idiom will be used in the text below

Language would not be fully functional and equally important if it lacked figurative linguistic aspect In other words, the language would be poor in the lexical aspect if there were no idiomatic expressions, which develop communicative competence and reflect the culture of a nation

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English language is a global language, and undoubtedly is a rich language when it comes to idioms, but so are Spanish and Albanian It is interesting to compare these three languages in the aspect of idioms, because as languages, they are really different All of these three languages are European ones, however, English is Germanic language

Sometimes idioms can be considered fixed expressions used in a figurative way Of course, each language has idioms that native speakers learn spontaneously and use them easily However, when it comes to learning foreign languages, idioms are very hard to learn They include words which are clear but the combination of words figuratively represents something else, while the meaning may not have anything to do with it There are approximately around 25,000 idiomatic expressions in English and this makes it clear that for a non-native speakers it represents a tough battle to learn them all

However, even native speakers find it hard to remember them all if their meaning is complicated Teachers usually suggest that the only way to learn idioms

is learning them by heart Idioms are arbitrary, according to linguists, which mean that you cannot guess their meaning through the words they consist of Thyab defines idioms as “…fixed expressions that are typically used in a figurative sense…” According to her, the meaning of idiomatic expressions is usually made

by coincidence and chance Students are taught that there is no link between an idiom and its meaning and that idioms have to be learned by heart

In Europe, over the course of the last two decades, the phraseology has changed from underdeveloped subdiscipline of lexicology to a consolidated and full-fledged discipline, in search of its definitive maturity (Pastor and Morvay, 2000) This makes researchers and linguists more interested in these kinds of studies, which sometimes goes way back in history in order to get answers for the roots and origins of the expressions and idioms It is not small even the number of comparative studies of idioms between two or more languages, which attract learners of those languages in many ways

Idioms can be grouped in different ways and analyzed in different aspects but this paper focuses on comparing the meaning of a groups of idioms between three languages Very often used idioms are those with body parts, such as heart, hand, foot etc They have different meanings and some of them are very often used

in English “Idioms having parts of the human body as a referent are an illustration

deduce – AJHoge Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary gives the definitions of

“Idiom”: a group of words whose meaning is different from the meanings of the individual words (p.770) and “Saying”: A well-known phrase or statement that expresses something about life that most people believe is wise and true (p.1351)

According to Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture, an

idiom is “A fixed phrase that has its own special meaning and it is impossible to guess the meaning of separate words” The phrase “a firm hand” can be easily understood in the sentence “Those children need a firm hand to make them behave”

Or the other phrase “an iron fist/hand” in the sentences “The iron hand approach seems to work best with this age group” These phrases “a firm hand” and “an iron fist/hand” are called idioms

And 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 whose meaning can not be worked out from its separate parts Collins in

The English Language Dictionary (1990) provides another definition of idiom He

says & quot; Idiom is a group of words which when they are used together in a particular combination, has a different meaning from the one they would have if you look at the meaning of all the individual words in the group

As defined in Dictionary of English Idioms (1997), “An idiom is a fixed

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

words” According to Dean Curry in Illustrated American Idioms (1995), “An

idiom is the assigning of a new meaning to a group of words which already have their own meaning

In Idioms Organizer, “An idiom is an expression with the following features

It is fixed and is recognized by native speakers You can not make up your own And it uses language in a non-literal-metaphorical-way”

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As can be seen from the above definitions, there are different ways of defining an idiom However, most linguists share the same point that an idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning can not be worked out by looking at the meaning

of its individual words

Idioms in Vietnamese are known as “special” words combination or phrases

to express ornately the meaning of a concept Its structure is fixed and persistent

“Vietnamese idioms are fixed expressions in the form of single words or sentences but totally belong to the spectrum of words Most of them are encoded, containing

artistic stylization and are only part of an utterance.” (Từ Điển Thành Ngữ và Tục Ngữ Việt Nam)

According to Hung (2007), in Vietnamese, idioms are frequently used fixed expression; Grammatically, they do not have a complete sentence, which mean they only equal words or phrases Idioms do not show any comments, experiences, ethnical lesson or critics, so they often have figurative function, not educational function For example, in Vietnamese we say “mặt hoa da phấn” This idiom only brings us a picture of a beautiful and charming woman but not lesson about ethnics

or critics

Sharing the same point of view, Hoang Van Hanh (1994, p.21) considered an idiom is a fixed group of words which is firm in terms of structure, complete and figurative in terms of meaning, and is widely used in daily speaking

In Vietnam, an idiom is considered to be “A set expression whose meaning is generally un explicable simply through the meaning of individual words it contains”

(Hoàng Phê, Từ điển tiếng Việt, Nhà xuất bản Đà Nẵng 1997)

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” (Kể chuyện Thành ngữ, Tục ngữ tiếng Việt, Nhà xuất bản Khoa học xã hội, 1994) Let’s have a look at the example tay làm hàm nhai in the sentence Trước mặt Bính, cải cảnh đời tay làm hàm nhai dù vất vả lam lũ, lại sáng lên rực rỡ một cách khác thường (Bỉ vỏ-

Nguyên Hồng) (In front of Binh, improving lives from hand to mouth situation strenuous though hardy, brightly light up an unusual way)

In this study, an idiom is considered a fixed group of words which is firm in terms of structure, complete and figurative in terms of meaning, and is widely used in daily speaking

of a minimum of two words Cowie and Mackin (1975) define an idiom as “a combination of two or more words”, Makkai (1972: 122) states that an idiom is made up of “more than one minimal free form or word”, and concludes that only multiword expressions are acceptable as idioms However, Fernando (1996: 3) also notes that there are some scholars according to whom, single-word expressions can also qualify as idioms Thus, idioms can differ at length In other words, the number

of words in each idiom can vary from one to many For instance, one-word idiom like “fishy” (doubtful) or multi-word idiom like “when the cat’s away, the mice will play”

Secondly, institutionalization, on the other hand, refers to the fact that idioms are conventionalized expressions (Fernando 1996: 3) The expression must be well- established and conventionally fixed in order to qualify as an idiom

Institutionalization is one of Makkai’s (1972) and Fernando's (1996) salient criteria for identifying idioms

Thirdly, the particularity that makes idioms special is their uniqueness and fixation in their grammatical structure Mona Baker (1992) in her book titled “In other words” states that “idioms are frozen patterns of language which allow little or

no variation in form under normal circumstance” According to Fernando (1996: 30), idioms are “indivisible units” whose constituents do not usually allow much variation This characteristic is called by another term - “lexical integrity” or

“lexical fixity” - by Cowie and Mackin (1975: ix) They consider it as the most characterizing feature of idioms: more often than not an idiom cannot be altered in terms of its structural composition, i.e it should not be possible to break the unity of the expression by replacing the idiom’s components by some other components

In the other words, idioms are fixed or set expressions that cannot be separated or added Also, the components of an idiom cannot be varied, which means that idioms do not accept any replacement In addition, rearrangement of any constituents is unacceptable in idioms For instance, the idioms “here and there” and

“like chalk and cheese” has a variation of “as different as chalk and cheese” (very different); or “double or quits” can be varied to “double or nothing” It should be noted that the possibility of variation depends heavily on the idiom in question Some idioms cannot undergo even the simplest substitutions, deletions or other variations, whereas others may freely allow the possibility of some internal changes The point, in any case, is that the vast majority of idioms are invariable, for example, “on occasion” or “in general” Those idioms which can be modified, can only be modified within certain limits and they have only a limited range of possible variants Fernando (1996: 43) concludes that these constraints on word replacements and word order are an important difference between idioms and non-idiomatic expressions

According to Seidl and Mordie (1978), an idiom can have its own regular, irregular or even incorrect grammatical structure “to be at large” is an example of grammatical irregularity The idiom is formed by verb + preposition + adjective In English, no structure like this is normally accepted because an adjective doesn’t usually come after a preposition singly However, this can be considered as an exception in language

Moreover, tense changes within idioms can be possibly made in most of the idioms since they indicate the animation of the actions in different tenses on the person’s mind For example, “to get hitched” can be changed to past tense in the sentence “The girl and her boyfriend surprised everyone when they suddenly got hitched last weekend” However, an idiom cannot be transformed into passive form, especially when it is utilized in a full sentence Take the idiom “to stuff one’s face”

in the sentence “She is stuffing her face with chocolates.” (She is eating a lot of chocolates.) into consideration; it would be unnatural to say “Her face is stuffed with chocolates” But there are always some exceptions to the rule, for example, the expression “catch somebody in the act of doing something” (find somebody while they are doing something they should not be doing) can be written in the active

In short, in terms of structure, idioms are ready-made combinations of words Constituents in idioms are usually bound together They do not always follow normal grammar rules, even some have strange structure They can vary in length and be in the different form of phrases In this study, the structure of idioms is out

of the scope of the study

2.2.2.2 Semantic features

In terms of semantic peculiarities, Jackson and Amvela (2000:67) indicate that idiom has “ambiguity”, it means that idiom may have either a literal or an idiomatic meaning Another noticeable semantic feature of idiom is affirmed by Cruse (1986: 37-38): “Although idiom consists of more than one word, it displays

to some extent the sort of internal cohesion that we expect of single words”

In order words, idiom may be characterized as “A lexical complex, which is semantically simplex” And this semantic integrity of idiom leads to its lexical integrity It means that idiom has a number of structural and semantic features

It is obvious that English idioms are not only extraordinary in terms of their structures as claimed but also their semantic features The basic characteristic of idiomatic expressions is that the words are used metaphorically Therefore, the surface structure has a little role to play in understanding the meaning of the whole expression According to Johnson-Laird (1993), “Idioms are illogical and frustrating features of discourse since their meanings do not depend on the meaning

of their parts and the structural relations for those parts”

Vinogradov (1977) compares the meaning of an idiom with “the special chemical mixture” which is partially or completely new compared with the meaning

of all the components This means that the meaning of an idiom can rarely be drawn from its components and it is very important to understand idioms metaphorically

Learners of English cannot usually discover the meanings by looking up the individual words in a dictionary when studying idioms; Most of the idioms are metaphorical rather than literal For example, in order to understand the idiom “(to

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feel) like fish out of water”, we have to consider its meaning metaphorically as “to feel uncomfortable because of unfamiliar surroundings” Consequently, the first notice of English idioms is their semantic opacity or their figurative sense and non-literalness by another term Semantic opacity means that idioms are often non-literal Hence, the individual words which make up the idiom do not carry any meaning of their own There is usually very little, if any, connection between the literal meanings of the individual words and the idiomatic meaning of the whole phrase (Fernando 1996: 61) Makkai (1972: 118) states that the meaning of an idiom is not predictable from its component parts, because they are used in a figurative, non-literal sense Non-literalness is also in central place in Strässler’s (1982: 79) idea of an idiom According to Strässler, the meaning of an idiom cannot

be concluded by adding up the meanings of its constituents The meaning of an idiom is therefore hardly ever the sum of its individual parts

Semantic opacity seems rather crucial for idioms, seeing as the scholars quoted here are only some of the many who recognize semantic opacity or non-literalness as an essential feature of idioms However, some idioms whose literal meaning and figurative one is almost identical so that readers or listeners can guess the meaning

For example, the idiom “as bald as an egg” seems to make no difficulty for readers

or listeners to deduce its meaning

Semantic unity can perhaps be considered as the second most frequently mentioned feature of idioms Although idioms are nearly always multiword expressions, they sometimes function as single semantic units Cowie and Mackin (ibid.) therefore stress that idioms are “units of meaning” – a fact that distinguishes them from non-idiomatic expressions, which consist of distinct meaningful components

A large number of idioms in English, and probably all languages, have both a literal and an idiomatic meaning In consequence, another feature of idioms which

is mentioned rather often in theoretical literature is ambiguity or disinformation potential According to Weinreich (1969: 44), ambiguity is one of the most fundamental features of idioms: This ambiguity arises from the fact that the constituents of an idiom have literal equivalents in other contexts In addition, in Makkai’s (1972) definition of an idiom this ambiguity is in extremely central place Makkai claims that true idioms must carry disinformation potential (i.e be

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ambiguous), and this is one of his salient criteria for identifying idioms Makkai argues that idioms are often subject to “a possible lack of understanding despite familiarity with the meaning of the components” In Makkai’s view this

“disinformation” occurs when the composition of the idiom leads the individual to understand the expression in a logical but erroneous way “Go out with someone” (have a romantic or sexual relationship with someone) and “take someone for a ride” (deceive or cheat someone in some way) illustrate this point clearly because they often mislead readers and listeners with their literal meaning

Collocability is also mentioned in some idiom characterizations, though not

as frequently as the above-mentioned characteristics Collocability refers to the tendency of words to co-occur In fact, idioms have come to existence precisely because of this tendency Fernando (1996: 31) points out that collocability very often gives rise to idiomatic expressions, but obviously not all of these expressions become idioms According to Weinreich (1969, as cited by Fernando 1996: 7), the co-occurrence of words is a feature which is present in both collocations and idioms, but in an idiom this co-occurrence of words results in “a special semantic relationship”, which separates them from collocations

Another feature related to semantics is that idioms can convey positive, neutral or negative meaning Idiomatic phrases such as “float/walk on air” (be very happy) and “get a charge out of something” (get a strong feeling of excitement or pleasure from something) are good illustrations of the idioms which have positive meaning “Go/Walk down the aisle” (get married) and “name the day” (choose the date for a wedding) can be taken as examples of idioms with neutral meanings

“Tied to your wife’s apron strings” (too much under the influence of your wife) and “the brain drain” (the loss of qualified scientists, doctors, engineers, etc

to another country, especially one where they are paid more for their work) may be considered as examples of idioms which convey negative meanings Interestingly, some idioms can have both positive and negative meaning, such as “to take advantage of” It may mean “to make use of an opportunity” (positive meaning), or

“to exploit, to make use of somebody or something in a dishonest way” (negative meaning) In my opinion, whether idioms convey positive, neutral or negative meaning also depends on the culture For example, the idiom “a shotgun marriage” (a marriage which takes place because the woman is pregnant) may transmit a neutral meaning in Western countries but it seems to convey a negative meaning in

sometimes culture In this study, the semantic features of idioms will be taken

into account to find out the semantic features of idioms containg the word hand

in English and reference with the Vietnamese equivalents

2.2.3 Classifications of idioms

There is a variety of criteria according to which idioms can be classified

Kvetko (Frazeológia 21) points to many different aspects that need to be taken into

consideration in an attempt to carry out an overall classification He mentions the semantic and constructional point of view, fixedness and variability, function, stylistics and etymology However, the understanding of idioms by particular linguists varies and therefore different categorizations arise

With regard to the compositionality of idioms Glucksberg offers the following division:

 Non-compositional idioms – there are no relations between the idiom’s constituents and the idiom’s meaning cannot be discerned

 Partially compositional idioms – there are some relationships between an idiom’s constituents and its idiomatic meaning can be discerned and exploited

 Fully compositional idioms – the constituents correspond directly with their idiomatic referents

Cacciari, following the same criteria, distinguishes among:

 Normaly decomposable idioms that are analyzable and imply conventions whereby each of the idiom’s constituents can be used to refer to the idiomatic

referent, e.g (break the ice, pop the question)

 Abnormally decomposable idioms where we are able to identify this relation only

by virtue of conventional metaphors that govern the mapping from constituents to

idiomatic meanings, e.g (hit the ceiling, throw in the sponge)

 Nondecomposable idioms that represent the group of opaque idioms

Kavka, however, sees the concept of compositionality in a different light He considers free combinations as compositional, collocations as semi-compositional and idioms proper as non-compositional

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Based on the level of transparency, idioms can be classified according to the extent to which the meaning of an idiom can be derived from the meaning of its particular constituents Glucksberg refers to:

 Opaque idioms - where the relations between an idiom’s constituents and its meaning may be opaque, but the meanings of individual words can nevertheless constrain both interpretation and use

 Transparent idioms - where there are one-to-one semantic relations between the idiom’s constituents and components of the idiom’s meaning

Furthermore, Glucksberg introduces a quasi-metaphorical type of idiom, the meaning of which is conveyed through its allusional content These idioms refer to

an ideal exemplar of a concept providing at the same time a characterization of an event or situation as an instance of that concept

The notion of the continuum from opacity to transparency leads Cacciari to come up with the following division of idioms:

 Totally opaque idioms

 Retrospectively transparent idioms – they become transparent once the speaker either knows the meaning or is reminded of the episode or setting that originated the idiom

 Directly transparent idioms – the senses of the words lead the speaker to the idiomatic meaning of the string (e.g by means of the recreation of an analogical or metaphorical mapping)

 Figuratively transparent idioms – they are composed of other idioms, or parts that appear in other idioms or as metaphorical devices

Makkai identifies two major types of idioms: encoding and decoding Idioms

of encoding compel the speaker to conform to a particular conventionalized way of speaking while retaining a relatively transparent interpretation, whereas the meaning of idioms of decoding is not so predictable Idioms of decoding are classified as lexemic and sememic (Makkai) He defines lexemic idioms as “any polylexonic lexeme which is made up of more than one minimal free form or (morphological) word, each lexon of which can occur in other environments as the realization of a monolexonic lexeme”

According to Makkai, the lexemic idoms include:

 Phrasal verbs – the constituent structure of this type of idiom is always verb + adverb

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 Tournure idioms – consist at least of three lexemes, having a compulsory it in a

fixed position between the verb and the adverb (Makkai)

 Irreversible binominal idioms – defined as a formula consisting of parts A and B the order of which cannot be reversed (Makkai)

 Phrasal compound idioms

 Pseudo-idioms – all lexemic idioms one of whose constituents is a fossilized

term that does not make any sense on its own, such as spic and span (Makkai)

On the other hand, sememic idioms are considered to be of a higher and more abstract linguistic level They correlate with institutionalized culturally pragmatic meanings and their purpose is mainly to express culture-bound notions, such as politeness, understatement etc Makkai goes as far as to distinguish idioms

of institutionalized politeness, detachment or indirectness, idioms of greetings and proposals encoded as questions

Taking into account the notion of invariability, Fernando offers a classification of idiomatic expressions as follows:

 Pure idioms – conventionalized, literal multiword expressions, the

non-literal meaning is imposed on the idiom as a whole, e.g spill the beans

 Semi-literal idioms – include one or more literal constituents where at least

one has a non-literal subsense, e.g foot the bill

 Literal idioms – meet the essential criterion for idioms, which is invariabilty

or restricted variation, they are less semantically complex than pure and

semi-idioms, e.g on foot, on the contrary

In accordance with classification based on idiomatic classes, idioms can be divided into sentential and non-sentential (sayings and proverbs) The division can

go even further sorting the idioms into verbal and verbless idioms, the latter ones being mainly nominal, adjectival and adverbial idioms (Kvetko)

Cowie’s classification focuses not only on the syntactical and semantic features of phrasemes, but also on their pragmatic aspect, which indicates that the choice of an appropriate meaning of a lexical unit is reduced to one possibility only Thus, the ready-made expressions like greetings, conversational formulae, proverbs, clichés or sayings, despite being semantically and syntactically compositional, are considered to be non-compositional pragmatically, being restricted to particular social or cultural concepts In this respect, Cowie introduces pragmatic phrasemes

or pragmatemes as opposed to the semantic phrasemes whose components are

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selectionally constrained or restricted by linguistic convention He sets up three categories within semantic phrasemes that constitute:

 Full phrasemes, or idioms – e.g shoot the breeze, pull sb’s leg

 Semi-phrasemes, or collocations – e.g crack a joke, give an ultimatum, launch

an attack

 Quasi-phrasemes, or quasi-idioms – e.g give the breast to sb., start a family

As it probably became evident in the previous section, the scope of idiomaticity is quite extensive and the spectrum of different types of idioms is extremely versatile There exist many different ways of idiom classification among linguists who have based on different criteria such as motivation, function, origin,

meaning and kind, etc However, it is beyond the scope of this study, only

classifications of English idioms based on semantic features with literal meanings denoting things, actions, behaviours … in daily life will be underinvestigated in the next chapters

2.2.4 Differences between idioms and proverbs

Definitions of proverbs: It’s necessary to spend some time distinguishing

idioms from proverbs Although many people believe the boundary between them is very weak and unclear, it’s indisputable that there should be some plausible and significant points which can somehow tell them apart

What is a proverb? According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2006), a proverb is “a well-known phrase or sentence that gives advice or says something that is generally true” For example: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”, “Waste not, want not”,… Vu Ngoc Phan (2000), particularly considered a proverb as “a complete saying expressing one idea of comment, experience, morality, justice or criticism”.(p 39) Some Vietnamese proverbs are “Ngọt mật chết ruồi”, “con có cha như nhà có nóc”, “phép vua thua lệ làng”, “no nên bụt, đói

ra ma”,…

Similarities between idioms and proverbs: In no uncertain terms, we can find

some similarities between idioms and proverbs Firstly, idioms and proverbs conventionally employ language metaphorically That is the reason why it’s arduous to discover their true meanings just by looking up all the individual words

in a dictionary

Not only idioms but also proverbs are “set-expressions” whose meanings can not be easily inferred from their components but must be understood as a whole

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Generally, we can not add, omit or replace any components of an idiom or a proverb because that will inevitably result in unwanted changes in the meaning of the whole group, making them lose their figurative meanings

Moreover, idioms and proverbs are the “fruit” of human’s thinking, cultures and experiences accumulated from the processes of laborious working, discovering and learning Both of them are primarily passed along from generation to generation

Differences between idioms and proverbs: There are some points that can

help us distinguish idioms from proverbs Specifically, proverbs are short but popular phrases or sentences which express a judgement, give useful advice or reveal a moral or empirical truth about life They are widely evaluated to have three major functions: educational function, perceptive function and finally, aesthetic function Idioms, on the other hand, mainly have the functions of naming, depicting things, properties or various phenomena,…In general, they don’t pass judgements, offer advice or state the universal truth Another way to say, idioms rarely have perceptive and educational functions In addition, we can differentiate proverbs from idioms by examining their grammatical structures While proverbs are complete phrases or sentences that can convey a whole idea (for instant, “Where there is a will, there is a way”), idioms are just phrases which serve as parts of sentences (eg, “smell a rat”, “on ice”,…) Actually, idioms are commensurate to words only

In a nutshell, although proverbs and idioms have a lot of things in common, they can be distinguished from each other when it comes to functions and structures In this study, only idioms are under-investigated

2.3 Culture and Language

2.3.1 Culture

What’s culture? The question is seemingly simple, yet it’s not easy to offer a detailed and pleasing answer “Culture” derives from the Latin word “colere”, which means to build on, to foster, promote and cultivate There are lots of ways to define culture given by different scholars with dissimilar viewpoints As Edward Tylor, a famous British anthropologist, noted in his book “Primitive Culture” (1871), 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” (p 1) Geertz (1973) claimed that culture “denotes an

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historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward

life.” (p 89)

To make it laconic and easier to understand, culture can be seen as “a set of widely accepted behaviour patterns, fundamental assumptions and values as well as common experience” It is said to profoundly shape or strongly influence social structures, communication styles and even stipulate behaviour or etiquette of all people in a particular society Actually, it is culture that has an enormous influence

on the way we act and respond, the way we produce, send and normally interpret different kinds of information Li (2005, p 23) noted that according to many cultural experts, culture has these four basic and noteworthy attributes:

Firstly, culture is not a kind of biological and natural inheritage but is learnt

or inherited socially and gradually Hudson (1980, p.74) concurred with this point, saying that culture should be taken as “socially acquired knowledge”

Secondly, culture does not ever belong to any individuals in particular Absolutely, it’s shared by all members of a community

In addition, as buttressed by Geertz (1973, p 89), culture is “a symbolic meaning system” In that special system, language is one of the most crucial parts which can be likened as a key factor, playing the role of an essential medium to transmit much of culture

Last but not least, culture is a “unified system”, which means that the integral parts of it are closely related and linked to one another

To sum up, anthropologically, culture is the pattern, the norms of behavior, thinking and interpreting that all members in a social group frame, then learn and share It is “what binds men together… the ideas and the standards they have in common” (Benedict, 1934, p 16) More specifically, a group of people’s culture may consist of many things, such as their beliefs, language, rules of demeanor or actions, art, dressing ways, ways of producing goods, methods of cooking food, religion and even economic systems,… Beyond doubt, culture is a remarkably special attribute of human society It’s one significant factor that helps to sharply distinguish one human group from the others as well as clearly differentiate human beings from other animals

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2.3.2 Language

In no uncertain terms, humans are not unique in the capability to communicate with one another In point of fact, many kinds of animals and even some plant species can do that However, it’s human language that is apparently unique in being a symbolic communication system which is learnt instead of being biologically and naturally inherited One of the most concise ways to define language it is that “language is a human system of communication that uses arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols” (Nordquist, n.d.) In “General linguistics”, Robins (1989) almost concurred, saying “A language [is a] symbol system … based on pure or arbitrary convention … infinitely extendable and modifiable according to the changing needs and conditions of the

speakers”

Language is widely known as a “communication tool”, helping people to express opinions, thoughts as well as communicate information Li (2005, p 24) noted that language carries out these three crucial functions:

i) Language is the primary vehicle of communication;

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

iii) Language makes possible the growth and transmission of culture, the continuity of societies, and the effective functioning and control of social group

When it comes to characteristics, it is unanimously concluded that language

is a means of communication and self-expression (communicate people’s ideas, feelings and various traces or surges of emotions) In addition, language is irrefutably arbitrary It’s nearly out of the question to find out the reasons “why this word represents that object” Language is also said to be non-instinctive; conventional, symbolic, systematic and vocal Moreover, as a means of fostering, stimulating and developing culture as well as establish and reinforcing human relations, language is clearly a form of social behavior which must be utilized in a society or it would surely die Last but not least, it’s plausible to confirm that human language is generally open-ended, extendable, modifiable and especially, structurally complex, which is such a thing not to be found in any animal communication system (“Language,” n d.)

In a nutshell, being definitely extendible and sophisticated, language is, no quibble, a great present to humankind, a very distinctly crucial factor that

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distinguishes humans from other creatures and species It is language that helps us

to form ideas, emotions and feelings, to store or communicate, express them to others It’s also an eternal source of inspiration and ecstasy for various artists It’s, shortly, a faculty of speech that all humans living on the Earth wonderfully have in common

2.3.3 The relationship between culture and language

Language and culture are cogently recapped to have an inextricable and dialectical relationship Brown (1994) proposed that “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 state it another way, culture and language, at all times, go hand in hand with each other Language can be regarded as an essential and vital part of culture,

as Li (2005) emphasized “without language, culture would not be possible” ( p 25)

It is the indispensable vehicle for transmitting a large amount of culture On the other hand, culture, as the whole of human’s ways of living as well as a set of values, demeanors and patterns of perception, has become extremely crucial to language, having a great impact on the formation and development of language Learning a language, whether it is a first, second or foreign one, usually appears to

be an onerous task that entails the learning of a new culture Language acquiring and culture learning always occur concurrently There are hardly any altercations about that

In short, culture has a significantly strong influence on language which on its part, faithfully acts as a mirror reflecting most of culture They are closely and naturally interwoven Because of that, if two countries have different cultures, there will be a plenty of dissimilarities in the languages, indisputably and engrossingly This, for instant, happens when English and Vietnamese are taken into account However, it should be kept in mind that in reality, no culture is completely isolated and separately unique People of various cultures can sometimes share the same ways of thinking and viewing in some matters “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”

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( Li, 2005, p 26) Universal concepts and similar points among cultures certainly reflect in languages That is to say, between two different languages, English and Vietnamese for example, we can find some concepts or cases that are coincidentally similar or even the same

2.3.4 The Differences between British and Vietnamese Cultures

There are, in no uncertain terms, lots of differences between British and Vietnamese cultures When it comes to culture, it’s of paramount importance to make reference to nature Definitely, geographical features as well as climatic conditions play a crucial role in the formation and development of culture, including its form of economy, customs, values and even political institutions Below are some major points that should be kept in mind when contrasting the cultural features between the two countries Situated in Northwestern 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 Among many cultural regions, the English culture is considered to be archetypal and often used to refer to the culture of the whole country As an island country, surrounded by sea, Britain generally has varied, temperate climate It’s hard to know exactly what the weather will be like from one day to another In Britain, much of the land is utilized for human habitation Actually, there are not remarkably high mountains or forests The navigable rivers, although quite short and not very large, have served a significant role in the transport system

Vietnam, on the other hand, located in the South East of the Asian continent It’s the largest and also most populous of the three Indochinese countries 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 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

Vietnam is a multi-ethnic country with about fifty-four distinct groups A majority of its population still live in rural areas and small villages In Britain, conversely, over 90% of the population now dwells in towns or cities

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When comparing the two cultures, the most prominent thing to point out is that the culture of Vietnam is primarily based on wet rice production In Vietnam, agriculture has always been of great 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 Vietnamese people usually raise and breed buffaloes, pigs, poultry, In fact, agriculture is intimately linked with aquaculture

On the other hand, British people used to follow nomadic culture Unlike the Vietnamese, the British developed and invested in farming agriculture and industry very early 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, eggs, …are some principle agricultural products in Britain When it comes to husbandry, people often mention cows, cattle, sheep, poultry, horses,…

It’s also necessary to take a cursory glance over the food and drink culture For Vietnamese people, rice is regarded as the basic of the meals People use tea as the traditional drink On the other hand, in Britain, cereal and meat are staple in their meals British people use knives and forks instead of chopsticks (as Vietnamese do) and generally drink lots of coffee

To other Europeans, the 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 although on the whole, their habits of politeness are very informal English people are also perceived as being “reserved” They often keep certain distance to people they don’t know, do not talk much about themselves and do not have the habit of showing freely strong emotions The major and common religion in Britain is Christianity

Taking about Vietnamese, the Oriental cultures and values are notably different from those of the West Vietnam has an age-old and wonderfully heroic history Through the history of thousands of years, to protect their country as well

as gain their independence and freedom, Vietnamese people courageously and unyieldingly fought against lots of fierce enemies Because of the profound influence of Confucianism, proper form and appearance are very crucial to Vietnamese With its code of ethics and morals, Confucianism puts an emphasis on the society hierarchy and accentuates the worship of ancestors As a matter of fact, Oriental culture, including that of Vietnam, has dignified Yin-Yang philosophy,

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which highlights the perfect harmony between people with people as well as people with nature In Vietnam, Buddhism is the dominant religion besides some other ones Generally speaking, 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 essence, such as philosophy, poetry and meditation.” (p 411)

To sum up, it’s undeniable that the two countries, Vietnam and Great Britain,

in general, do not share the same culture The dissimilarities are especially conspicuous when it comes to lifestyle and living condition As we have discussed above, culture has a significantly strong influence on language and language, certainly, acts as a mirror reflecting most of the culture Because of the lucid differences between the two cultures, it’s indisputable that there will be lots of interesting dissimilarities when we fathom and study the language units of English and Vietnamese, especially idioms

2.4 Summary

In conclusion, the fact that there is a large number of idioms in all languages makes them not only an important part of our everyday language use, but also an interesting area of study Scholars have attempted to approach idioms from different viewpoints, hence various definitions and different characterizations exist This chapter provides some basic definitions of an idiom which are relatively straightforward Generally, an idiom is defined as a fixed expression whose meaning can be very different from the literal meaning of its constituents Furthermore, idioms should be treated as a special kind of every language because they separate themselves from regular rules compared with other sorts of a language

In other words, only in idioms the unacceptability in both meaning and form of a language could exist Therefore, some idea of how scholars have typically characterized idioms in terms of semantics are introduced in this chapter in an attempt to capture their fundamental nature After all, there are nearly always exceptions to the rule The chapter also classifies idioms based on the semtantic criteria Moreover, the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese cultural features are clarified, leading to a further study into English idioms containg

the word hand as well as Vietnamese ones in the following chapters

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Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research approach

The thesis is conducted by combining the two research approaches of quantitative and qualitative, which are carried out with following orientations Firstly, the thesis is started with data collection by using a various sources of printed publications as dictionaries or from Internet After finishing the collection of data, they are qualitatively described, analyzed and illustrated by corpora in terms

of the semantic and cultural features The data collected from the reliable sources then are quantitatively computed and compared with Vietnamese equivalents under

a process of statistical analysis to find the answers to the research questions And finally certain conclusions and implications for teaching and learning English

idioms containing the words hand in an effective way are withdrawn

3.2 Research questions

- What are the sematic and cultural features of English idioms containing the word

hand?

- What are the similarities and differences of English idioms containing the word

hand with the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of semantic and cultural features?

- What are possible implications for translating, teaching and learning English

idioms containing the word hand?

In order to answer the research questions, the following subquestions are set

up as follows:

- What are the semantic features of English idioms containg the word hand?

- What are the cultural features of English idioms containg the word hand?

- What are the similarities and differences of English idioms containing the word

hand with the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of semantic features?

- What are the similarities and differences of English idioms containing the word

hand with the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of cultural features?

- What are suggestions for translating, teaching and learning English idioms

containing the word hand?

3.3 Research methods

This study is designed to investigate the English idioms containing the words

hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, so the descriptive and

comparative methods have been chosen as major ones

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Firstly, the descriptive method is utilized in order to give a full account of the

semantic and cultural features of English idioms containing the word hand

Secondly, the comparative method is applied to identify the similarities and differences in their semantic and cultural features of English idioms containing the

word hand with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents A comparative analysis of

idioms is based on a confrontation of a source and a target language with the aim of finding parallel lexical items According to Kvetko, idioms of two different languages can be approached either from the systematic linguistic point of view (contrastive approach) or from the point of view of translating idioms in literary texts (translation approach)

In the contrastive approach idioms of L1 are compared with idioms of L2, the focus being placed on the mutual equivalence and language interference Differences may occur in the form, content, meaning and usage of individiual words and expressions An idiom either has its idiomatic counterpart in the target language

or an idiomatic equivalent is not available because it either does not exist or the reality described by the idiom is not known in the target language Such an idiom can be then substituted by a non-idiomatic counterpart, periphrasis or calque

Some others as analytical, synthetic have also been used as supporting methods As a matter of fact, to investigate in details the structures of English idioms

containing the word hand with their semantic and cultural features with various

nuances of meanings, analytical method is also employed, and then the synthetic method is used for grouping them on the basis of certain criteria according to semantic and cultural features Moreover, quite a few of research techniques have been combined, such as statistics, componential analysis, and contrastive analysis

In conducting the investigation, last but not least, setting up a regular consultancy with supervisor for a guidance and academic exchange is a critical technique to find out a right direction for accomplishing the research successfully

3.4 Data collection

The selective material related to English and Vietnamese idioms plays a crucial role in terms of supplement data for the study The English idioms containg

the word hand for the research have been collected from the most trusted

dictionaries in which idioms are carefully collected and categorized into

alphabetical arrangement Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms (1998), The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms (2003), Oxford Dictionary of Idioms

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(2nd ed., 2004) and Oxford Idioms Dictionary for learners of English (2nd ed., 2006) have been chosen since not only the interpretation of meanings but also a number of examples to illustrate could be provided to help readers understand the origin of

English idioms Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms (1998) explains the

meaning and use of around 7,000 idioms in a clear and helpful way It is a truly international dictionary as it covers British, American and Australian idioms The origins of idioms are also explained, where appropriate, to help understanding their literal and figurative meanings In addition, there are theme panels showing idioms grouped according to their meaning or function Another reliable dictionary for

idioms is Oxford Idioms Dictionary for learners of English (2nd ed., 2006) which contains over 10,000 English idioms with examples of how to use them Both of

these two dictionaries supply exercises to assist learners in practice The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms (2003) by Christine Ammer also proved to be the

most comprehensive collection of idiomatic expressions and phrases as it defines

nearly 10,000 idioms currently used in American English Oxford Dictionary of Idioms (2nd ed., 2004) provides a rounded picture of idiomatic usage by offering a combination of definition, explanatory note and illustrative quotation which are taken from a variety of sources: From novels to travel guides, broadsheet,

newspapers to teenage magazines The Vietnamese idioms are selected from Thành ngữ Tiếng Việt (1978), Từ điển Giải thích Thành ngữ Gốc Hán (1994), Từ điển thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam (1993) and Tuyển tập Thành ngữ Tục ngữ Ca dao Việt-Anh thông dụng (2009) and from internet sources such as http://vi.wikiquote.org and

http://tudienthanhngu.com

In collecting the idioms, a large number of English idioms containing the

word hand in general have been sorted out, as well as those one denoting the words hand in particular, especially which might cause the Vietnamese learners of English

to be easily confused when acquiring them However, it is due to the framework of

the thesis, only English idioms containing the word hand expressing a strong

feeling and a deep affection among members of the opposite sex have been selected for investigation These idioms are categorized into groups according to their and semantic and cultural features, which also are considered as the essential criteria for the data collection

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Regarding dictionary checking techniques, the key word hand is used to look for the appropriate meanings of certain English idioms containing the word hand

with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents

To categorize the data with determined criteria, some data mining techniques like clustering technique and classification technique are used The clustering technique is applied to define the semantic classes and put idioms in each category of similar features; while with the classifying technique, idioms are assigned into predefined classes of semantic and cultural factors Apart from that, others minor techniques are employed as reading comprehension, meaning analyszing and note-taking for selecting desired material of various English idioms containing the word

hand And no data categorizations could be achieved without applying word

processing techniques in a skillful way

Thanks to those data collection techniques, 239 English idioms containing

the word hand and 105 Vietnamese ones have been sellected, as well as a collection

of examples extracted from dictionaries and literature woks have been gathered, which has made a significant contribution to the fulfillment of this graduation thesis

3.5 Data analysis

After the stage of the data collection, all English idioms containing the word

hand are qualitatively described, analyzed in terms of the semantic and cultural

features to create a rather diversified description of groups of English idioms Thus, the data profiling technique is used in this process to track the frequency, distribution and characteristics of the values that populate the columns of a data set; This technique is also used to present the statistical results for review and drill-down analysis

Regarding to the selective English idioms containing the word hand which

are carefully sorted out together with illustrated examples of the above-mentioned features, tabulation technique is employed to point out the similarities and

dissimilarities between English idioms containing the word hand and Vietnamese

ones

Checklists and statistical techniques are utilized to quantitatively show the

frequency and distribution of English idioms containing the word hand to each

cultural factors or semantic fields with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents Double tabulation or two-way tabulation technique is applied because the data are classified according to two characteristics – semantic and cultural features - at a time