Idioms containing the words denoting weather in english and their vietnamese equivalents

v ABSTRACT This thesis conducts a study of syntactic, semantic and stylistic features of idioms containing the words denoting weather with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents.. Fr

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

IDIOMS CONTAINING THE WORDS DENOTING WEATHER IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (Thành ngữ chứa từ chỉ thời tiết trong tiếng Anh

và tương đương trong tiếng Việt)

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

IDIOMS CONTAINING THE WORDS

DENOTING WEATHER IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (Thành ngữ chứa từ chỉ thời tiết trong tiếng Anh

và tương đương trong tiếng Việt)

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

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

“Idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and their 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

Vũ Thị Dung

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Hoang Tuyet Minh

Date:………

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from

my supervisor, teachers and closest relatives

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Assoc Prof Hoang Tuyet Minh, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher Many thanks go to my colleagues and many others whose support and encouragement help me to have this thesis accomplished

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for their patience, endless love, and devotion Whatever choices I have made, they have always stood

by me and believed in me I am immensely thankful for all the assistance they have given me

It is the support of all of the above that has enabled the completion of this study, and for this I remain eternally grateful

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ABSTRACT

This thesis conducts a study of syntactic, semantic and stylistic features of idioms containing the words denoting weather with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents Both descriptive and contrastive methods are used combined with the qualitative and quantitative approach In order to collect the data, a hand search approach of the dictionaries in both languages has been conducted, which helps to establish a corpus of 160 idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and 135 idioms in Vietnamese together with a numerous number of examples taken from various linguistics books, dictionaries, newspapers and from the Internet From the study’s results, the thesis gives a remarkably detailed description of semantic and syntactic features in English idioms containing the words denoting weather with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents and points out some similarities and differences between them The findings also aim at offering some practical implications for teaching and learning English and Vietnamese as a foreign language Finally, some suggestions for further studies are put forward

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Adj : Adjective Adj.P : Adjective phrase Adv : Adverb

Adv.P : Adverbial Phrase

NP : Noun Phrase

PP : Prepositional Phrase

VP : Verb phrase

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 4.1 Syntactic features of idioms containing the words denoting weather in English………32 Table 4.2 Syntactic features of idioms containing the words denoting weather in Vietnamese 34 Table 4.3: Frequency of semantic fields of English idioms containing the words denoting weather 38 Table 4.4: Frequency of semantic fields of Vietnamese idioms containing the words denoting weather 42 Table 4.5: Frequency of stylistic devices of English idioms containing the words denoting weather 45 Table 4.6: Frequency of stylistic devices of idioms containing the words denoting weather in Vietnamese 46 Table 4.7: A summary of idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic features 47 Table 4.8: A summary of idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of semantic features 50 Table 4.9: Frequency of stylistic devices of English and Vietnamese idioms containing the words denoting weather 53

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv

ABSTRACT v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS i

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Methods of the study 3

1.5 Scope of the study 3

1.6 Significance of the study 3

1.7 Structure of the study 4

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Review of previous study 5

2.1.1 Previous research works on idioms in English 5

2.1.2 Previous research works on idioms in Vietnamese 6

2.2 Overview of Idioms 9

2.2.1 Definition 9

2.2.2 Typical features of idioms 12

2.2.3 Idioms and other language units 16

2.2.4 Overview of phrases 17

2.2.5 Connotation, denotation, and some types of stylistic devices 20

2.2.6 Weather definition 23

2.2.7 Summary ……….24

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 25

3.1 Research approach 25

3.2 Methods of the study 25

3.3 Data collection and data analysis 27

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3.3.1 Data collection 27

3.2.2 Data analysis 28

3.3 Summary 29

Chapter 4: IDIOMS CONTAINING THE WORDS DENOTING WEATHER 31

IN ENGLISH AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 31

4.1 Syntactic features of idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and in Vietnamese 31

4.1.1 Syntactic features of idioms containing the words denoting weather in English 31

4.1.2 Syntactic features of idioms containing the words denoting weather in Vietnamese 33

4.2 Semantic features of idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and in Vietnamese 35

4.2.1 Semantic features of idioms containing the words denoting weather in English 35

4.2.2 Semantic features of idioms containing the words denoting weather in Vietnamese 39

4.3 Stylistic devices of idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and Vietnamese 43

4.3.1 Stylistic devices of idioms containing the words denoting weather in English.43 4.3.2 Stylistic devices of idioms containing the words denoting weather in Vietnamese 45

4.4 Comparison between English idioms containing the words denoting weather and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic, semantic and stylistic features 47

4.4.1 In terms of their syntactic features 47

4.4.2 In terms of their semantic features 49

4.4.3 In terms of their stylistic devices 53

4.5 Some implications for teaching and learning idioms containing the words denoting weather in English 54

4.6 Summary 56

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 57

5.1 Recapitulation 57

5.2 Concluding remarks 58

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5.3 Limitation of the research 59 5.4 Suggestions for further research 59 REFERENCES 60

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Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Vietnam is on the path of development and integration not only with the countries in the region but also with countries around the world Therefore, learning and using English in communication becomes very important and necessary All English learners in general and Vietnames learners in particular desire to master English as native speakers However, people often face to a lot of difficulties that prevent them from gaining successful conversations One of the reasons of these problems is that they meet difficulty in understanding and using idioms in communication

Each nation’s language lies in itself similar and different concepts on many fields such as customs and traditions, ways of thinking, religious beliefs, behavior standards, social conventions, act Words and expressions including idioms have formed the vocabulary system of a language and make specific characteristics of each nation both material and spiritual values Hence, investigating the idioms in both English and Vietnamese always attracts many authors with many different studies

Theoretically, it is clear that studying idioms is not new; nonetheless, it has never been old There have been a number of studies on different kinds of English and Vietnamese idioms The descriptions and analyses are based on the starting point from Chomsky The other descriptions of syntactic and semantic views are through different ages in the history of linguistics as William Bullokar in “Brief Grammar for English” (1785).The description makes further progress to the view of W.C Fowler in “English Grammar” (1857), then H Sweet in “New English Grammar” (1891)

In Vietnamese, idioms have been recognized, collected and explained

systematically It should be noticed the works of Đỗ Hữu Châu, who wrote “Từ

vựng - Ngữ nghĩa tiếng Việt” (NXB Giáo dục, 1981) In this book, the author

analyzed Vietnamese idioms and showed their semantic and syntactic features

Nguyễn Lân collected a number of Vietnamese idioms in “Từ điển thành ngữ, tục

ngữ Việt Nam” (NXBVăn học, 2005) Nguyễn Nhã Bản was best known with “Đặc trưng cấu trúc ngữ nghĩa của thành ngữ, tục ngữ trong ca dao” (NXB Văn hóa

thông tin, 2005)

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Practically, many researchers have analyzed the semantic and syntactic features of idioms denoting some topics such as fruits, colors, animals, human feelings, money, clothing etc However, the semantic, syntactic and stylistic features

of idioms containing the words denoting weather have not been investigated so far There is a need to study some syntactic, semantic and stylistic features of idioms containing these words denoting weather in English and Vietnamese in the hope that the result of this study can help Vietnamese learners of English improve their understanding of idioms and apply idioms in communication so that their speech is more adequate, natural, interesting and imaginative Moreover, the investigation hopes to provide learners with background knowledge about cultural aspects related

to the idioms they are approaching Moreover, in range of Open University, there is

no study of idioms related to the words denoting weather Thus, the topic “Idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and their Vietnamese equivalents” is chosen for my study Hopefully, the result of the study will be

useful for learners of English and contribute a small part into the teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study is expected to help learners of English master idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic, semantic and stylistic features effectively

The paper is aimed at achieving the following objectives:

- To identify syntactic, semantic and stylistic features of English idioms containing the words denoting weather

- To find out the similarities and differences between idioms containing words denoting weather in English and their Vietnamese equivalentsin terms of their syntactic, semantic and stylistic features

-To suggest some implications for teaching and learning English idioms containing words denoting weather

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words denoting weather?

1.4 Methods of the study

The methods selected to analyze the syntactic, semantic and stylistic features are descriptive method (to describe idioms containing the words denoting weather

in terms of their structures and meanings to draw some conclusions on the syntactic, semantic and stylistic features) and contrastive method (to find out the similarities and differences in aspects of meaning in English and Vietnamese)

With the purpose and model of the investigation described above, the study will also be carried out on qualitative and quantitative approach as supporting methods

1.5 Scope of the study

The study focuses on only English idioms with the words denoting weather are analyzed with reference to equivalents in Vietnamese The words denoting weather in English idioms in this thesis are weather, cloud, rain, rainy, storm, lightning, snow, hot, wind, cold, dry…and mưa, nắng, gió, bão, sương, tuyết, sấm, chớp …in Vietnamese

The English and Vietnamese idioms in this study are collected from Oxford Advance learner‘s dictionary,Vietnamese idioms dictionaries, books and the Internet and this research refers to 295 English and Vietnamese idioms containing the words denoting weather to find out their equivalent Vietnamese meanings

1.6 Significance of the study

Theoretically, this study will add some basic theories of English and Vietnamese idioms, specially the idioms containing the words denoting weather It also contributes to the knowledge of linguistics in general and of idioms by weather

in particular

Practically, for language teaching (both English and Vietnamese), the study facilitates learners’ communication because language is for communication, and idioms are an indispensable part of common expressions (Cowie, Mackin & McCaig, 1993) The work will help English-speaking learners of Vietnamese and Vietnamese learners of English distinguish one kind of idioms from others in each language The work will also enable learners to tell when idioms in English and Vietnamese are similar and different, which is likely to be useful for their study Language teachers will be aided to help their learners reach this communicative goal For translation, knowledge of idioms from this work will help translators find closest equivalents to the expressions in the source language

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As a whole, it is hoped that along with the understanding of the syntactic, semantic and stylistic features of these idioms in English and Vietnamese, this study can be a useful material for learning and teaching of language through idioms containing the words denoting weather

1.7 Structure of the study

The study is designed with five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter gives the rationale, the aims and objectives, research questions, the scope, significance, the method and the design of the study

Chapter 2: Literature Review

This chapter presents review of previous study about idioms both in English and in Vietnamese and theoretical background of idioms It consists of definition, types of idioms, syntactic, semantic and stylistic features of idioms and comparison between idioms and other units

Chapter 3: Methodology

This chapter describes research approach, methods of the study and data collection and data analysis

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion

This chapter provides syntactic, semantic and stylistic features idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and their equivalents in Vietnamese to find out similarities and differences between English idioms containing the words denoting weather and their equivalents in Vietnamese

Chapter 5: Conclusion

This chapter briefly summarizes what have been discussed in the previous parts Furthermore, this chapter also presents the limitations of the research and some suggestions for further studies

References and Appendix come at the end of the study

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Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review is divided into two main parts The first part presents and discusses the previous research works on idioms in English and Vietnamese The second one gives a review of theoretical background and framework of idioms

in English and Vietnamese on which the whole research has been based

2.1 Review of previous study

2.1.1 Previous research works on idioms in English

According to Makkai (1972) divides idioms into two main kinds: encoding and decoding Then, decoding idioms are subdivided into lexemic and semantic Semantic idioms consist of six categories: phrasal verbs, tournures, irreversible binomials, phrasal compounds, incorporating verbs and pseudo-idioms Seidl and McMordie (1988), Cowie, Mackin & McCaig (1993) mention the categories of idioms based on their topics and grammatical patterns From transformational grammar, Fraser (1970) regards an idiom as a constituent or a series of constituents whose meaning does not come from the meanings of individual parts He also mentions six level scales of idioms: unrestricted, reconstitution, extraction, permutation, insertion, adjunction and completely frozen Semantically, Quirk (1996) investigates idioms and proverbs having constituents of animals in English

In this study, typical cultural properties conveyed by this type of idioms and proverbs are established This is regarded as an initial research investigating English idioms and proverbs in terms of their semantic properties from component perspective

Fernando & Flavell (1981) are the linguists who realize the limitations of the previous scholars They suppose that idiom and idiomaticity are not the same They focus on the nature of idioms such as morpho-syntacite composition, semantic properties, homonymity, syntactic properties, etc They also examine several issues which focus attention on the idiom as a single lexeme that is non-correlative in its syntax and therefore non-literal in terms of its constituents The most satisfying and sensitive criterion to establish idiomaticity is undoubtedly the semantic one Semantically, Fernando & Flavell (1981) establish the transparent - opaque axis for analyzing idioms In defining idiom, they stress three features in particular: a non-correlative syntax resulting in non-literalness, homonymity and institutionalization

From cognitive view, Nunberg et al (1994) divides idioms into two

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categories (i) idiomatically combining expressions whose constituent parts carry identifiable parts of their idiomatic meanings, and (ii) idiomatic phrases whose idiomatic meanings cannot be derived from their parts (see Section 1.1.3) Fernando (1996) also divides English idioms into three categories: pure idioms, semi-idioms and literal idioms Grammatically, Taylor (2002) mentions the interrelated topics of idioms and constructions The topics are interrelated in that both idioms and constructions are possibly considered as symbolic units, which associate a phonological (or ‘formal’) representation with a semantic reading According to his points of view, constructions are usually specified at a high level of schematicity and likely to sanction an open set of expressions Nevertheless, a construction’s usage range may not be fully predictable: constructions, in other words, display varying degrees of idiomaticity Idioms generally need to be specified at a lower level of schematicity Taylor (2002) also points out that the difference between idioms and constructions turns out to be a gradient distinction, having to do, essentially, with the schematicity at which a unit

is specified Langlotz (2006) explores alternative types of adnominal modification

in occasional variants of English verbal idioms Following the cognitive-linguistic framework, he states that the dimensions of idiom-transparency result from the language user’s ability to remotivate the bipartite semantic structure by conceptual metaphors and metonymies

In short, idioms in English are studied in terms of several aspects such as grammar, semantics, rhetoric, pragmatics, etc which are investigated from different views However, the majority of scholars pay their attention to the two approaches Scholars who adopt the first approach are more structurally orientated They describe the idioms and their idiomaticity in terms of one or more structural properties The idiomatologists who adopt the second approach study idiomaticity

as manifesting hidden conceptual design of the language Such an approach leads to

the nature of cognition itself and accordingly has valid psycholinguistic

2.1.2 Previous research works on idioms in Vietnamese

In the vocabulary system of Vietnamese, idioms which are usually placed

in a certain position can define themselves with other linguistic units such as compounds, collocations and proverbs Due to this direction, it can be seen that several studies on vocabulary and grammar or the boundary issues among lexical units have been carried out (Đỗ Hữu Châu ( 1981), Nguyễn Văn Mệnh ( 1986),

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Nguyễn Thiện Giáp ( 1985), Hồ Lê ( 1976), etc) Some other Vietnamese authors such as Trương Đông San (1974), Hoàng Văn Hành (1976) study the forms and meanings of similized idiom Nguyễn Công Đức (1995) studies Vietnamese idioms from formal-semantic perspectives It is a research investigating idioms quite systematically from both structural and semantic perspectives Based on the forms, he divides Vietnamese idioms into three categories: idioms with symmetrical structure, idioms with comparison structure and idioms with non-symmetrical structure For idioms with symmetrical structure, the most important characteristic is the reciprocal or contrast of meaning of the two parts of idioms, i.e it is the relation of symmetrical contents From this relation, these idioms form other relations such as the relation of symmetrical words, i.e symmetry or repetition between components Like other linguists, he supposes that idioms with

comparison structure are formed according to a general formula A như B (e.g

nhanh như gió (very fast) Idioms with non- symmetrical structure are generally

formed by phrases, especially verb phrases: mượn gió bẻ măng (make profit by

using other trouble) The meaning formation process of idioms consists of three stages: creating constituent parts including explicit and implicit components, establishing the meanings through the internal relations among components, generalizing and identifying the idiomatic meanings with things and concepts in everyday life He also comments that the meanings of idioms are generally formed according to symmetrical, contrastive, harmonious, convergent and random relations

Like other linguists, Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) regards idioms as fixed groups

of words having stable forms and fully figurative meanings The stable particularity of idiom forms is the stability of vocabulary components (It is normally so fixed that they cannot be replaced by any synonyms) This stable characteristic is the result of dimming or forgetting the relationship between grammar and semantics However, he also notes that the stability of idioms in the standard system and their flexibility in usage are not two contradict aspects and don’t exclude each other The full particularity of idiomatic meanings is also explained from nominal senses Differing from other normal parts of speech, idioms are considered as the nominal units of the second class From this point of view, he emphasizes that idioms have bipartite meanings: literal (base, origin); figurative (used in reality and formed by the emblematized process) The

ii) Due to the structures, idioms can be classified into symmetrical and symmetrical Non-symmetrical idioms can be sub-classified into non-symmetrical simonized

non-The differences in classification above are only in view, or rather in selecting the criteria for each level of classification Due to that thought, Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) considers each sub-category as an issue for investigation And, basing on this way, he continually divides each sub-category into smaller sub-categories For example, symmetrical figurative idioms can be classified into two types: coordination - meeting of meanings and no meeting of meanings Symmetrical figurative idioms with non-coordination - meeting of meanings can

be further divided into balance, focus and alternative

Hoàng Văn Hành (2008) also states that the general pattern of simonized idioms (A

như B) given by the previous authors is right but very reduced It does not reflect

the nature of comparison in terms of both logic and language According to him, in

any case the logical structure of comparison is At1 như Bt2 (t1 is the attribute of A;

t2 is the attribute of B) Based on that general model, he conducts an analysis to

find out the structure of idiomatic meanings and divides it into t như B and như B t

như B idioms can be sub- divided into t như B (như B indicates the degree of t) and

t như B (như B indicates the manner of t) In addition, he does not only focus on

the idiom structures but also their usage and values From cultural perspective, he supposes that the underlying cultural factors behind the idioms need uncovering Although he himself realizes that this approach of studying Vietnamese idioms is still open, we can find his contribution in this aspect through his works on idioms

In short, in Vietnamese, although there exist several studies on idioms, most of the scholars focus on the forms and meanings of idioms from traditional view It means that studies on idioms in general and idioms containing the words denoting weather have not been paid much attention

to idiomaticity together with various definitions of what an idiom is have already been presented in the previous chapter If one narrowed down the consideration of idiomaticity to the specific problem of definition it is possible to identify two approaches to what idiomaticity is:

Those scholars who adopt the first approach look on idiomaticity as manifesting the specific character or genius of a language Their investigations of idiomaticity are directed towards revealing this specific character which is, in effect part of the underlying conceptual design ofthe language Such an approach ultimately leads to the nature of cognition itself and therefore has strong psycholinguistic implications The chief exemplars of this approach to idiomaticity in the Anglo-American tradition of linguistics, Smith (1925) and Roberts (1944), do not carry their investigations to these depths Their work, already referred to in Section 1.1, simply outlines the cultural preoccupations, the 'world view' implicit in the idioms

of English, together with the peculiarities of phrasing and other distinguishing features (e.g non-literalness) that distinguish expressions as idioms But the main emphasis in such work is on the conceptual design of the language in so far as it emerges through a consideration of idiomaticity rather than on the structural properties of idioms

Scholars who adopt the second approach are more structurally orientated and seek to define idiomaticity in terms of one or more structural properties They are, therefore more selective in their identification of idioms The second approach, in addition, enables the linguist to make topological classifications of such idioms on the basis of the properties he adopts as criteria.The majority of the scholars whose work has been examined in Chapter I adopt this second approach which is also the one adopted in this chapter

English is very rich in idiomatic expressions It is difficult to speak or write English without using idioms An important fact that must be taken into consideration is that idioms are not only colloquial expressions, as many people believe They can appear in formal style and in slang They can also appear in

is distinguished from a collocation, for a collocation is a sequence of lexical items which habitually co-occur and each lexical constituent of a collocation is a semantic component Hornby (1995) argued in his Oxford Advanced 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 a whole unit” Sharing the same point of view, Seidl and Mordie (1988) defined “an idiom is a number of words which, taken together, mean something different from the individual words of the

idiom when they stand alone” For instance, the collocation of kick and the bucket forms an idiom meaning die, which is not systematically determinable from the meanings of kick and the bucket This idiom or phrasal lexeme is formally identical with the phrase kick the bucket whose meaning is systematically determinable on the basis of the meaning of the lexemes of which it is composed – hit a certain type

of container for liquids with their foot

In Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1992), an idiom is also regarded as “an expression which functions as a single unit and whose meaning cannot be worked out from its separate parts” In addition, Cowie, Mackin & McCaig (1993) state that idioms are groups of words with set meanings that cannot be calculated by adding up the separate meanings of the parts Fernando (1996) defines an idiom as “an indivisible unit whose components cannot

be varied or varied only within definable limits” This means that no other words can be substituted for those comprising Nor are the words of an idiom usually recombinable

From the viewpoint of Nguyễn Thiện Giáp (1996), idioms are fixed phrases with both completeness and figurativeness in meaning Besides the intellectual content, they always contain certain attitudes like appreciation, respect, disdain or disgust Sharing a similar definition of idiom, Hoàng Văn Hành (2004) claims that idioms are complex combinations of stable structures which are complete and figurative in meaning, commonly used in daily interactions, especially in spoken language Mai Ngọc Chừ and his associates support the same idea that idioms are

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fixed phrases with complete structures and meanings which are symbolic and expressive (1997) From the above linguists’ opinions, it can be concluded that idioms are fixed terms (fixed phrases) that are relatively stable in form, used to name things, qualities, and actions The general meanings of idioms go beyond the meanings of their equivalent expressions in terms of refinement and figurativeness

In Vietnamese, a great variety of definitions of idioms are also given Nguyễn Văn Mệnh (1972) and Đỗ Hữu Châu (1981) suppose that idioms are available linguistic units which have stable structures, typical meanings and nominative functions Having the same viewpoint, Nguyễn Đức Dân (1986) defines that an idiom is a fixed group of words having a complete meaning and descriptive value To make it clearer, he also adds that idioms express concepts based on separated images It is the reason why idioms usually have their own figurative

meanings For example, the phrase quần là áo lượt (very formal and well- dressed)

is considered as an idiom because its idiomatic meaning cannot be inferred from the

meanings of its constituents (quần, là, áo, lượt) Another definition of idiom from

Hoàng Văn Hành (2008, p 31) is that an idiom is a fixed group of words which is firm in terms of structure, complete and figurative in terms of meaning, and is widely used in daily speaking

As can be seen from the above definitions, there are different ways of defining an idiom In general, most of the linguists share the same point of view that an idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning cannot be worked out by looking at the meanings of its individual constituents What is given below is regarded as a summary of the defining features of an idiom Such an idiom:

- is a fixed unit whose components cannot be varied or varied under definable control;

- is regarded as a complex scene with a bipartite semantic structure: a literal reading and an idiomatic meaning;

- has the meaning which is usually different from the meanings of the combination of its components;

- expresses a pure concept

It is criteria that identify idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

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2.2.2 Typical features of idioms

Grammatically as well as semantically, idiom has the special characteristics Victoria (2011:192) states that an idiom belongs to lexicon or mental dictionary as single items with their meanings specified because the words (or morphemes) of a language are arbitrary (not predictable by rule) The meaning of lexicon is a repository of the words (or morphemes) of a language and their meanings

2.2.21 Syntactic Features

According to Palmer (1990), an idiom is semantically like a single word but

it structurally does not function like one An idiom is comprised of at least two words Moreover, it was discovered by D.A.Cruse (1987) that most idioms are homophonous with grammatically well-formed transparent expressions

We can easily notice that idioms are mostly fixed phrases.We cannot simply change the order of the words, which will make the meaning of the idiom nonsense The

idiom in black and white which means “officially” is an example for this case We cannot change it into in white and black because if we do, the idiom becomes

meaningless Furthermore, some idioms are complete sentences and they cannot be

changed into passive voice form We can take the idiom A little bird told me into

consideration The meaning of this idiom is “information gained from someone who you are not going to name” The sentence “I know about it because a little bird told me' is a correct one, if this sentence is changed into “I know about it because I was told by a little bird”, the new sentence will sound really odd However, some other idioms are more flexible; we can make some changes as long as they don’t lose their idiomatic meaning This means that idioms are only fixed in some of their parts but not all of the idioms A component words can be alternated with another word will form a different idiom of the same or different meaning Mass media is the field where this technique is used plenty of times They do not keep the full form of the idiom and add some more components to make it more vivid This is particularly effective when we write articles For instance, we can change the tense

of the verb “give” in the idiom to give someone the cold shoulder” which means to treat someone in a cold or unfriendly way, or we can change the verb “have” in to

have the blues into the verb “get” to make a new idiom to get the blues with the

meaning remaining the same

Moreover, idioms can vary in many different forms and structures It can be

a noun phrase such as pink slip, a red flag, red-letter day, etc, a verb phrase such as

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sail under false colors, talk until one is blue in the face, get gray hair, etc and some

idioms are adjective phrase such as hot under the collar, out-of-the-box, etc What

we need to notice here is that an idiom can have a regular structure, an irregular or even a grammatically incorrect structure Formally, in English, the structure of

“Verb + preposition + adjective” appeared in the idiom be at odd is considered as a

grammatical mistake since a preposition is not followed by an adjective However,

in this case, the idiom is accepted It can be considered as an exception in language According to Nguyễn Đình Hiền (2018) and Hoàng Thị Yến (2017), based on structure, Vietnamese idioms can be divided into three following types: First, symmetrical idioms are the idioms containing two symmetrical parts with an

“axis” in the middle Most Vietnamese idioms have an “even number” of components Supposing A, B, C, D are four components of the idiom, there is a symmetry between AB and CD, in which “A and C” belong to the same scope

of meaning, or the same part of speech, and so do “B and D” For instance, the

idiom học trước quên sau (easily forget what one has learnt) has the following structure: Học trước quên sau (Easily forget what one has learnt) In this example,

“học” and “quên” are both verbs and belong to the same scope of meaning while

“trước” and “sau” belong to another scope of meaning If A and C are repeated, the

structure will become: Một lòng một dạ (stay loyal); Bách chiến bách thắng (be

invicible) However, a proportion of Vietnamese idioms can also contain an “odd number” of components and the symmetry between two parts is still retained In

these idioms, the verbs in the middle are “axes” of the idioms, e.g cá lớn nuốt cá

bé (the great fish eats the small), mồm miệng đỡ chân tay (a long tongue is a sign

of a short hand).Second, comparative idioms (similes) are stable combinations originating from representative comparisons Despite their derivation from comparisons, comparative idioms still retain structural distinctions and they are

composed of full form: A như B such as đen như mực (to be as black as ink),

chậm như rùa (to be too slow); or simplified form with comparative word:

(A)như B such as (anh em) như tay với chân (to have a close tie), (được lời) như

cởi tấm lòng (one feels relieved when saying his/ her restrained thoughts out

loud); and simplified form without comparative word: A (như) B like thẳng (như)

ruột ngựa (to be straightforward), mắt (như) lợn luộc (with eyes wide open).The

third type is ordinary idioms which are neither symmetrical nor comparative, and

are usually fixed phrases such as con dao hai lưỡi ( a matter always has two sides)

inflexibility For instance, the idiom đen như cột nhà cháy (to be black as coal; very

dark) is established through practical experiences and observations of people in a relatively long time It uses the comparative word “như to compare the characteristic “black” of something with fixed object “cột nhà cháy”, but not “cột nhà gỗ” or “cột nhà bếp” However, in some other cases, although the idioms have reached a high level of invariability, one can still change the whole structures or

even the fixed terms a little bit For example, the idiomatic expression châu chấu

đá xe (to throw a straw against the wind; to attempt to do something futile) has

several variations such as châu chấu đá voi or châu chấu đấu voi (Nguyễn

Xuân Hiếu and Trần Mộng Chu, 1960) Despite the fixed characteristic of Vietnamese idioms, a proportion of them have undergone changes in form but their general meanings have not been altered very much The reduplication and symmetry of Vietnamese idioms are expressed in terms of phonetic harmony of constituent elements It has an effect of creating a rhythm, therefore creating an attraction that makes it easy to read and remember as well as leaving a deep

impression in the recipient’s heart Some examples are mắt tròn mắt dẹt (to be very surprised or scared), khéo chân khéo tay (to be skillful at doing something), sức dài

vai rộng (to be strong and healthy) Regarding semantic features, a huge quantity

of Vietnamese idioms is multi-meaningful, but of all these meanings, the figurative meaning is of paramount importance When it comes to figurative meanings, a number of approaches are deployed to express the meanings of idioms such as metaphor, metonymy, rhetoric, comparison (simile), and

exaggeration For example, with the idiom bắt cá hai tay , people can

understand it literally: each hand tries to catch a fish, and as a result, they cannot catch any fish However, Vietnamese people have commonly put this idiom into a broader context to refer to people with “double” thoughts desiring to have/ do many things at the same time (Hoàng Văn Hành, 2004) Along with the content of wisdom, shades of appreciation and attitudes are usually integrated into

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each idiom such as respect, approval, disagreement, disregard, sympathy, just a few

to name For example, the idiom nói thánh nói tướng not only expresses the concept

of “brag/ boast” but also the attitude of disapproval and depreciation, etc

To sum up, when mentioning the syntactic feature of idioms, we need to know three aspects Firstly, most idioms are fixed phrases; we cannot change the order of the component or turn it into passive form, it will lose its meaning Secondly, in some fields, such as mass media, an idiom does not need to be kept as

a full form; we can make some changes as if it remains its idiotic meaning Lastly, idioms can be performed in many structures and some of them may be grammatically incorrect Thus, they are important criteria that are used to analyze idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

2.2.2.2 Semantic features

Whereas syntax is the grammar, structure, or order of the elements in a language statement, semantics is the meaning of these elements According to Robert Dixon, (1991, p.40), “The word semantics derived from the Greeksemaino, meaning, to signify or mean Semantics is a part of a larger study of signs, semiotics It is the part that deals with words as signs (symbol) and language as a system of sign (words as symbols) Knowing a language is how to produce and understanding sentences with particular meanings The study of linguistic meaning, called semantics, is concerned with the meaning of words, morphemes, phrases and sentences The term meaning is, of course, much more familiar to us all although there are numerous different definitions of dictionaries Palmer (1990) suggested that semantics is a part of linguistics, a scientific study of language Therefore, learners should attempt to see what meaning is, or should be, within the framework

of an academic or scientific discipline rather than take the simple looking at the common or even scholarly uses of the relevant terms Semantics is a branch of language study dealing with word meaning Word meaning consists of grammatical meaning and lexical meaning Grammatical meaning unites all grammatical characteristics of a word and lexical meaning is a realization of a concept or notion Lexical meaning includes denotative meaning and connotative meaning Semantics studies also other spheres of word meaning such as polysemy, homonymy, synonymy, antonym, as well as development of meaning including some figures of

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speech, namely metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole and irony These units also relate

to the formation of semantic structure of words in English

The characteristic of semantic ambiguity is one of the particular features of idioms Grains and Redman (1986) consider that semantic opacity is one of the characteristic aspects of idioms Most idioms are clearly constructed from components that can also be used in any other combinations without idiomatic constraints When we mention semantic features of idioms, we should focus on the idioms’ figurative meaning This meaning is the most important characteristic

of idioms to know whether an expression is an idiom or not For many people, in order to understand an idiom, they translate literally every component

of the idiom into the target language and try to guess the meaning This is not completely a wrong method to understand the meaning of idiom but this can only

work with simple idioms such as Rub someone the wrong way which means annoy

or bother somebody However, with some more complicated ones which the meaning of the idiom has nothing to do with its components; we cannot use this method to figure out the meaning of the idiom This is the reason why we have to pay attention to the figurative meaning of idiom, an important part when we study about idiom, both in English and Vietnamese For example, “spread oneself too thin” if you try to translate this literally, it may come out to nowhere as

we cannot spread our body The figurative meaning of this is to do so many things

at one time that you can do none of them well Another semantic aspect of idiom is that idiom can be used for different purposes It can perform a positive meaning like

back on one’s feet (which means somebody has recovered after being sick); other

times it can be present negative meaning, such as “ugly day” (an unlucky day) This

is totally based on the expressing purpose of the authors

In short, idioms should be understood figuratively and they can perform both negative and positive meanings to show the speaker’s opinion about a specific matter Through semantic features of idioms, they are criteria which are applied to this thesis when analyzing the idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

2.2.3 Idioms and other language units

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2005), “A phrase

is a group of words which have a particular meaning when used together” It is a

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syntactic structure that consists of more than one word but lacks the predicate organization of a clause

subject-D.A Cruse in Lexical Semantic (1987) defines collocations as “sequences of

lexical items which habitually co-occur, but which are nonetheless fully transparent

in the sense that each lexical constituent is also a semantic constituent Collocations are of two kinds: restricted collocations and open collocations Idioms and collocations share with each other several common features

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2005) defines a proverb as “a

well-known phrase or sentence that gives advice or says something that is generally true” Proverbs represent a complete piece of information, because they can work as

a sentence They are meaningful by themselves, and, in consequence, can work

independently, as it can be seen from “all griefs withbread are less” In contrast,

idioms are not so syntactically-independent because they cannot always work as a

full sentence, but as a part of it, as it can be seen from the expression “as like as two

peas”

Unlike idiom the meaning of proverb can somehow deduced from the

meaning of the word which constitutes it For example, “Don’t teach fish to swim” versus “Out of the frying pan and in to the fire”

Very often the meaning of proverbs cannot be decoded from decomposing each of their constituents This implies that the meaning may be obscure even for native speakers Our belief is that the reason for this semantic darkness is that proverbs get their origin from personal anecdotes which become applied to a lot of cases Idioms can also be very obscure in relation to meaning, because the same as proverbs, they may be based on personal experiences or anecdotes which have become fixed as a linguistic cliché

As both proverbs and idioms are useful ways of expression, they appear across different languages But universality in proverbs and idioms does not necessarily imply that these language bits or chunks are always perfectly coupled or symmetrical

2.2.4 Overview of phrases

The term phrase is widely used in linguistic community but rarely a concrete definition about it can be found in a grammar book In most dictionaries and researches, phrases are defined in a rather similar way The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the English Language, for example, defines phrases as “syntactic

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construction which typically contains more than one word' but which lacks the subject-predicate structure usually found in a clause” (p.222) while the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics gives another definition that “Phrase is a group of words which form a grammatical unit A phrase does not contain a finite verb and does not have a subject-predicate structure For example:

a) I like her expensive new car

b) George hates working in the garden

From these two definitions above, it can be drawn out that a phrase may not always consist of only one word, it may be one-word-phrase in cases of basic phrase; and there is no subject-predicate structure exists in a phrase, which includes the excluding of a finite verb, because this will make a phrase become a clause or a sentence Phrases are usually classified according to their head or central element and named after that element

According to R Quirk, a author of “ A Comprehensive Grammar of The English Language” (1985), mentions five formal categories of phrase are noun phrases (NP), verb phrases (VP), prepositional phrases (PP), adjective phrases ( Adj.P) and adverb phrases (Adv.P) Each phrase is named after a class of word which has a primary and indeed obligatory function within it This function, however, varies in different types of phrases

The first type of phrase is noun phrase Noun phrases consist of a head, which is typically a noun and of elements which (either obligatorily or optionally) determine the head and (optionally) modify the head, or complement another element in the phrase (determinative + pre-modification + a noun + post- modification) Besides, noun phrase in English In the book “Analyzing English” (1980), Howard said that “The noun phrase in English is composed potentially three parts The central part of the noun phrase, the head, is obligatory: it is the minimal requirement for the occurrence of a noun phrase The other two parts are optionally occurring That is pre-modification and the post-modification Let’s see this example: “that girl with the red hair” This is noun phrase in which “that” is determinative; “girl” is the head; “with the red hair” is post-modification

Second, verb phrases consist of a main verb which either stands alone as entire verb phrase, or is preceded by up to four verbs in an auxiliary function, for instance:

“The ship has been sunk” In this example, “ has been sunk” is a verb phrase in

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which “ has been” is considered as auxiliaries use to modify a main verb; “ sunk” is

a main verb in this sentence In English, the main verb includes five types:

- Intransitive verbs: the verbs are used without direct object such as come, go,

move , for example, Rachel has just move

Intensive verbs: the verbs are used with complement or adverb such as to be,

become , for instance: Rachel becomes more attractive than ever

- Monotransitive verbs: the verbs are used with direct object such as buy, sell ; let’s see this example: Rachel has just sold her house

- Complex transitive verbs: the verbs are used with direct object and complement or adverb such as paint, call, vote, appoint, elect , for example: Rachel calls her dog Jack or Rachel paints her room black

- Distransitive verbs: the verbs are used with indirect object and direct object such

as give, offer, bring , for instance: Rachel gives Joe a piece of cake.( Distransive verb: gives; Direct object: Joe; Indirect object: a piece of cake)

Third, adjectives phrase consist of an adjective as a head, optionally preceded and followed by modifying elements (pre-modification+ an adjective + post

modification) Let see this example: The weather was too pleasant to be enjoyable Adjective “pleasant” is head; “too” is pre-modification, “to be enjoyable” is post modification

Next, adverbial phrases are similar to adjective phrases in their structure, except that they have an adverb, instead of an adjective, as their head (pre-modification+ an adverb + post modification) Let’s look at this sentence “I spoke

to him very severely indeed” in which “very severely indeed” is an example of adverbial phrase in which “very” is pre-modification, “ severely” is adverb and also

is a head; “indeed” is considered as post modification

The last type of phrase is prepositional phrase They consist of a preposition followed by a prepositional complement, which is normally a noun phrase

(preposition+ prepositional complement), for instance: I met her at the corner of the street In this example, “at” is preposition and it is followed by a prepositional complement “the corner of the street”

In short, there are five types of phrases, but noun phrases and verb phrases can be considered the most important phrasal categories of functional reasons Moreover, the idioms may be a noun phrase, an adjective phrase, a verb phrase, a prepositional phrase, an adverbial phrase

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Idioms as a noun phrase: a cat nap

Idioms as an adjective phrase: as busy as a beaver (very busy, assiduous, or hard working)

Idioms as a verb phrase: get to the bottom of things (find the true explanation or the

state of affair)

Idioms as a prepositional phrase: on cloud nine (extremely happy)

Idioms as an adverbial phrase: throw the cat among the pigeons (to say or do

In this study, all the above-mentioned are used to analyze the idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and their Vietnamese equivalents

in terms of syntactic features

2.2.5 Connotation, denotation, and some types of stylistic devices

2.2.5.1 Connotation and Denotation

Connotation and Denotation are two principal methods of describing the meanings of words

According to Hoang Tat Truong, Absis English Lexicology (1993) “The

denotative meaning indicates (denotes) or points out things, concepts, etc” For instance, bird denotes an animal that can fly Father, dad and daddy denote the male parent Rain or shine denotes the phenomena of nature According to Nguyen Hoa,

Understanding English Semantic (2004) “Denotation is the ability of a word or

expression to identify all the objects covered by words”, for example: the word

“computer” is used a wide range of computing machines in different shapes and

sizes, which may be called computers Holt Rinehart and Winston in An

Introduction to Language (2005) give a definition “Denotation is what we have

been discussing so far It is that type of meaning which may be described in terms

of set semantic properties which serves to identify the particular concept associated with the word in question.”

Connotation refers to the wide array of positive and negative associations that most words naturally carry with them, whereas denotation is the precise, literal

definition of a word that might be found in a dictionary According to Cambridge

Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2014) gives the definition of connotation: “a

feeling or idea that is suggested by a particular word although it need not be a part

of the word's meaning, or something suggested by an object or situation” For instance, the word "lady" has connotations of refinement and excessive femininity

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that some women find offensive Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the "dictionary definition For example, the word“ snake” in a dictionary has one of its denotative meanings is "any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles having a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions." Connotation, on the other hand, refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions related to that word The connotative meanings of a word exist together with the denotative meanings The connotations for the word snake could include evil or danger

2.2.5 2 Some types of stylistic devices

 Simile

Of all figures of speech, simile is said to be the simplest and the most common used There are a variety of ways to define simile, the briefest of all may attributed

to C Jonathan (1995) in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary “ simile is a

comparison of one thing with another.” Kirssner and Mandell (1987) in Brief Holt Handbook, however, give a more specific definition: “A simile is a comparison between two essentially unlike items on the basis of a shared quality; similes are

produced by like or as.”This viewpoint is supported in The American Heritage

College Dictionary (1997) as the authors define simile as “a figure of speech in

which two essentially unlike things is explicitly compared, usually by means of like

or as In this example, “John is as slow as a snail.” Snails are notorious for their slow pace, and here the slowness of John is compared to that of a snail The use of

“as” in the example helps to draw the resemblance

 Metaphor

There have been numerous linguistic definitions of metaphor, the briefest of which may be attributed to Dinh, TL (1995) “metaphor is the transference of meaning from one object to another based on similarity between these two objects (p.194) This viewpoint is supported by Do.HC ( 1996) as he defined metaphor as “ the symbolic name of one object, which is based on the similarity realistic or imaginary, between the identified object called “ A” and the object called “B” of which the name is transferred to “A”.” (p87) Although these two authors expressed their ideas

in different ways, both of them see transference of meaning from A to B and their similarity of these two objects Western linguists shared the same opinion

Aristotle’s viewpoint on metaphor was introduced in Aristotle’s Poetics and

Rhetoric (350 BC), which has been considered as the fundamental of rhetorical and

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metaphoric piece of research for more than 200 years It is said to be the earliest and widely used spread theory of metaphor until recent day In his point of view, metaphor functions either as a substitution of the figurative for the literal, or as an abbreviated simile Specially, Aristotle assumed that metaphor was derived from seeing semblances in things, which is one feature of simile It might be noteworthy

to mention also the definition of metaphor from dictionaries for better clarity and

neatness In Oxford Student’s Dictionary of English (2008), “metaphor is a word or

phrase that is used in an imaginative way to show that somebody/ something has the same qualities as another thing,” Despite apparent differences in expressing, all of these aforementioned definitions intersect at one point, which is that metaphor is the transference of name based on the association of similarity The following phrase is

an example of metaphor: the black sheep of the family This comparison is used to

describe an association of a black sheep with a person who is responsible for finance of the family A black sheep is an unusual animal, which typically stays away from the herd, and the person being described shares similar characteristics

 Personification

George Lackoff and Johnson in Metaphors We Live By gave a clear definition of

personification “The most obvious ontological metaphors are those where the physical object is further specified as being person This allows us to comprehend a wide variety of experience with non-human entities in terms of human motivation,

characteristics and activities.”In the book Phong cách học và đặc điểm tu từ tiếng

Việt Cù Đình Tú (1994) stated that personification is using the words denoting

properties and activities of people to indicate the properties and activities of other different types based on the associative relationship of the similarities of the properties and activities between people and non-human entities For example, in this sentence “The sky weeps,” the sky has the ability to cry, which is a human quality Thus, the sky has been personified in the given sentence

 Metonymy

Metonymy is a figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated Metonymy is used both in literature and in everyday life In a metonymy, on the other hand, the word is used

to describe another thing is closely linked to that particular thing, but is not a part of

it For example, the word “crown” is used to refer to power or authority is a metonymy It is not a part of the thing it represents

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 Hyperbole

The New Oxford American Dictionary defines that hyperbole is “exaggerated

statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.” Here is an example of

hyperbole: She sheds flood of tears whenever she is upset in which shed flood of

tears means cry a lot In the example above, Hyperbole words are used to express

something that is beyond the reality because nobody can cry like loads of floods

In conclusion, idioms have their figurative and imaginary meanings and their figurative and meanings of idioms are made from their types of stylistic devices such as metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy and hyperbole Therefore, they are criteria to analyze the idioms denoting the words denoting weather in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in this thesis

2.2.6 Weather definition

The study will also consider the definition of weather in order to provide a more comprehensive view on the given subject Throughout history, the weather has been both feared and revered for its powerful influence over living creatures Not only does it control our moods, activities and fashions, but it has also played an important part in broader issues of cultural identity, concepts of time, and economic development In fact, the weather has become so ingrained in our everyday routines that many of us forget just how profoundly this omnipotent force shape culture According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary, weather is defined as the condition of the atmosphere at a particular place and time, such as the temperature, there is wind, rain, sun, etc As being defined in “The Hutchinson Paperback Encyclopedia”, weather is “day-to-day variation of climate and atmosphere conditions at any one place, or the state of these conditions at a place at any one time Such conditions include humidity, precipitation, temperature, cloud cover visibility and wind To a meteorologist, the term “weather” is limited to the state of the sky, precipitation visibility as affected by fog and mist (1994: 894)

Because of its strong connection to people’s lives, weather become one of the leading concerns and topic of daily conversations as well as included in idioms People use weather idioms to express their ideas, emotions figuratively These idioms are not purely the description of true weather condition but are put some messages The words denoting weather such as rain, rainy, sun, sunny, snow, snowy, thunder, lightning, storm, foggy, fog, wind, hot, cold, warn, cool, chilly, humid, wet, cloud, cloudy, sun, air, etc…are included in these idiomatic expressions

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in varies structures and with different meanings In brief, the definition of weather has been referred with a view to clarifying the words denoting weather in English and Vietnamese are used in this thesis, the definition of weather has been referred

2.2.7 Summary

Chapter II of this paper has presented review of previous study a review of related previous studies on grammatical structures and semantics feature relating idioms It has also mentioned theoretical background and framework which are employed for conducting the whole graduation thesis along with the review of literature with certain previous works on idioms both in English and in Vietnamese Idioms in both English and Vietnamese are studied in terms of several aspects such

as structures, semantics, and stylistics which are investigated from different views

In terms of syntactic features, idioms are mostly fixed phrases We cannot simply change the order of the words, which will make the meaning of the idiom nonsense Idioms can vary in many different forms and structures It can be a noun phrase, an adjective phrase, a verb phrase, a prepositional phrase, and adverbial phrase In terms of semantic features, they focus on the idioms’ figurative meaning This meaning is the most important characteristic of idioms to know whether an expression is an idiom or not Besides, the meanings of idioms could be expressed through such means as, as metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy, hyperbole, metonymy and symmetry In addition, the definition of weather has been mentioned in this chapter in order to provide a more comprehensive view on the given subject From the previous studies and a variety of definitions on syntactic and semantic features of idioms in English and Vietnamese, they are important criteria for the investigation into idioms containing the words denoting weather in later chapters

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Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research approach

The thesis is carried out by combining the two research approaches of quantitative and qualitative, which are carried out with the following orientation First, it is started with data collection by using a various source of the sources of books, dictionaries and the Internet At the same time, collecting examples printed publications as dictionary and from the Internet After the collection of data completed, they are qualitatively described, analyzed and illustrated in term of syntactic, semantic and stylistic features The data collected from reliable sources then quantitatively computed and compared with Vietnamese equivalents under process of statistical analysis to find the answers to the research questions Lastly, conclusions and implications for teaching and learning English idioms containing the words denoting weather are withdrawn

3.2 Methods of the study

This study is designed to investigate the idioms containing the words denoting weather in English with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, so the descriptive and comparative methods have been chosen as major ones

In the study of language description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is applied (or it past meaning)

by a group of people in a speech community All academic research in linguistics is descriptive; like all other scientific disciplines, its aim is to describe the reality as it

is, without the bias of preconceived ideas about how it ought to be Modern descriptive linguistics is based on a structural approach to language, as exemplified

in the work of Leonard Bloomfield and others

Linguistic description is often contrasted with linguistic prescription, which is found especially in education and in publishing Prescription seeks to define standard language norms and give advice on effective language use, and can be thought of as

a presentation of the fruits of descriptive research in a adaptable form, though it also draws on more subjective aspects of language aesthetics Prescription and description are complementary, but have different priorities and sometimes are seen

to be in conflict Description is sometimes distinguished from "descriptivism", which is then defined as the belief that description is more significant or important

to teach, study, and practice than prescription

Qualitative research is primarily exploratory research It is used to gain an

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understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research Qualitative Research is also used to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the problem Qualitative data collection methods vary using unstructured or semi-structured techniques Some common methods include focus groups (group discussions), individual interviews, and participation/observations The sample size is typically small, and respondents are selected to fulfill a given quota

Qualitative research approaches are employed across many academic disciplines, focusing particularly on the human elements of the social and natural sciences; In less academic contexts, areas of application include qualitative market research, business, service demonstrations by non-profits, and journalism

A popular method of qualitative research is the case study (Stake 1995, Yin 1989), which examines in depth “purposive samples “to better understand a phenomenon (e.g., support to families; Racino, 1999); the case study method exemplifies the qualitative researchers' preference for depth, detail, and context, often working with smaller and more focused samples, compared with the large samples of primary interest to statistical researchers seeking general laws

Qualitative methods are an integral component of the five angles of analysis fostered by the data percolation methodology These methods may be used alongside quantitative methods, scholarly or lay reviews of the literature, interviews with experts, and computer simulation, as part of multimethod attitude to data collection and analysis (called Triangulation)

Therefore, the first the descriptive method is utilized in order to give a full account

of syntactic and semantic features of the idioms containing the words denoting weather in English

Secondly, the comparative method is applied to identify the similarities and differences in term of syntactic and semantic features of the idioms containing the words denoting weather in English with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents Some other methods such as analytical, synthetic have also been used as supporting ones Furthermore, to investigate in details the syntactic features of the idioms containing the words denoting weather in English with their different components and semantic features with various nuances of meanings, analytical method is also employed, and then the synthetically method is used for grouping them on the basis

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of certain criteria according to syntactic and semantic 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 doing the research successfully

3.3 Data collection and data analysis

3.3.1 Data collection

The selective material related to the idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and their Vietnamese equivalents plays a crucial role in terms of supplement data for the study

Firstly, a large number of idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and their Vietnamese equivalents are collected as many as possible from dictionaries in which idioms are carefully collected and categorized into

alphabetical arrangement.Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary(2008) by Cambridge universiry, The American Heritage Dictionary of idioms (2003), Oxford

Idioms Dictionary for Learners of English (2006)and Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8th Edition CD- Rom by Oxford University have been chosen because

they not only interpret the meanings but also illustrate a number of examples with a view to helping readers understand the origin of English idioms Besides, sources from printed books, newspapers and Internet are also collected to make the corpus

of for the study In addition, The Vietnamese idioms are selected such as Từ điển

Thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam (2015) by Nguyễn Lân, Từ điển Anh Việt (1993) by

Viện Ngôn Ngữ Học, Từ điển thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam (1193)

Secondly, the idioms make confusion in distinguishing between idioms and other similar language units are excluded from the list

Finally, the corpus with samples of English idioms containing the words denoting weather and the same number of Vietnamese idioms collected are put together in English and Vietnamese in alphabetical order for easier searching

In short, the monolingual and bilingual dictionaries of idioms in two languages are useful instruments for collecting data Google search should be accounted because a large number of relevant journals, newspapers, reference materials have been taken thanks to this tool Tables are also helpful for stating the results of analysis and percentage as well Moreover, frequent talks with the

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supervisor, lecturers on the field have proved to be a very useful way for completing the study Also, the study is carried out on the basis of the author's personal experience

3.2.2 Data analysis

After being collected, idioms in the two languages are selected and grouped

to be independently observed All idioms are analyzed, classified in order to meet the need of analysis Data analysis is done in terms of syntactic, semantic and stylistic features

Syntactically, the analysis and classification are mainly based on the different structural categories of idioms such as: noun phrases, verbs phrases, adjective phrases, and prepositional phrases The results of the steps are summarized in statistical tables By examining the distribution rates of each type in English and Vietnamese, the researcher would look for the special characteristics for each of them; generalize the results so as to have a complete overview about the structure of idioms in English and Vietnamese

Next, the obtained data in the two languages are synthesized and compared

in detail to sort out the similar and different features between them Then the research results are comprehensively analyzed in order to find out possible explanations for these similarities and differences

Semantically, the classification is carried out on the basis typical features of idioms in English languages Each feature will be illustrated by some extracted from both English and Vietnamese dictionaries The data are analyzed in accordance with semantic and stylistic features It is classified on basic of some characteristics of English idioms containing the words denoting weather which cover the various meaning Then description and comparison are provided with different groups of themes by applying some other basic techniques such as comparative analysis, componential analysis and statistical techniques The frequency and distribution of English and Vietnamese idioms denoting weather in term of semantic features will

be eventually tabulated in a table to show the results of analysis and percentage, thus leading to certain conclusions and possible implications Furthermore, the thesis also finds out the transfer of meaning employed in English idioms containing the words denoting weather with Vietnamese equivalents and discover cultural characteristics reflected in these idioms in both languages

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To achieve the aims and objectives of the study are stated in the first chapter, the process of data collection and analysis has come through three major stages First is the period of gathering material selection from different sources related to main topic of the paper was implemented with a view to picking up the necessary and useful materials Second stage was a long course that took over four months The last stage is for analyzing the selected data to draw the conclusions of the findings

In terms of reliability, the data which is used in this study is collected from trustworthy dictionaries, books and internet source Any information quoted in this study is exactly the same as the original materials with clear references of the authors, the name of publishers, the time and place of publication

In terms of validity, all English and Vietnamese idioms containing the words denoting weather that are picked up from bilingual dictionaries will be carefully checked up in the monolingual English dictionaries to ensure that the origins and translation versions are correct

From the results of the analysis, the researcher also suggests the ways to handle the idioms in general and some effective ways for language users in teaching and learning idioms

3.3 Summary

With the purpose of making an investigation into the syntactic and semantics features of idioms containing the words denoting weather in English and Vietnamese equivalents, this study is carried out through a descriptive, comparative analysis The method of the study is as follows:

Firstly, we present some basic theoretical concepts relating to semantic, syntactic and stylistic aspects of the idioms containing the words denoting weather

in English For this method, many reference books and materials are used for analysis

Secondly, we use the comparative analysis in qualitative and quantitative approach to analyze and describe the collected data for finding out the linguistic features of idioms containing the words denoting weather The collected data for this study will be taken from various sources The sample will include a number of examples The samples are taken from dictionaries, reference books, internet in English and Vietnamese To illustrate for this study, we also take some extract from