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SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF IDIOMS CONTAINING THE WORD CAT IN ENGLISH AND mèo IN VIETNAMESE

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A comparison between the syntactic and semantic features of idioms containing word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese .... ABSTRACT This study focuses on syntactic and semantic featur

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF IDIOMS CONTAINING THE WORD "CAT" IN ENGLISH AND "MÈO" IN VIETNAMESE

ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA THÀNH NGỮ CÓ CHỨA TỪ "CAT" TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ

"MÈO" TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH THÙY

Field: English Linguistic Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Hoang Tuyet Minh

HaNoi, 2020

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

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

“Syntactic and semantic features of idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese” 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

ASSOC PROF DR HOANG TUYET MINH

Date: / /2020

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to those who have contributed to this thesis and proud to acknowledge their help

I would like first and foremost to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to

my supervisor, Ms Hoang Tuyet Minh, for her inspiring and invaluable guidance, advice, encouragement and everything that I learnt from her throughout my work Without her, this thesis would not have been possible

My sincere thanks also go to all lecturers and the staff of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies at Hanoi Open University for their useful lectures, assistance, and enthusiasm during my course

Special acknowledgment is also given to my lecturers at Hanoi Open University for their precious knowledge, useful lectures in linguistics, which lay the foundation for this study

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my husband and my family for their understanding, patience, and support during the entire period of my study

There are many others I should mention here, people who helped me along the way and provided me support Listing all of them would fill a book itself, so I merely will have to limit myself to a few words: I thank you ALL!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

ABSTRACT vi

List of abbreviations vii

List of tables and figures viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 3

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Methods of the study 3

1.5 Scope of the study 4

1.6 Significance of the study 4

1.7 Structure of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Previous studies 6

2.1.1 Previous Studies of English Idioms 6

2.1.2 Previous Studies of Vietnamese Idioms 7

2.2 Theory of syntax 9

2.3 Theory of semantics 12

2.4 Overview of idioms 14

2.4.1 Definitions 14

2.4.2 Features of idioms 17

2.4.2.1 Syntactic features 17

2.4.2.2 Semantic features 19

2.4.3 Types of idioms 21

2.4.4 The similarities and differences between idioms and proverbs 22

2.5 Summary 24

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 26

3.1 Research approach 26

3.1.1 Quantitative research 26

3.1.2 Qualitative research 26

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3.1.3 Descriptive method 27

3.1.4 Contrastive method 28

3.2 Methods of the study 28

3.3 Data collection and data analysis 29

3.4 Summary 30

CHAPTER 4: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF IDIOMS CONTAINING THE WORD CAT IN ENGLISH AND MÈO IN VIETNAMESE 32

4.1 Syntactic features of idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese 32

4.1.1 Syntactic features of idioms containing the word cat in English 32

4.1.1.1 Noun Phrases 32

4.1.1.2 Verb Phrases 33

4.1.1.3 Adjective Phrases 34

4.1.1.4 Preposition phrase 34

4.1.1.5 Interjection 34

4.1.2 Syntactic features of idioms containing the word mèo in Vietnamese 35

4.1.2.1 Noun Phrase 35

4.1.2.2 Verb Phrase 36

4.1.2.3 Adjective Phrase 36

4.2 Semantic features of idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese 37

4.2.1 Semantic features of idioms containing the word cat in English 38

4.2.1.1 Expressing good points 38

4.2.1.1.1 The personal characters and status of people 38

4.2.1.1.2 Convenient conditions and good things 39

4.2.1.2 Expressing bad points 39

4.2.1.2.1 The personal characters and status of people 39

4.2.1.2.2 Inconvenient conditions and bad things 40

4.2.1.3 Expressing neutral points 41

4.2.2 Semantic features of idioms containing the word mèo in Vietnamese 43

4.2.2.1 Good personal characters and status of people 43

4.2.2.2 Expressing bad points 43

4.2.2.2.1 Bad personal characters and status of people 44

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4.2.2.2.2 Inconvenient conditions and bad things 44

4.3 A comparison between the syntactic and semantic features of idioms containing word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese 45

4.3.1 In terms of syntactic features 45

4.3.2 In terms of sematic features 48

4.4 Implications for teaching and learning idioms containing word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese 51

4.5 Summary 53

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 54

5.1 Recapitulation of the study 54

5.2 Concluding remark of the study 55

5.3 Limitation of the study 56

5.3 Suggestions for further studies 56

REFERENCES 58

APPENDIXES 63

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ABSTRACT

This study focuses on syntactic and semantic features of idioms containing the

word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese with the aim of helping Vietnamese

learners of English understand the syntactic and semantic features of idioms

containing the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese effectively In order to

achieve the aims given, descriptive and comparative methods are used in combination with the qualitative and quantitative ones Through their syntactic and semantic features, we find out the similarities and differences between idiomatic expressions

containing the word cat between two languages in terms of syntactic and semantic

features Data used for analysis in this study were mainly collected through reference books, dictionaries, and the internet websites The data collected in the two languages are then aggregated and compared in details to determine the similarities and differences between them Through analysis of forms of idioms containing the word

cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese, it is deduced that idioms are really important

in communication Idioms are used to express ideas in figurative styles They bring the vividness and richness to the speakers' speeches This is the reason why the more skillfully a person uses idioms in his conversations, the more effectively he can establish his communicative relationship The findings of the thesis illustrate some implications for teachers and learners of English from the use of linguistic features

of idiomatic expressions containing the word cat in English and focus on the meanings of the English idioms containing the word cat and a comparative analysis

with Vietnamese ones Hopefully, the study may help learners and teachers of English avoid difficulties in teaching and learning idioms

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Adj : Adjective Adj.P : Adjective phrase

NP : Noun Phrase Pre.P : Prepositional Phrase

VP : Verb phrase

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 4.1 Summary of syntactic features of idioms containing the words cat in

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

Language, a system of conventional spoken, manual, or written symbols by means

of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express themselves The functions of language include communication, the expression of identity, play, imaginative expression, and emotional release Each language also conveys a particular aspect of its culture which prevents people from communicating with each other effectively and clearly

Language is used to show not only the way of each people perceives the world around but also the way each people reacts towards that world 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” The American linguists, Bernard Bloch and George L Trager formulated the following definition: “A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates.”

Each nation’s language lies in itself similar and different concepts on many fields

of life such as humane values, ways of thinking, behavior standards, religious beliefs, customs and traditions, social conventions, etc Words and expressions including idioms have formed the vocabulary system of a language Idioms are considered as special factors of a language’s vocabulary system because they reflect culturally specific characteristics of each nation, including material and spiritual values Therefore, a lot of researchers have long shown their concerns for idioms

Idioms were formed along with the development of national language capital, closely related to proverbs, folk songs They occupy a large number in the treasure

in English and in Vietnamese For a long time, idioms have been a means of communication in people's daily life, moreover, idioms have been used by many writers and poets in the literature to contribute to the content of the work It can be said, idioms are "The jewel of the nation" by its common use-value is crystallized from the language, quintessence of national culture

Idioms are used to express ideas in figurative styles They bring the vividness and richness to the speakers’ speeches This is the reason why the more skillfully a person uses idioms in his conversations, the more effectively he can establish his

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communicative relationship One more important thing is that the general present tendencies are towards idiomatic usage; therefore, knowing how to use idioms effectively in the right situations is becoming essential Moreover, the most distinguished advantage of idioms is that they do provide users with a whole new way

of expressing concepts linguistically It can be said that idioms are the color and vitality of a language

Several linguists have given a lot of definitions about an idiom basing on its fixed characteristics For example, "An idiom is a fixed group of words with special different meaning from the meaning of several words" (Longman Dictionary of English Idioms (1979) Sharing the same point of view, Hoang Van Hanh (1994) considered an idiom as 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 Nattinger, De Carrico cited in Tajali &Tehrani (2009) considers idioms as "most important subcategory of the lexical phenomenon of formulaic language" David Crystal (1991) presents one view on idioms and defines them as having two prime characteristics First, the meanings of the individual words in the expression cannot

be used to understand the meaning of the expression altogether Second, the expression is also fixed both in terms of its grammar and its lexicality For example,

the words in the idioms raining cats and dogs cannot be placed in another order, or

be changed to synonyms, without losing the idiomaticity in the process

Idiomatic expressions are characterized by unpredictable meanings or unusual grammatical patterns, and they often convey specific connotations Sometimes non-native speakers lack confidence in using figurative language, especially idioms because of their unpredictable meanings Consequently, people may misinterpret what the other person is saying if they are not acquainted with the special meaning of

a particular expression

Theoretically, there have been so far a lot of studies and investigations into idioms concerning animals, plants, colors, causes, and results, etc Nevertheless, due to a certain gap in syntactic and semantic perspectives, the idioms containing the word

cat have not received enough attention from linguists in both English and

Vietnamese, especially in terms of syntactic and semantic features

Practically, idioms are used a lot in communication, but many people don’t know the real meaning of idioms, so this study is conducted in the hope to help Vietnamese learners of English improve their understanding of idioms and apply idioms in

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communication so that their speech is more adequate, natural, interesting and imaginative

For the reasons above, I would like to carry out this thesis titled Syntactic and

semantic features of idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in

Vietnamese

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study is aimed at helping Vietnamese learners of English understand the

syntactic and semantic features of idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo

in Vietnamese effectively

With the aim mentioned above, this study has three main objectives as follows:

1 To identify the syntactic and semantic features of idioms containing the word

cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese

2 To point out the similarities and differences between the idioms containing the

word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese

3 To provide some implications for teaching and learning idioms containing the

word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese

1.3 Research questions

To fully achieve these above aims, the study should answer the following questions:

1 What are the syntactic and sematic features of idioms containing the word cat

in English and mèo in Vietnamese?

2 What are the similarities and differences between the idioms containing the

word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese?

3 What are implications for teaching and learning idioms containing the word cat

in English and mèo in Vietnamese?

1.4 Methods of the study

In order to achieve the aims given, descriptive and comparative methods are used

in combination with the qualitative and quantitative ones

Firstly, the descriptive method is used to describe in detail the syntactic and

semantic features through the examples of idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese collected from dictionaries, reference books, and the Internet

websites

Secondly, contrastive and comparative methods are used to find out the similarities and differences in the syntactic and semantic features through the examples of idioms containing the word cat in English and in Vietnamese

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Finally, some techniques are used as data collection and data analysis A number

of data relating to idioms containing the word cat in English and in Vietnamese

publications are collected from dictionaries, reference books, and Internet websites Data collected will then be analyzed in order to find out the similarities and

differences between idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in

Vietnamese

1.5 Scope of the study

In the framework of the study, the thesis only focuses on idioms containing the

word cat in English and those containing the word mèo in Vietnamese, namely, linguistic features of idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese are semantic and syntactic features 102 idioms containing the word cat

in English are found and 51 idioms containing the word mèo in Vietnamese are

collected from reference books, dictionaries and Internet websites

The English and Vietnamese idioms in this study are collected from dictionaries, reference books, and the Internet websites; therefore, this research may not cover all

idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese

1.6 Significance of the study

Idioms as a special form of language which makes people feel at a loss in understanding conversations when they cannot guess the true meaning of idioms in normal ways From a dynamic view, learning English through idioms is one of the effective ways to improve your English because idioms carry a large number of cultural features Therefore, thanks to this research, language learners can get a lot of advantages

Theoretically, this research provides a detailed view of idioms containing the word

cat in both English and Vietnamese in terms of syntactic and semantic features The

findings, then serve as a foundation for other researches on idioms in English and Vietnamese under other perspectives

Practically, the results of the study provide valuable implications for efficient teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam in general, and

teaching and learning idioms the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese in

particular

As a whole, it is hoped that along with the understanding of the semantic and syntactic 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

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word cat in English and those containing the word mèo in Vietnamese

1.7 Structure of the study

This study consists of five chapters, excluding the appendixes and the references Chapter 1, Introduction, presents the reason why the topic is chosen, the aims, the

objectives, the scope, the significance and the structural design of the study are given

Chapter 2, Literature review, includes three parts: previous studies, theoretical

background and idioms and proverbs distinguishing This is also devoted to the presentation of major linguistic features, the definitions of language and idioms, overview of idioms

Chapter 3, Methodology, describes the research methodology in detail and

comprises the information of the subjects, and methods of data analysis

Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, presents syntactic and semantic features of

idioms containing word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese, a comparison between the syntactic and semantic features of idioms containing word cat in English and mèo

in Vietnamese and implications for teaching and learning idioms containing word cat

in English and mèo in Vietnamese

Chapter 5, Conclusions, restates the aims and summarize how to conduct the

research to the objectives 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 three main parts The first part presents and discusses the previous research works on idioms in English and Vietnamese The second one gives the theoretical background of idioms in English and Vietnamese on which the whole research has been based The last one provides some similarities and differences between idioms and proverbs

2.1 Previous studies

2.1.1 Previous Studies of English Idioms

Idioms are considered as special units of each language They are expressions that demonstrate human behaviors, reactions on certain things, social traits, habits, and traditions Idioms have attracted many language researchers all over the world They are an important factor in native-like discourse by English as well as a foreign language speaker

Idioms Organization by Wright (1999)

Jon Wright is co-founder and Director of Studies of The Language Project, Bristol,

a small school with a special focus on developing innovative learner-centered materials He has many years' experience as a teacher, a teacher trainer, a materials writer, and an examiner In his book, the idiom is expressed as an expression that has some features Firstly, it is fixed and recognized by native speakers Secondly, it uses language in a non-literal way - metaphor He writes about the idioms organized by metaphor, topic, and keyword

The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer (1997), idioms

are carefully collected and categorized into the alphabetical arrangement Their meanings and examples of usage in English are also mentioned These are the books that every linguistic or teacher of linguistics have to keep a look if they want to do research or a study on idioms

A Course in Modern English Lexicology, Ginzburg (1979) points out that

non-motivated word-groups whose lexical meaning is not deducible from that of their components are described as idioms Also, he gave the assumption that non-motivated word-groups have functioned as word equivalents because of their semantic and grammatical inseparability

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Idiomatic Creativity by Langlotz (2006) argues that “idioms are peculiar linguistic

constructions that have raised many eyebrows in linguistics and often confuse newcomers to a language” (Langlotz 2006)

The Oxford Companion to the English Language by McArthur (1992) defines

idiom is a combination of words which have a figurative meaning owing to their common usage

In their book English Idioms and How to Use Them, Seidl and McMordie (1978)

stress that, even though some idioms may be completely regular and logical, “an idiom is a number of words which, taken together, mean something different from the individual words of the idiom when they stand alone The way in which the words are put together is often odd, illogical or even grammatically incorrect” (Seidl and McMordie 1978)

Webster's New World Dictionary by Neufeldt (1991) offers a more detailed

definition of an idiom which is seen as “a phrase, construction, or expression that is recognized as a unit in the usage of a given language and either differs from the usual syntactic patterns or has a meaning that differs from the literal meaning of its parts taken together” (Neufeldt 1991)

A Syntactic Study of Idioms by Anna Dąbrowska (2018) shows that idiomatic

expressions are often treated by linguists the same way as lexical units which function

as one semantic entity and have one meaning

To conclude, idioms in English are studied in several aspects such as syntax, semantics, culture, pragmatism, etc and are studied from different perspectives However, most scholars pay attention to the structures and semantics of idioms When studying the idiomatic structures, idioms are described in terms of one or more structural properties When studying semantics, scholars study the hidden concept of idioms Such an approach leads to the nature of cognition and thus has valid psychology

2.1.2 Previous Studies of Vietnamese Idioms

There are a lot of books and dictionaries which have brought us great benefits of idioms It can be seen that idioms are carefully collected and categorized into the alphabetical arrangement In Vietnam, Vietnamese researchers have paid great attention to idioms Hoang Van Hanh (1973), Do Huu Chau (2006), Nguyen Thien Giap, Le Nhu Tien (1988), Nguyen Khac Hung (1988), Hoang Van Thang (1992), Trinh Duc Hien (1995), Phan Van Que (1995), Dang Anh Dao (1997) showed their

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concerns for the ways how to use idioms in literature and in different kinds of activities

Here are some studies conducts to find out features and related aspects of idioms

Từ vựng ngữ nghĩa tiếng Việt by Do Huu Chau (1981) studied quite carefully

about idioms (he did not call idioms; idioms are called fixed expressions) The author compares idioms with complex words and phrases, freedom to highlight the content and composition of idioms and at the same time, he also conducted idiomatic classification He considered symbolism an important feature of idioms

Hoạt động của từ tiếng ViệtbyDai Xuan Ninh (1978) went into research issues of content and form of idioms In particular, in which he proceeded to make a distinction between idioms and proverbs

Thành ngữ học tiếng Việt by Hoang Van Hanh (2004) went into search to

understand and analyze the origin and composition of idioms quite clearly The author based on the symbolic morphology that divides idioms into two main types of idioms: comparative metaphor and idiom From there he introduced the model and analyzed

in detail the two categories idiom above

Gà, Khỉ, Chuột, Ngựa trong thành ngữ và tục ngữ tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt by Phan Van Que (2000) has raised different symbolic meanings of animal images between

England and Vietnam The author also attached many examples for comparison and comparison of animal images in the minds of Vietnamese and English are different

Thereby, we see the specificity in idioms

An investigation in English idioms relating to fruits with reference to Vietnamese equivalent by Dang Thi Thanh Huong (2016) In the minor thesis, she presented,

described and analyzed the English and Vietnamese idioms relating to fruits and then investigated the similarities and differences in semantic and syntactic features of English idioms relating to fruits with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents

A minor thesis is Idiomatic expression containing the word "dog" in English and Vietnamese by Dao Thanh Tu (2017) In her research paper, Dao Thanh Tu (2017) studied the idiomatic expressions containing the word dog in English and compare

with those in Vietnamese and then showed the specific features of English and Vietnamese cultures about the dog lying behind the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms containing the word ‘dog’ She analyses 120 idioms containing the word "dog" in English and Vietnamese in terms of the literal

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meaning and idiomatic meaning and indicates the distinction between idioms' meanings by native speakers of English and Vietnamese

A study is A contrastive analysis on animal-based comparison idioms in English

and Vietnamese (Nguyen Thi Nga, 2003, VNU-CFL) In this study, the author dealt

with the features of English idioms and made a contrastive analysis of animal-based comparison idioms in English and Vietnamese counterparts The author found that, though the animal-based comparison idioms in both cultures use different animal images to express ideas, they semantically reflect the personal characteristics and status of people in the society during the course of the historic development of the two nations According to her, many animals are positive in English, but negative or neutral in Vietnamese and vice versa, which creates a lot of interest for learners in accessing and analyzing them

In the minor thesis A contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese idioms of

comparison (Do Quynh Anh, 2004, VNU-CFL), the author gave out some theoretical

background about idioms and made some comparisons with other concepts such as proverbs, slang, and quotations In the development, the author made a contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese idioms and then pointed out some similarities and differences between these two languages Due to the findings, the author stated some difficulties in learning English in terms of idioms and raised the awareness of

culturally related factors that should be put into consideration in the teaching process

In Vietnamese, although some idiomatic studies exist, most scholars focus on semantic and cultural characteristics of idioms in both English and Vietnamese

In conclusion, the above findings serve as the framework of this study, which is

the premise for future research on teaching and learning idioms effectively and efficiently to Vietnamese learners of English

2.2 Theory of syntax

One of the branches of linguistics that talks about sentences or clause is syntax The syntax is the study of how the order of elements in a sentence affects its meaning English Syntax was concerned with how we studied sentences Syntactics not only related to the structure of sentences, but also to the structure of phrases and clauses Baker (1989) says, “By the Syntax of a language, we mean the body of rules that speakers of the language follow when they combine words into sentences.” According to Moris (1938), syntax is the grammar, structures or order of the elements in the language statement (semantic is the meaning of the element) Syntax

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applies to computer languages as well as to natural languages Usually, we think of syntax as "word order." However, the syntax is also achieved in some languages such

as Latin by inflectional case endings in computer languages, syntax can be extremely rigid as in the case of most assembler languages or less rigid in languages that make use of "keyword" parameters that can be stated in any order Linda (1993) states,

“Syntax describes the way words fit together to form sentences” She adds one way

to study syntax is to look at sentences which are already known to be considered syntactically ‘well-formed’ sentences to the speakers of that language

John Lyons (1981) states, “Syntax deals with the distribution of words (i.e forms)”

Jim Miller (2002) states, “Syntax has to do with how words are put together to build phrases, with how phrases are put together to build sentences.”

Andrew Carnie (2001) states, “Syntax is the cover term for studies of this level of language.”

In terms of the syntactic category, a syntactic category is a type of syntactic unit that theories of syntax assume Word classes, largely corresponding to traditional parts of speech (e.g noun, verb, preposition, etc.), are syntactic categories, in phrase structure grammars, the phrasal categories (e.g noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase, etc.) are also syntactic categories

According to Angela Downing and Philip Lock in English Grammar (2007), and Victoria Flomklin, Robert Rodman, Peter Collins and David Blair in An Introduction

to Language (2012), words are classified grammatically according to the traditional terminology, which includes noun, verb, adjective, preposition, pronoun, article, and conjunction Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs make up the largest part of the vocabulary

In terms of characteristics of phrases, 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 syntactic structure that consists of more than one word but lacks the subject-predicate organization of a clause

In the book Syntax for EFL Students (2008), Ilić states, “A phrase can be

considered the lowest syntactic unit It can be defined as a syntactic unit that contains more than one word and lacks the subject – predicate relationship The phrase contains one word which is more important than the others (Head) and some other

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single word or word group elements that specify, modify or complete the headword

In the book The Oxford English Grammar (1996), Greenbaum, S defines :

Noun phrases, “a noun phrase has as its head a noun, a pronoun, a nominal adjective or numeral” (p.208) For examples, a wonderful spinach cheese, a citizen

of her own class ,etc

Verb phrases, “a verb phrase has as its head a main (or lexical) verb The main

verb may be preceded by up to four auxiliaries (or auxiliary verb)” (p.246) For

examples, was sank, has been sunk, etc

Adjective phrase, “a adjective phrase has as its head an adjective, which may be

preceded by premodifiers , and followed by postmodifier” (p.288) For examples, fond

of steak, very happy, etc

Adverb phrase, “a adverb phrase has as its adverb, which may be by premodifiers and (less commonly) followed by postmodifier.” (p.295), for example, much more easily than I could count

Prepositional phrase, "a preposition consists of a preposition and the complement

of the preposition The preposition may be pre- modified by an intensifying adverb The prepositional complement is chiefly a noun phrase, an –ing participle clause or

wh-clause" (p.300) For instance, under the weather, etc

In the book, An Introduction to the Grammar of English: Syntactic arguments and socio-historical background (2002), Elly van Gelderen states:

Noun phrases, “a noun phrase is built around a noun which is called the head of

the noun phrase In addition to the head, a noun phrase can contain determiners and

adjectives as well as other elements” (p.31) For example, the nice unicorn a piece

of paper, etc

Verb phrases, “ a verb phrase is built around a verb, which can indicate an action,

a state, or a sensation Verbs can be in the present or past tense” (p.35) For example,

washed the dishes, wrote the letter, etc

Adjective phrase, “an adjective phrase is built around adjectives, which indicate properties of nouns.” (p.35) For instance, so nice, interested in music, etc

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Adverb phrase, “an adverb phrase is built around adverbs which indicate qualities

of verbs, adverbs, and adjectives” (p.35) For instance, very quickly, quite difficult,

etc

Prepositional phrase, " a prepositional is built around a preposition Prepositions

indicate relations in space and time A prepositional phrase includes a preposition and

an noun phrase.” (p.36) For example, on the moon, the man with glasses, etc

All the definitions given above are different in some respects, but in general, the syntax is the grammar, structure or order of the elements in the language statement They are therefore important criteria that are used in this thesis when analyse the

syntactic features of idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in

Vietnamese

In fact, though each school of grammar gives different names to each type of

phrases, the thesis is based on the viewpoint of Sydney Greenbaum in The Oxford English Grammar

As states by Katz (1972), “Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning It is concerned with what sentence and other linguistics object express, not with the arrangement with their syntactic parts or with their pronunciation.” Semantics has long been an object of study within the philosophy It is said that the term semantics itself was introduced into English at the end of the 19th century Based on etiology, the word semantics originally comes from Greek word semantikos means

‘significant’ ; semainein means ‘to show, signify’ or ‘indicated by sign’; from sema

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means ‘sign’ However the word ‘meaning’ has a wide range of perceptions and there

is no general agreement among expert about the way in which it should be described There are some term semantics in various definition by some experts, they are: Palmer (1976) says, “Semantics is technical term used to refer to the study of meaning” Semantics looks at these relationships in language and looks at how these meanings are created, which is an important part of understanding how language works as a whole It is concerned with what sentences and other linguistics objects express, not with the arrangement of their syntactic parts or with their pronunciation Hornby (1972) has defined “Semantics is branch of linguistics concerned with studying the meaning of words and sentences.”

Lyons (1977) defines “Semantics is generally defined as the study of meaning.” Siregar (1992) states “Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases, or sentences in the language or semantics is the study of meaning in language.”

Saeed (2003) states, “Semantics is the study of meaning communicated through language.”

Semantics has developed and became worthy study There are two factors that make semantics become important and worthy study First, meaning is strictly connected with communication A certain meaning can be delivered through communication plays an important role in human life Second, the process of human attempts to comprehend the nature of meaning involves the mental ability by the use

of reasoning and perception As stated by Leech (1974), “Semantics is central to the study of communication; and as communication becomes more and more crucial factor in social organization, the need to understand it becomes more and more pressing Semantics is also at the centre of the study of the human mind-thought process, cognition and conceptualization.”

Ridwan (1997) in Saleh (2008) states that there are some terms of semantics, such

as semasiology, semology, semiotics, sememis, and semics Beside having some terms, semantics also has some close relations with some disciplines, such as philosophy, psychology, anthropology and sosiology

Akmajian (1979) says, “Semantics is generally considered to be the study of meaning (and related notions) in language, semantics is generally considered to be the study of reference (and related notions) in languages"

All of these meanings given above are different in some respects but mainly semantics is a division of linguistics dealing with the meaning of words, it is a study

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concerned with the meaning of the linguistic string It means the analysis must be concentrated on what sentences or other linguistic objects convey not to the arrangement of their syntactic part of their grammatical form

2.4 Overview of idioms

2.4.1 Definitions

Idioms are one of an expression whose meaning does not seem to follow logically from combination words of meaning It is also called a group of words which has a meaning that is not to be found in the analysis of its part in idiom, the word or the combination of words cannot be meant literally meaning but it must be meant in a group of words and it is meant contextually Idioms express a particular sentiment, but they do not literally mean what the individual words themselves mean As a language form, idioms have its own characteristic and patterns and used in high frequency whether in written language or oral language because idioms can convey

a host of language and cultural information when people chat to each other In some senses, idioms are the reflection of the environment, life, historical culture of the native speakers and are closely associated with their innermost spirit and feelings They are commonly used in all types of languages, informal and formal That is why the extent to which a person familiarizes himself with idioms is a mark of his or her command of language

Idioms are composed of more than one word: their constituents show to some extent the sort of internal cohesion that we expect of single words An idiom typically resists interruption and re-ordering of its constituents For example, the idiom ‘kick the bucket’ will lose its idiomatic meaning if it is re-ordered into ‘the bucket which

is kicked’ The exceptions lie in the idioms such as ‘to lay down the law’ (meaning

‘to say with real or assumed authority what should be done’) and ‘spill the beans’ (meaning ‘reveal secret information deliberately’), which have passives: ‘the law is laid down’ and ‘the beans are spilled’, respectively, though this still raises controversy

Up to now, there are many definitions of idioms

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1988) defines an idiom as “a phrase which means something different from their meanings of the separate words from which it is formed”

The Free Dictionary (Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus), which defines idiom as “a speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself

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grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements,

as in keep tabs on,” as well as “the specific grammatical, syntactic, and structural character of a given language "

Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American language (2nd college edition, 1970) gives this definition “an accepted phrase, construction, or expression contrary

to the patterns of the language's having a meaning different from the language or

having different from the literal”

Collins Co-build Learner’s Dictionary (1996) defines an idiom as “an idiom is a

group of words which have a different meaning when used together from the one they

would have if you took the meaning of each word individually”

New Simplified English Dictionary (1966) gives an idiom such a definition as “a group of words which have a special meaning when used together”

Many linguists such as Palmer (1990), states that "an idiom is an expression whose meaning cannot be inferred from the meanings of its parts"

Jackson, Amvela and Palmer (2000), share the similar viewpoints on idiom definition, “an idiom may be defined as a phrase the meaning of which cannot be predicted from the individual meanings of the morphemes it comprises”

Seidle and Mordie (1978) who considers “an idiom is a number of words which, taken together, mean something different from the individual words of the idiom when they stand alone”

Laval (2003) states: “Idiomatic expressions are expressions where there is a

considerable difference between what said (literal interpretation) is and what is meant (idiomatic interpretation) In other words, the meaning of an idiomatic expressions depend largely on a convention that relates a given linguistic form to a given meaning”

Collins has a different way to define idioms but shares the similar idea To take the definition by Collins (1996) to consider, an idiom is "a special kind of phrase" It is a group of words which have a different meaning when used together from the one it would have if the meaning of each word were taken individually […] idioms are typical metaphorical: they are effective metaphors which have become “fixed‟ or

“fossilized"

As for the linguistic sources, Saeed J in his Semantics (2011) describes idioms as

“expressions where the individual words have ceased to have independent meanings”

He draws attention to problems with pinning down word meaning, as do most of the

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sources One of the problems is also that with every speaker, the meaning of words and their intentions differ slightly, therefore, the contextual meaning in particular is very important in this case

According to Palmer (1990), idioms as consequences of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meaning of the words themselves Semantically, idioms are single units, but they are not single grammatical units like words He also printed out some restriction in syntactic features and noted that the problem of idioms was involved with the much wider issue of word formation, by which what would appear

to be new and more complex lexemes can be formed from single ones

According to Asher and Simpson (1994), idiom, habitual collocation, is a phrase

or other sequence of words which has a meaning beyond or other than the sum of the

meaning of the individual words, e.g., throw over the traces (= free oneself of restrictions); fly off the handle (= be come angry), and which do not participate in the usual possible range of variation, e.g., He threw over the traces but He threw over the trace

In Vietnam, idioms have also attracted a lot of the interest of researchers

Hoang Van Hanh defines in “Kể chuyện thành ngữ, tục ngữ” (1994) that idioms are "set expressions which are stable in their morpho – structure, complete and figurative in their meaning, used widely in daily communication, especially in speech"

Mai Ngoc Chu, Vu Duc Nghieu and Hoang Trong Phien (2008) in "Cơ Sở Ngôn Ngữ Học Tiếng Việt" affirm that “idioms are groups of words which are syntactically

restricted and have a particular meaning Their meaning are often imaginative and figurative”

Phan Van Que in “Ngữ nghĩa của thành ngữ, tục ngữ có thành tố chỉ động vật trong Tiếng Anh” (1996) defined idiom as “a group of words combined together to express something whose meaning is different from its constituent”

Hoang Phe (1997), an idiom is considered to be “a set of expression whose meaning is generally inexplicable simply through the meaning of individual word it contains”

Although idioms are defined in different ways, they still have things in common that can help us understand what an idiom is These definitions are clues for us to identify idioms in using and studying With the aims of syntactic and semantic analysis of idioms in both English and Vietnamese, I intend to adopt the definition of

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idioms given out by Seidle and Mordie (1978) who considers “an idiom is a number

of words which, taken together, mean something different from the individual words

of the idiom when they stand alone”

2.4.2 Features of Idioms

Grammatically as well as semantically, the idiom has special characteristics Victoria (2011) states that an idiom belongs to the 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 its meanings

2.4.2.1 Syntactic features

In idioms studies of many linguists, the characteristic features of idioms are

“syntactic restriction” and “stability"

In English, in terms of structure, idioms may take many different forms or

structures According to Cowie, Mackin and McCaig (1993) in Oxford Dictionary of English idioms, English idioms have enormous structural variety The idioms may be

a noun phrase, an adjective phrase, a verb phrase, a prepositional phrase, an adverbial phrase, and an interjection:

Idioms as a noun phrase: for example: the cat’s whiskers (wonderful)

Idioms as an adjective phrase: as an example,, as busy as a beaver

(very busy, assiduous, or hard working)

Idioms as a verb phrase: for example: to get the bottom of things (find the true the

explanation or the state of affair)

Idioms as a prepositional phrase: for instance: on cloud nine (extremely happy) Idioms as an adverbial phrase: taking the example of: as likely as not (certainly/

surely)

Idioms as a clause: like the cat that swallowed the canary

Idioms as an interjection: Dog my cats

In addition, an idiom can have a regular structure, an irregular or even a

grammatically incorrect structure For the first type, they have common forms, but there is no connection between the meaning of each component and that of the whole

unit, for example, It's just not my day (Nothing is going right for me today) Therefore,

you cannot guess the meaning of the idioms without learning them before The second group takes into account ones which have unconventional forms, but their meaning

can be worked out through the meaning of individual words Take It's early days yet

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as a typical illustration; since the idiom is irregular and illogical in terms of grammatical structure According to the rule of language, “It” is singular and therefore “day” must be singular, too However, in this case, the idiom does not need

to obey the grammatical rules to make sense It's early days yet can still be understood that It too soon to say/ decide In the last group, grammatically incorrect, both its

form and meaning are irregular The structure is grammatically inaccurate and the meaning is not precisely expressed by gathering the meaning of each member-word,

for example, It's ages since we met (singular with a plural noun) In English, normally

a structure like this is acknowledged once in a blue moon since adjectives never come

after prepositions individually As an idiom, however, the case is accepted Idiom

diamond cut diamond (two parties are equally matched) is grammatically incorrect,

for normally the verb cut should take the third person singulars as the subject diamond

is singular It is grammatically wrong, but idiomatic and widely accepted

Most idioms are unique and fixed in their grammatical structures However, there are some changes in nouns, pronouns or in the verb tenses that can be made to an idiom Adjectives and adverbs can also be added to an idiomatic phrase Or people

can change the subject of the idiom, for example, I wasn't born yesterday (I am

experienced; knowledgeable in the ways of the world), when applying with another

girl can be changed into “she wasn't born yesterday” It is for these reasons that it is

sometimes difficult to isolate the actual idiomatic expression and then find it in a dictionary of idioms

Finally, the constituents of an idiom cannot be deleted or added to, not even an

article For instance, out of the question means impossible If the article the is deleted,

the idiomaticity will be lost and it will signify no question instead

In Vietnamese, most of Vietnamese linguists have had the same point of view about the forms of Vietnamese idioms Nguyen Thien Giap (1985) did consider an idiom as a fixed expression Although Nguyen Duc Dan (1986) didn’t focus on the forms of Vietnamese idioms, he dealt with the fixation of idioms He said “Idioms are language units which have fixed forms” Hoang Van Hanh (1987) attached special importance to the components forming idioms He affirmed that an idiom was a fixed group of words whose form was unchanged

It can be said that Vietnamese idioms are fixed groups of words whose forms are unchanged: the fixed combination comes from settled words and expressions such as

bắt cá hai tay (to run after two hares), cá chậu chim lồng (behind prison bars), ăn

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chắc mặc bền (solidity first), chuột sa chĩnh gạo (to get a windfall), etc The fixation

shows that we can not change the order of words or use the synonyms (similar words)

to replace any components of an idiom in a casual way This is a basic feature helping

us to realize idioms easily However, in fact, there are some fixed expressions which

are not idioms such as bánh xe lịch sử (the wheel of history), gia đình văn hóa (good family), khoa học kỹ thuật (sciences and techniques) etc Therefore, in order to realize

an idiom correctly, we can not only look at this feature but also other ones

To sum up, in terms of syntactic features, firstly, idioms may take many different forms or structures a noun phrase, an adjective phrase, a verb phrase, a prepositional phrase, an adverbial phrase, and a clause structure Mentioning to structure, an idiom can have a regular structure, an irregular or even a grammatically incorrect structure Secondly, an idiom is a set – expression We cannot make any changes without losing the idiomatic meaning Therefore, they are essential criteria used for the study of

syntactic features of idioms containing the word cat in English and the word mèo in

Vietnamese

2.4.2.2 Semantic features

When mentioning the semantic features of an idiom, it is often talked about its meaning

In terms of semantic, all idioms were literal expressions; however, the imposition

of figurative meanings was not entirely uniform, which resulted in some becoming more idiomatic than others Ortony et al (1978), and Titone and Connine (1999) claim that there are two classes of idioms, the first comprising those whose meaning has a relationship with the component lexical items (known as compositional), and the second being those whose meaning has no relation with their components (non-compositional) Idiomatic expressions cannot be translated from one language into another literally, using word-for-word translation, the reason being that they do not have an equivalent in literal or formal terms Thus, when translating idiomatic expressions, attention must be paid to their metaphorical nature and the cultural environment in which the expression is Literal translation of certain idiomatic expressions may convey their metaphorical meaning, particularly when the meaning

in the target language is close to that of an interpreted idiom

It is very important to understand idioms metaphorically We can not 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,

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in order to understand the idiom (to feel) like fish out of water, we have to consider its meaning metaphorically as to feel uncomfortable because of unfamiliar surroundings

Another feature concerning itself with semantics is that idioms can range from positive, neutral to negative meaning Some idioms have positive meanings such as

a willing horse (a keen worker), to get it into one’s head (to deeply understand), or

to warm the cockles of one’s heart (to make someone feel pleased or happy) Some have neutral meanings as to watch the world go by (to observe the others while doing nothing oneself), etc And many other idioms are negative For instance, crocodile tears means insincere tears, to waste one’s breath means to talk or give advice without having any effects, or to wash one’s dirty linen in public means to discuss or argue about one’s personal affairs in public, etc All those examples show that the

nuances of idiomatic meanings are very complicated They mainly depend on the nuances of their key components

In Vietnamese, there have been a lot of different opinions about the semantic features of Vietnamese idioms According to Nguyen Van Menh (1972), an idiom introduces an image, a phenomenon, a state, a personality, an attitude, etc This opinion is quite simple and general In 1986, he gave his own new point of view

""Idioms have their own meanings and nominative functions, and are used in daily speaking Nguyen Van Tu (1968) said “The meaning of an idiom does not come from individual components which may have their images or not Its meaning can be different from the meaning of each component or does come from each original word” Nguyen Thien Giap (1985) focused on the basic semantic features of idioms: Being rich in imagery is a basic feature of idioms Idioms express concepts basing on specific images and symbols The imagery of idioms is made from its metaphor and comparison

Although there have been different ideas about the semantic features of idioms, Vietnamese linguists have all shared the same point of view as follows:

Firstly, the meaning of an idiom is a perfect whole which does not come from the meanings of individual components added

Secondly, the meaning of an idiom expresses the reflection of things or concepts Thirdly, the meaning of an idiom is usually figurative and descriptive

Although many linguists affirm that idioms have their own figurative and imaginary meanings, we shouldn’t consider this as an absolute fact In Vietnamese,

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there are also some idioms which have literal sense coming from the meanings of

their components They may be comparative idioms such as nát như tương (as pasty

as soy), đen như cột nhà cháy (as black as a sweep) and bám như đỉa đói (to stick like

a limpet), whose imagery comes from the images compared with activities or properties Some Sino-Vietnamese idioms such as nhất cử lưỡng tiện (to kill two birds with one stone), bán tín bán nghi (half doubtful) and bách phát bách trúng (to hit the mark one hundred times out of one hundred) also have literal sense basing on the

meanings of their components

In conclusion, idioms add humor, imagery, spice to language and dress up messages in a colorful way An idiom is a kind of lexical unit in which the whole meaning of the expression is not apparent from the meanings of its components

In this thesis, all the above-mentioned are used to analyze semantic features of

idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese 2.4.3 Types of idioms

In English, according to Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, there are two

definitions of idioms type Both of them are countable noun The first, type is “a particular group of people or things which shares similar characteristics and forms a smaller division of a larger set” The second, type is “a person who seems to represent

a particular group of people, having all the qualities that you usually connect with that group” Below are the types of idiom based on Cacciari and Tabossi (1993), and also McCarthy and O‟Dell (2002) Cacciari and Tabossi (1993), state that idiomatic expressions can be included into the vast family of fixed phrases, clichés, proverbs, indirect speech acts, speech formulas, and so forth Then, it also gives some degree

of conventionalization of meaning yet at the same time differs in semantic as well as syntactic properties In a similar way, McCarthy and O‟Dell (2002) divide the idioms into seven types of idioms as follows:

a Similes are expressions which compare two things; they always include the words

as or like, for example: My brother's as thin as a rake (extremely thin)

b Binomials are type of idiom in which two words are joined by a conjunction (linking word), usually “and”, for example: black and white

c Trinomials are a similar type of idiom, in which three words are joined, example: I've looked here, there and everywhere for my glasses but can't find them

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d Proverbs are short sentences which refer to something most people have experienced and which gives or warnings, for instance: We should buy extra travel insurance for our skiing trip Better safe than sorry

e Euphemisms are type of idiom used to avoid saying words which may offend or be considered unpleasant, for example: Go behind a tree if you need to answer the call

of nature

f Cliché are a comment that is often used in certain common, everyday situations, for example: Truth will out! g Fixed statements are expressions that you can often hear and use fixed statements in everyday conversation, example: Get your skates on!

h Other language, it mostly comes from Latin or French, for example: Ad hoc, De factor Cacciari and Tabossi (1993) and McCarthy and O‟Dell (2002) both states that idiomatic expressions can be included into the vast family of fixed phrases, clichés, proverbs, indirect speech acts, speech formulas, and so forth Then the writer also conclude to determine the type of idiom based on statement from Cacciari and Tabossi (1993) and McCarthy and O‟Dell (2002)

In Vietnamese, according to the book “Từ điển thành ngữ, tục ngữ Việt Nam

(Nguyen Lan, 2010), there are 5 types of idioms which are mentioned below:

a Idioms that contain well-selected words: lá ngọc cành vàng, con nhà nòi, khóc tức tưởi, buồn nẫu ruột, etc

b Comparison idioms: vui như hội, đắt như tôm tươi, nhanh như chớp, rẻ như bèo,

etc

c Idioms with symmetrical structures: được ăn cả, ngã về không, ăn chắc, mặc bền,

etc

d Alliteration idioms: dấm dấm dớ dớ, đi đi lại lại, đi đêm đi hôm, etc

e Reduplication idioms: khúc kha khúc khích

In this thesis, idioms are analyzed in both aspects of semantic and syntactic

features through their phrases

2.4.4 The similarities and differences between idioms and proverbs

According to Hornby (1995), in his Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, a proverb is defined as "a short well-known sentence or phrase that states a general

truth about life or gives advice", for example, Better safe than sorry or Don’t put all your eggs in one basket More particularly, Dinh Gia Khanh (2002) states that "a

proverb is a short saying, created by working people and passed down through

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centuries By a concise saying, proverb expresses perfectly the whole life and social experience - the history of working people"

It is easy to find that idioms and proverbs have a lot in common and it comes as

no surprise that they are traditionally studied together The first one is that both idioms and proverbs are all ready-made They are products of human thought, cultures, and processes of hard-working and learning They are primarily transmitted orally from generation to generation and naturally accepted in daily life Secondly, both idioms and proverbs are set-expressions with stable and in substituting components Hence, their meanings cannot be deduced from individual words, but must be understood as a whole It means that any substitutions in any components of

an idiom or a proverb may result in unacceptable changes in the meaning of the whole group, which makes them nonsensical in metaphorical meaning Besides this, most idioms and proverbs are metaphorically using We can not usually discover their meanings by looking up the individual words in a dictionary; their meaning must be understood metaphorically In addition to these similarities, both of them still own typical features that distinguish one from the other The first and most obvious difference lies in their grammatical structures Idioms are phrases that are parts of sentences; thus, they are equivalent to words only Proverbs are complete sentences

or phrases expressing the idea Moreover, idioms and proverbs are also different in terms of their functions Proverbs are short well-known sentences or phrases that express a judgment, state a general truth about life or advice; they are told to contain three main literature functions which are perceptive function, aesthetic function, and

educational function For example, the proverb Money makes the mare go

demonstrates a remark as well as criticism about the negative side of money Its perceptive function is to make people aware of the bad effect of money which can become the power dominating the society, even the most inanimate things The educational function is to criticize the negative side of money and urges people to be aware of that ill effect And its aesthetic function is to exaggerate in a picturesque way to help readers understand the proverb easily In contrast, idioms do not express judgments, give advice or state general truth about life, which means they do not have functions of perception and education but only aesthetic function For example, the idiom to eat like a horse merely describe the strong ability of eating because of great hunger in the figurative and imaginary way and does not point out any educational lesson or knowledge of life Despite the very clear definitions, it is still confusing

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Consequently, basing on the opinion of Nguyen Đinh Hung (1999), Tuyển Tập Thành Ngữ Tục Ngữ Ca Dao Việt – Anh thông dụng, we mention some of the

following features:

• A proverb is a complete sentence with a whole meaning making comments on social relationships, imparting experience of life, giving lessons in morality or criticizing

For example, all cats are grey after dark An idiom is a fixed phrase but not a

complete sentence, so it is considered as a word and that's why you can put it in a

sentence For instance, She told them she was dropping out of college That really set the cat among the pigeons

• Both proverbs and idioms reflect people's knowledge about things and natural phenomena from the world But from these knowledge people generalize concepts in idioms, meanwhile they interpret it into judgements in term of proverbs For example,

Idiom Dã tràng xe cát (build st on sand)

Proverb Dã tràng xe cát Biển Đông

Nhọc lòng mà chẳng nên công cán gì

It can be understood that contents of idioms are contents of concepts, and contents

of proverbs are contents of judgments

From all the differences above, we can find out that idioms belong to the linguistic aspect and proverbs belong to the aspect of awareness activities Therefore, they are

essential criteria used in the study of idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese

of the language characteristics of idioms

In the second part of the chapter, the theoretical background was introduced It presents some contents such as linguistic features including syntactic and semantic features, idiom definitions, features of idioms In terms of syntactic features, idioms have some of the following structures: noun phrase, an adjective phrase, a verb

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phrase, a prepositional phrase, an adverbial phrase In terms of semantic features, idioms can range from positive, neutral to negative meaning English idioms features are invariable and figurative meanwhile Vietnamese idioms' features are fixed and multi- meaningful These results will be the basis for the following chapters

In the third part of the chapter, the similarities and differences between idioms and proverbs are mentioned Both idioms and proverbs are human’s thoughts, cultures, and processes of hard-working and learning In addition, both of them are set-expressions with stable and in substituted components Besides those similarities, idioms and proverbs still own typical features that distinguish one from the other Idioms are phrases that are parts of sentences; thus, they are equivalent to words only Proverbs are complete sentences or phrases expressing the idea Idioms belong to the linguistic aspect and proverbs belong to the aspect of awareness activities

The following chapters will provide a more detailed description of the methods

used to analyze idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese

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CHAPTER 3: MEHODOLOGY

3.1 Research approach

The research describes and compares the syntactic and semantic features of idioms

containing the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese In order to achieve the

aims and objectives of the study, the descriptive and comparative methods are employed accompanied by both qualitative and quantitative approaches

3.1.1 Quantitative research

Quantitative research is defined as a systematic investigation of phenomena by gathering quantifiable data and performing statistical, mathematical or computational techniques Quantitative research gathers information from existing and potential customers using sampling methods and sending out online surveys, online polls, questionnaires, etc., the results of which can be depicted in the form of numerical After careful understanding of these numbers to predict the future of a product or service and make changes accordingly

Quantitative research is mostly conducted in the social sciences using the statistical methods used above to collect quantitative data from the research study In this research method, researchers and statisticians deploy mathematical frameworks and theories that pertain to the quantity under question

Quantitative research templates are objective, elaborate and many times, are investigational in nature The results achieved from this research method are logical, statistical and unbiased Data collection happens using a structured method and conducted on larger samples that represent the entire population

In this study, quantitative research is used to collect data about idioms that contain

the word cat in both English and Vietnamese and then make statistics and calculations After the collection and statistics of idiom data containing the word cat

in English and in Vietnamese, the syntactic and semantic features of idioms are predicted based on the theory presented

3.1.2 Qualitative research

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

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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 a multimethod attitude to data collection and analysis (called Triangulation).

In this study, qualitative research is used to develop the structural and semantic

assumptions of idioms that contain the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese

3.1.3 Descriptive method

In the study of language description, or descriptive linguistics is the work

of objectively analyzing and describing how language is applied (or its 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 are based on

a structural approach to language, as exemplified in the work of Leonard Bloomfield and others

The linguistics' 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 an adaptable form,

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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 The 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

In this study, the descriptive method is used to describe in detail the syntax and

semantic characteristics through idiomatic examples containing the word cat in English and the word mèo in Vietnamese collected from books, references,

dictionaries and Internet sites Moreover, the analytical method is used to show

similarities or differences between English idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese

3.3.3 Contrastive method

Contrastive linguistics, since its inception by Lado R in the 1950s, has often been linked to aspects of applied linguistics, e.g., to avoid interference errors in foreign-language learning, as advocated by Di Pietro (1971) , to assist interlingual transfer in the process of translating texts from one language into another, as demonstrated by Vinay & Darbelnet (1958) and more recently by Hatim (1997) , and to find lexical equivalents in the process of compiling bilingual dictionaries, as illustrated by Heltai (1988) and Hartmann (1991)

Contrastive descriptions can occur at every level of linguistic structure: speech sounds (phonology), written symbols (orthography), word-formation (morphology), word meaning (lexicology), collocation (phraseology), sentence structure (syntax) and complete discourse (text ology) Various techniques used in corpus linguistics have been shown to be relevant in intralingual and interlingual contrastive studies, e.g by 'parallel-text' analysis (Hartmann 1997)

Contrastive linguistic studies can also be applied to the differential description of one or more varieties within a language, such as styles (contrastive rhetoric), dialects, registers or terminologies of technical genres

In this study, contrast and comparison methods are used to find out similarities and differences in syntactic and semantic features of idioms containing the English word

cat and mèo in Vietnamese

3.2 Methods of the study

In order to achieve the aims given, the major method to be employed in the study

is a descriptive one The descriptive method is used to describe in detail the syntactic

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and semantic features through the examples idiom containing the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese collected from reference books, dictionaries and Internet

websites Moreover, the analysis method is used to point out the similarities or

differences between English idioms containing the word cat and mèo in Vietnamese

The steps of the study order as follows:

First and foremost, idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in

Vietnamese are collected from several dictionaries, reference books and from the Internet and then sort them out in alphabetical order

Secondly, the collected idioms containing the word cat in English and Vietnamese

are analized in terms of syntactic and semantic features

Thirdly, the differences and similarities between idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese are found and compared

Then, the ways to apply the findings of the study to the language teaching/learning are suggested

Last but not least, forming a regular consultation with a supervisor for guidance and academic exchange is a crucial strategy in performing the investigation to find the right direction for successfully doing the work

3.3 Data collection and data analysis

The selective material related to the idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese plays a crucial role in terms of supplement data for the study Firstly, a large number of idioms containing the word cat in English and mèo in

Vietnamese are collected as many as possible from dictionaries, reference books, and

Internet websites to make the corpus for the study such as Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms (1998) by Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2013) by Cambridge University Press, English idioms in use

by Felicity O'Dell and Michael McCarthy, Từ điển Anh Việt (2004) by Viện Ngôn Ngữ Học, Từ điển thành ngữ Việt Nam online (102 English idioms containing the word cat and 46 Vietnamese idioms containing the word mèo are collected)

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 word cat in English and mèo in Vietnamese 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

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