English idioms denoting time with reference to vietnamese

Syntactic Features of English idioms which contain words denoting time with reference to Vietnamese .... Similarities and Differences of Syntactic Features of English idioms containing w

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

ENGLISH IDIOMS DENOTING TIME WITH

REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE (Nghiên cứu thành ngữ biểu đạt thời gian trong Tiếng Anh trong sự liên hệ với Tiếng Việt)

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

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

report entitled “English idioms denoting time with reference to

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

I would also thank the organizers of this master course My sincere thanks

go to the whole lecturers and the staff of Hanoi Open University for their useful lectures, assistance, enthusiasm and advice during my course

I highly appreciate the helpful advice and assistance from my colleagues

at Marie Curie High School

Finally, I am so indebted to my parents, my husband and my family for their understanding, support and encouragement during the entire period of my study

ABSTRACT This study focused on English idioms denoting time with reference to Vietnamese Through their syntactic features, semantic features and cultural

characteristics we find out the similarities and differences between English idioms and Vietnamese ones under the light of contrastive analysis and cross-cultural perspective Data used for analysis in this study were mainly collected through dictionaries and the internet Through analysis of idioms containing time

in English and Vietnamese, it is deduced that idioms are really important in communication Idioms are used to express ideas in figurative styles They bring vividness and richness to the speakers’ speeches The findings of the thesis illustrate some implications for teachers and learners of English from the use of linguistic features of idioms containing time in English and focus on the meanings of English idioms containing time in English and a comparative analysis with Vietnamese ones I hope that the study may help learners and teachers of English avoid difficulties in realizing and translating English time idioms into Vietnamese

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Methods of the study 2

1.5 Scope of the study 3

1.6 Significance of the study 4

1.7 Design of the study 4

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Previous studies 5

2.1.1 Previous studies of English idioms in Foreign Countries 5

2.1.2 Previous studies of Vietnamese idioms in Vietnam 5

2.2 Theoretical background 6

2.2.1 Syntax theories 6

2.2.2 Semantic theories 7

2.2.3 An overview of Phrase, Clause and Sentence structures 7

2.3 Theoretical framework 15

2.3.1 Definition of idioms 15

2.3.2 Time 17

2.3.3 Syntactic features 17

2.3.4 Semantic features 24

2.3.5 Cultural Features 26

2.3.6 Idioms which contain Words Denoting Time (IT) 27

2.4 Summary 27

Chapter 3: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH IDIOMS DENOTING TIME WITH REFERNCE TO VIETNAMESE 28

3.1 Syntactic Features of English idioms which contain words denoting time with reference to Vietnamese 29

3.1.1 Phrase Structures 29

3.1.2 Clause Structures 33

3.1.3 Similarities and Differences of Syntactic Features of English idioms containing words denoting time with reference to Vietnamese 35

3.2 Semantic Features of English idioms containing words denoting time with reference to Vietnamese 37

3.2.1 Semantic Fields of English idioms containing words denoting time with reference to Vietnamese 37

3.2.2 Similarities and Differences of Semantic Features of English idioms containing words denoting time with reference to Vietnamese 41

3.3 Difficulties students encounter when learning idioms 43

3.3.1 The non-compositional meaning of idioms 43

3.3.2 Difficulties in using idioms correctly 43

3.3.3 The shortage of teaching materials 43

3.4 Some suggested solutions 44

3.4.1 Learn idioms in context, never in isolation 44

3.4.2 Create conversations using idioms 44

3.4.3 Keep an ‘Idioms’ diary 44

3.4.4 Learn a small amount at once 44

3.4.5 Find many idioms in songs 44

3.4.7 Try to see the idiom in your mind 45

3.5 Summary 45

Chapter 4: CONCLUSION 46

4.1 Concluding remarks 46

4.2 Limitation of the study 48

4.3 Suggestions for further studies 48

REFERENCES 49

APPENDIX 1: LIST OF ENGLISH IT 51

APPENDIX 2: LIST OF VIETNAMESE IT 70

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1.5 Words denoting time 3 Table 3.1 Statistical Summary of Syntactic Features of English and

Vietnamese Idioms Containing words Denoting Time 28 Table 3.2 Statistical Summary of Semantic Features of English and

Vietnamese Idioms Containing words Denoting Time 34 Chart 3.1 Rate of Syntactic Features of English and Vietnamese Idioms Containing words Denoting Time 29 Chart 3.2 Rate of Semantic Features of English and Vietnamese Idioms Containing words Denoting Time 35

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

In this initial part, the problem and the rationale, the aims and objectives, the scope, and the significance of the whole paper are presented Most importantly, the research questions are identified to serve as a guideline for the whole research

Nowadays, together with the growth of the global integration, English language has become increasingly essential In the process of communication, idioms play an important role in the effective use of English Furthermore, idioms are sayings that reflect accumulated human experiences and are built on frequently occurring situations that demonstrate human behavior, social traits, certain habits or tradition in a country Sometimes we come across some idiomatic expressions that we cannot understand although we can comprehend the meaning of every single word in them “Language is a source of misunderstandings” (Antoine de Saint Exupery)

Every country or nation has got their own idioms that are specific to their own culture, while many idioms have synonyms in several countries, which refers to the equal shared human nature in many cultures Mastering the specific idioms related to a certain culture helps you learn more about the history, customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of it

Idioms make a language more gripping and vibrant Grasping idioms means you are using and understanding the language more like a native speaker would As for English learners, effectively communicating with others especially native speakers is the ultimate goal And we cannot reach that goal if we pay little or even no attention to the idioms Thus, grasping the use of idioms is an essential part of English study

There have been so far a number of studies and investigations into idioms concerning family, animals, colors, food, weather, etc These studies mainly concentrate on investigating semantic features such as transfer of meaning: metaphor, hyperbole and simile Nevertheless, hardly any study of idiomatic expressions indicating time has been carried out especially in syntactic, semantic categories and cultural features All the reasons above have inspired the

researcher to conduct a study on this thesis entitled “English idioms denoting

time with reference to Vietnamese”

Hopefully, the result of this study will help Vietnamese teachers and learners of English teach, study and use the idioms, proverbs and sayings involving time effectively

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

1.2.1 Aims of the study

The study is carried out with the aim to investigate syntactic and semantic features of English idioms denoting time and their Vietnamese equivalents to describe the similarities and differences between them This can also help teachers and learners to be familiar with idioms in their teaching and learning

1.2.2 Objectives of the study

This study is intended to achieve the following objectives:

- Identifying syntactic and semantic features of English idioms denoting time with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents

- Finding out syntactic and semantic similarities and differences between English idioms denoting time and their Vietnamese equivalents

- Suggesting some solutions enabling Vietnamese teachers and learners to

be aware of English idioms denoting time

1.4 Methods of the study

The meanings of idioms, in accordance with their syntactic and semantic features, are described and interpreted with means of descriptive method and a powerful source of dictionaries and document

What’s more, the contrastive method is applied to draw out the similarities

as well as differences between English and Vietnamese in terms of their syntactic and semantic features

Statistical and observational methods are also used to find out essential findings

1.5 Scope of the study

In terms of academic scope, there are a number of English idioms as well

as English idioms denoting time, but I would like to emphasize the English idioms containing words denoting time because of its popularity as well as importance in life and it has the relationship to its nation’s culture

- Criteria to choose the samples:

+ Possess characteristics of idioms

+ Contain words denoting time according to the below table

Table 1.5 Words denoting time

Giây, phút, giờ, ngày, tuần, tháng, năm, đời, sáng, trưa, tối, nửa đêm

Words denoting time

point

Weekend, past, future, time, before, after, yesterday, today, tomorrow

Cuối tuần, quá khứ, tương lai, thời gian, trước, sau, hôm qua, hôm nay, ngày mai

Words denoting days

in a week

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Mùa xuân, mùa hạ, mùa thu, mùa đông

With such set criteria I collected English and Vietnamese idioms from many books, dictionaries, stories and the internet Firstly, I start collecting idioms

in the book which got more IT than other ones When getting a list of idioms, I was able to collect a total of 200 English and Vietnamese IT for building up my corpus which consists of 113 English idioms and 87 Vietnamese ones

In terms of social scope, this study helps teachers and students understand the meaning and the usage of the English idioms denoting time in general and English idioms containing words denoting time in particular with reference to Vietnamese

1.6 Significance of the study

The analysis of syntactic features, semantic features and cultural characteristics of English set expressions containing numbers has provided a profound and convincing explanation to manifest the viewpoints of the native speakers more logically, vividly and clearly The systematic contrastive analysis

of the language and cultures of the two communities has demonstrated the similarities and differences in English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting time

1.7 Design of the study

The thesis consists of 4 main chapters, excluding the appendixes and references Chapter 1 (Introduction) gives clearly the reasons for doing the research and the objectives of the thesis as well as the scope and the significance

of the research Chapter 2 (Literature Review) answered the research questions with data presentation, data analysis and the comparison among the findings themselves as well as presents the results of others who worked on the problem

or on a similar problem Chapter 3 (Findings and Discussions) provides what can

be learned during the research and interpret the results, and Chapter 4 (Conclusion) summarizes the main issues discussed in the paper, the limitations

of the research, several recommendations related to the studied issue and some

suggestions for further investigation The study ends with the ‘REFERENCES’

which list all the materials and sources of information used in the study

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Previous studies

Idioms have been defined variously by many different linguists

2.1.1 Previous studies of English idioms in Foreign Countries

Idiomatic expressions have become an interest of a great number of researchers in the world in different languages In fact, many writers and linguists started studying English idioms at the beginning of the twentieth century Some authors have made great contributions to the collections of English Idioms M.C Mode (1909) with “English Idioms and How to Use them” is considered among the first authors to study on this field Idioms take up a large proportion of both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries such as: “Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms” by Cowie, A.P et al (1993) [6], Fenado, C with “Idioms and Idiomaticity” (1996) [10], “English Idioms in Use” by McCarthy, M & O’Dell, F (2002) [18], Ayton, J (2006) [4] In addition, there are some more collections of idioms Palmer, F.R (1990) [19], who defined idioms as sequences of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meaning of the words themselves

William Bullokar (1785) in “Brief Grammar for English” gave the syntactic and semantic views of idioms, all the descriptions and analyses are based on Chomsky’s view

After that, in 1857, W.C Fowler also makes some descriptions about idioms in “English Grammar”

In “NTC’s American Idioms Dictionary”, Spears, R and Kirkpatrick, B (1991) focus on the meaning, usage and appropriate contexts for each idiomatic phrase

2.1.2 Previous studies of Vietnamese idioms in Vietnam

In Vietnamese, idioms have been recognized, collected and explained systematically

Nguyễn Lực, Lương Văn Đang who wrote “Thành ngữ Tiếng Việt” made

an important contribution in the field of Vietnamese idioms They collected the Vietnamese idioms and arranged them in alphabetical order with clear explanations and examples extracted from Vietnamese novels, newspapers and magazines

Moreover, “Thành ngữ tục ngữ lược giải” was written by Nguyễn Trần Trụ explains meanings of the most common idioms and proverbs easily that learners can use this book for consulting and reference purposes

It should be mentioned the works of Đỗ Hữu Châu, who wrote “Từ vựng

- Ngữ nghĩa tiếng Việt” (NXB Giáo dục, 1981) In this book, he analyzed Vietnamese idioms and showed their semantic and syntactic features

Besides these, there have been some other papers which dealt with idioms related to animals, human body parts, numbers, spatial verbs, and a number of contrastive studies on the various aspects of idioms have been carried out in Danang University by Vietnamese researchers

All the researches mentioned above are likely to describe idioms in general with some syntactic and semantic features; they also clarify the idioms related to some fields but not time Hence, the study of syntactic and semantic features of idioms that contain words denoting time is necessary

Andrew Radford elaborates “Within traditional grammar, the syntax of a language is described in terms of a taxonomy (i.e the classificatory list) of the range of different types of syntactic structures found in the language The central assumption underpinning syntactic analysis in traditional grammar is that phrases and sentences are built up of a series of constituents (i.e syntactic units) each of which belongs to a specific grammatical category and serves a specific grammatical function Given this assumption, the task of the linguist analyzing the syntactic structure of any given type of sentence is to identify each of the constituents in the sentence, and (for each constituent) to say what category it

belongs to and what function it serves.” (English Syntax: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 2004)

as the study of literal, decontextualized, grammatical meaning

One of the most interesting and central questions in linguistics is understanding how syntax and semantics interact (i.e interface) “Basically, syntax studies the structure of well-formed phrases and sentences; part of the business of semantics deals with the way syntactic structures are interpreted Traditionally, problems like word order, agreement, case marking and the like are within the domain of syntax whereas things like the meaningfulness of a well-formed structures are seen as a part of semantics” [13]

2.2.3 An overview of Phrase, Clause and Sentence structures

2.2.3.1 Phrase

A phrase is a group of words acting as a single part of speech and not containing both a subject and a verb It is a part of a sentence, and does not

express a complete thought

For example, the phrases in the first two sentences of this page are

italicized In which the first sentence contains five phrases: "of words," "acting

as a single part of speech," "as a single part," "of speech," and "not containing both a subject and a verb." Except for the phrase beginning with as, all the phrases are acting as adjectives The phrase beginning with as is adverbial

According to dictionary, a group of words, which makes sense, but not complete sense, is called a Phrase It is a group of related words without a Subject and a Verb

“A phrase is a small group of words that forms a meaningful unit within a clause” (The Oxford English Dictionary, 1998 by John Simpson)

There are several different types, as follows:

Noun phrase: A noun phrase is built around a single noun

E.g A vase of roses stood on the table

She was reading a book about the emancipation of women

Verb phrase: A verb phrase is the verbal part of a clause

E.g She had been living in Paris

I will be going to university next year

Adjective phrase: An adjective phrase is built around an adjective

E.g He’s led a very meaningful life

A lot of the kids are really interested in football

Adverbial phrase: An adverbial phrase is built round an adverb by adding words before and/ or after it

E.g His old car runs very slowly

They wanted to leave the company as soon as possible

Prepositional phrase: In a prepositional phrase the preposition always

comes at the beginning

E.g I longed to live near the lake

The cat was lying under the kitchen table

Of course, we also use the word phrase to refer to a short group of words

that have a particular meaning when they are used together, such as rain cats and dogs, play for time, or a square meal This type of phrase is often referred to as

In a Noun phrase, one or more words work together to give more

information about a noun

E.g all my dear students

In a Verb phrase, one or more words work together to give more meaning

to a verb In English, the verb phrase is very complex The Verb phrase in English has a noticeably different structure, since the information it carries about mood, tense, modality, aspect, and voice is quite different from the information carried by a noun phrase The Verb phrase has two functional parts,

the auxiliary, a grammatical morpheme carrying information about mood,

tense, modality, and voice

the main verb, a lexical morpheme carrying its lexical information and,

usually, an inflection

E.g Be more careful!

This house was sold five years ago

We are going to finish our assignments

Philosophers of language, like H.P Grice, have done some of the most interesting linguistics of recent years, explicating the meanings of the indicative mood in English by examining how people use language in conversation After studying a series of conversations in different contexts, he developed the following generalizations or “rules of conversation” that help explain much about how we interpret our language in the indicative mood Grice (1975) point out the participants in a conversation expect each other to be cooperative, to say something true and to the point, and not to be withholding any relevant information

In an Adjective phrase, one or more words work together to give more

information about an adjective

E.g extremely beautiful

earnest in her desire

very happy with his result

In an Adverb phrase, one or more words work together to give more information about an adverb

E.g especially fast

much too quickly to see clearly

In a Prepositional phrase, one or more words works together to give information about time, location, or condition The preposition always appears at the front of the phrase

E.g after a very long walk

behind the beautiful garden

for all the hungry children

2.2.3.2 Clause

A clause is a group of words that contains a verb (and usually other components too) A clause may form part of a sentence or it may be a complete sentence in itself [14]

E.g He was eating a bacon sandwich [clause]

She had a long career but she is remembered mainly for one early work

Main clause

Every sentence contains at least one main clause A main clause may form part of a compound sentence or a complex sentence, but it also makes sense on its own

Subordinate clause

A subordinate clause depends on a main clause for its meaning Together with a main clause, a subordinate clause forms part of a complex sentence

E.g After we had had lunch, we went back to work

[subordinate clause] [main clause]

In according with Wikipedia (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clause): “A typical clause in English contains minimally a subject and a predicate In other languages, the subject is often omitted if it is retrievable from context A simple sentence usually consists of a single finite clause with a finite verb that is independent More complex sentences may contain multiple clauses Main clauses (matrix clauses, independent clauses) are those that could stand alone as a sentence Subordinate clauses (embedded clauses, dependent clauses) are those that would be awkward or incomplete if they were alone.”

2.2.3.3 Sentence

We put a group of words together to form a sentence But not all sentences

than one main clause There are as many clauses as there are finite verbs in a sentence (The finite verb is the verb that changes with the person or number of the subject.)

 Expresses a complete idea as a statement or asks a question

 May be a word or short sentence used to express a strong feeling such as surprise, excitement or anger

 Can also be a combination of two or more clauses One of the clauses must be an independent clause, and the other clause can either be an independent or a dependent clause It is important to know about clauses in order

to construct complete sentences

 Has two parts: a subject (noun or pronoun) and a predicate (a verb

or a phrase) as explained below

 Can be one word or two words, and as long it can stand alone, its meaning is clear, and does make sense, it is accepted as a sentence

 Can be joined to another sentence without the use of a conjunction

We do it by using the present participle which is the –ing form of a verb: look – looking

 Can be made a negative sentence using –ing form of the verb, we put not in front of it

A sentence is the basic unit of language which expresses a complete thought It is a group of words that are put together to mean something and does this by following the grammatical rules of syntax

A complete sentence has at least a subject and a main verb to state

(declare) a complete thought Short example: Walker walks A subject is the noun

that is doing the main verb The main verb is the verb that the subject is doing In English and many other languages, the first word of a written sentence has a capital letter At the end of the sentence there is a full stop or full point

According to https://en.oxforddictionaries.com, A sentence is a group of words that makes complete sense, contains a main verb, and begins with a capital letter

Sentences are used:

1 to make statements:

E.g My mother is the best cook in the world

The shop stays open until 9 p.m

2 to ask questions or make requests:

E.g Can I help you?

Could you close the window?

3 to give orders:

E.g Stop talking!

Come here at once!

E.g The train should be here soon

His father worked as a journalist

Compound sentence

A compound sentence contains two or more clauses of equal status (or

main clause), which are normally joined by a conjunction such as and or but

E.g Joe became bored with teaching and he looked for a new career

[main clause] [conjunction] [main clause] Boxers can be very friendly dogs but they need to be trained

Complex sentence

A complex sentence is also made up of clauses, but in this case the clauses are not equal balanced They contain a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses

[main clause] [subordinate clause]

He took up the project again as soon as he felt well enough

[main clause] [subordinate clause]

In English, according to Quirk et al (1972), there are seven sentence

“Culture is a complex whole that consists of all the way we think and do and everything we have as members of society” (Robert Bierstadt, 1974)

Geert Hofstede (1991) defines culture as “the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one category of people from another”

Culture is not only the way we do things It is also our attitudes, thoughts, expectations, goals and values It is the rulers of our society- the norms that tell

us what is and what is not acceptable in the society

2.2.4.2 Culture in language

With the trend of globalization and integration, cross-border contacts appear more and more frequent However, differences among cultures are one of the biggest barriers for successful cross-cultural communication It is widely accepted that English has been an international language in the world In Vietnam, for the past few decades, we have witnessed a dramatic change in English teaching and learning Communicative approach plays a key role in that big change That is to say, language in use is paid more attention and becomes a core in language teaching and learning for learners’ benefit Language is part of a culture and also its reflection

Culture is formed by creative activities of human being It is obvious that relying on language, we can find the specific cultural features of a nation Language is an integral part of culture, at the same time, it is also a carrier of culture The transmission of culture inevitably achieves with the benefit of language Language is influenced by culture, which in turn exerts influence on culture (Wang, 2007) Language reflects the characteristics of a nation, which not only contains the cultural history and cultural background of a nation, but also contains the thoughts, lifestyle and the mode of thinking of the people in life (Deng & Liu, 1989) Idiomatic expressions have deep cultural connotations They have history origins, map out the psychology of different nationalities and imply certain customs of life

2.2.5 Translation theories

According to Roger T Bell (1991) “Translation is the expression in another language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences”

The content and style of the original text should be preserved as far as possible in the translated text The aim of converting information from one language or language variety into another is to reproduce as accurately as possible all grammatical and lexical features of the “source language” original by finding equivalents in the “target language” At the same time all factual information contained in the original text must be retained in the translation

According to Cruse, D.A (1995), “an idiom is an expression whose meaning cannot be inferred from the meanings of its parts” This definition must

be understood as stating that an idiom is an expression whose meaning cannot be accounted for as a compositional function of the meanings its parts have when they are not parts of idioms The circularity is now plain: to apply the definition,

we must already be in a position to distinguish idiomatic from non-idiomatic expressions

Jenifer Seidl and W.Mc Mordie stated in “English Idiom and How to Use” that “an idiom is a number of words which, taken together, mean something different from the individual words of the idiom when they stand alone.”

According to Wikipediahttp://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiom, “An idiom

is a word or phrase which means something different from what it says - it is usually a metaphor Idioms are common phrases or terms whose meaning are not real, but can be understood by their popular use.”

Makkai, in his work (Idiom structure in English (1972 - page 121),

defines an idiom as “any polylexonic lexeme made up of more than one minimal free form of word (as defined by morphotactic criteria), each lexeme of which can occur in other environments as the realization of a monoloxonic lexeme”

It can be seen that idioms can mean something different from what the words mean Generally speaking, most of the authors showed that idiom is a group of words whose meaning cannot be understood from the meanings of individual words in it

In linguistics, idiom is defined more narrowly as a complex lexical item which is longer than a word form, but shorter than a sentence, and which has a meaning that cannot be derived, inferred from knowledge of its component parts

Idioms are difficult to define accurately They are also set expression, short sayings usually characterized by the fact that their meaning cannot easily be deduced from their comonents

An idiom is a “lexical complex which is semantically simple”, or one can say that idioms show unitary meaning 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” It can be seen that idioms can mean something different

from what the word mean 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

According to Wikipedia http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiom, “An idiom is a word or phrase which means something from what is says-it is usually

a metaphor Idioms are common phrases or terms whose meaning are not real, but can be understood by their popular use.”

Vietnamese linguistic researchers have given out a number of definition of idioms Hoang Van Hanh defines “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” (Thành ngữ là những cụm từ cố định có hình thái cấu trúc bền vững, có tính bóng bẩy về ý nghĩa và được sử dụng rộng rãi trong giao tiếp)

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 that an idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning cannot be worked out by looking at the meaning of its individual words

Idioms pose a number of structures and semantic problems The meaning

of idioms is considered to be one of the most important difficulties, in that the meaning of the whole cannot always be determined from the meaning of their

constitutive parts For example, an idiom, such as spill the beans (“give away

information, deliberately or unintentionally”, has a special meaning which is attached to the whole expression

All things considered, idioms are sayings that reflect accumulated human experiences and are built on frequently occurring situations, which demonstrate human behavior, social traits, certain habits or tradition in a country They almost represent life lessons and are a heritage of those accumulated events that make up the conscious of a nation or humankind in general

2.3.2 Time

Time is what clocks measure The three key features of time are that it orders events in the sense of placing events in sequence one after the other; it specifies how long any event lasts; and it specifies when events occur

The concept of time is self-evident An hour consists of a certain number

of minutes, a day of hours and a year of days But we rarely think about the fundamental nature of time

In accordance with Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time), time is a

dimension in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future, and also the measure of durations of events and the intervals between them Time has long been a major subject of study in religion, philosophy, and science, but defining it in a manner applicable to all fields without circularity has consistently eluded scholars Nevertheless, diverse fields such as business, industry, sports, the sciences, music, dance, and the live theater all incorporate some notion of time into their respective measuring systems Some simple, relatively uncontroversial definitions of time include "time is what clocks measure" and "time is what keeps everything from happening at once”

It can be pointed out that time is an observed phenomenon, by means of which human beings’ sense and record changes in the environment and in the universe A literal definition is elusive Time has been called an illusion, a dimension, a smooth-flowing continuum, and an expression of separation among events that occur in the same physical location

2.3.3 Syntactic features

Idioms present a great variety of structures and combinations that are mostly unchangeable and often not logical and may not follow basic rules of grammar The thesis is based on the viewpoint of Randolph Quirk in “A Grammar of Contemporary English”, “A Comprehensive Grammar of the

English Language” and “A University Grammar of English” by Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum on grammar for features of English structure

Idioms can be quite clear (Đi đêm về hôm, Daylight robbery, Day by day,

Be on time) or pretty unclear (A dog's life, Be pressed for time, Make a day of it) Some idioms have proper names in them (The New York minute); Some idioms have the comparison (Ủ rũ như diều hâu tháng chạp)

The components in idioms can neither be added nor substituted They cannot be changed or varied in the way literal expressions are normally varied both in speech and writing

In traditional concepts, grammar consist of two parts of morphology and syntax Syntax deals with the combination of words to make larger units of language: phrase, clause and sentence

Phrases: treating the combination of words into Noun phrase, Verb

phrase, Adjective phrase, Adverb phrase and Preposition phrases

Clauses: different kinds of clauses-main/superordinate clause

(independent) and subordinate clauses (dependent)

Sentences:

Simple sentences: sentence with one clause

Compound sentences and complex sentences: sentences consisting

of two or more clauses

According to Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum

Highest unit: Sentences, which consist of one or more

Clauses, which consist of one or more Phrases, which consist of one or more Words, which consist of one or more Lowest unit: Morphemes

Phrase structures

Noun phrases Determiners: 6 subclasses

a Article: indefinite a(n), definite the, zero article (an old man, the book, boy)

b Possessive: my, your, his, her, their (my brother, their discussion)

c Demonstrative: this, that, these, those (this book, these boys)

d Interrogative: whose, which, what (which color, whose book)

e Indefinite: some, any, every, each (some water, any car(s), every

student, each book)

f Quantifier: much (much water, much hair)

In the basic Noun phrases, these words are central elements pre-modifiers

Pre-determiners (= words preceding Determiners):

a Inclusive: all, both, half (all the books)

b Multipliers: double, twice, three times (double salary)

c Fraction: one-third, two-fifths (one-third of this book)

Post- determiners (= words coming after Determiners)

- Quantifiers

Closed-system: many, little, few (many books, few apples) Open class: a lot of, good deal of, a great number of (a lot of books, a great deal of oil)

a Finite VPs (V, V-s & V-ed1, etc)

Non-finite VPs (to V, ing & ed2) do

V-have tense and mood of a certain type not have tense and mood

They go there very often They want to arrive there then

He goes to the cinema twice a

(Tense: past; mood: indicative)

(Can be used either with Present or Past tense)

b Finite VPs often have

their own

* Non-finite VPs may have but more often

subject do not have their S

S + V-ed1

S + to infinitive

c Finite VPs often appear in the simple, * Non-finite VPs often perform the

compound or complex sentence

function of S, O, C or A of the main finite

(making up finite clauses)

clause and make up the complete complex

For more example:

They wanted us to become teachers

weather incredibly cold

as I could

as clearly

Prepositional phrases

Preposition + Prepositional complement

during the resistance war according to these rulers

Clause structures

Elements of clause structures:

Subject (S), Verb (V); Object (O), Complement (C), and Adverbial (A)

E.g Most people [S] consider [V] these books [O] rather expensive [C], actually [A]

The verb element (V) is the most “central” element, it is preceded by the subject (S) Following the verb there may be one or two objects (O), or a complement (C), which follows the object if one is present The most peripheral element is the adverbial (A), which can occur either initially (in front of the subject or finally (after the verb, and after the object or complement if one is present)

Sentences may be simple, compound or complex

All the three kind of sentence can be analyzed in terms of S, V, O, C and A

Simple sentence: He is a teacher of English

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” 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 grammatical rule 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

It is pointless to ask why idioms have such unusual structure or choice of words, or why they don't follow basic grammar rules We just accept as fact that idioms are a difficult peculiarity of English

Most idioms are unique and fixed in their grammatical structure 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

To sum up, in terms of syntactic features, firstly, an idiom is a set – expression We cannot make any changes without losing the idiomatic meaning Secondly, idioms may take many different forms or structures Mentioning to structure, an idiom can have a regular structure, an irregular or even a grammatically incorrect structure

by Nunberg et al (1994), while the other authors mention the term idiomaticity

According to Wulff (2008, 11) “Idiomaticity is no longer a property of core idioms alone: both non-compositionality and formal fixedness can be presented to different degrees in a given multi-word expression.” So, Wulff (2008) presents idiomaticity as the notion which embraces both non-compositionality and fixedness Due to ambiguity of the notion of idiomaticity, this term will not be included in the description of idioms

“The meaning of an idiom is not the sum of the meanings of its

constituents” (Grant and Bauer, 2004) Nunberg et al (1992) points out that

conventionality is related to predictability of meaning He states that the meaning

of an idiom cannot be predicted from the meanings of the words it consists of

However, depending on the degree of semantic change, the degree of compasionality of an idiom may vary

b) Partly-compositional idioms

Partly-compositional idioms are those which contain one component with

its current meaning and the other with transferred meaning, for example: to lose (keep) one’s temper, to fall in love (out of love), to stick to one’ s word (promise), small talk

c) Literal idioms

Literal idioms (on foot, on the contrary, a very happy birthday, etc.) meet the essential criterion for idioms, which is invariability or restricted variation, they are less semantically complex than pure and semi-idioms

Thus, according to the semantic creation we can distinguish compositional, partly-compositional idioms and literal idioms (Grant and Bauer, 2004) In non-compositional idioms the semantic change affects the whole word

non-group and it is difficult to predict their meaning: to skate on thin ice (to put oneself in a dangerous position; to take risks); to wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve (to expose, so that everyone knows, one’s most intimate feelings); to have one’s heart in one’s boots (to be deeply depressed, anxious about something) According to Grant and Bauer’s (2004) definition of non-compositionality, it is

easier to predict the meaning of partly-compositional idioms than the meaning of non-compositional idioms

David Crystal (1987) defined “a semantic or lexical field as a named area

of meaning in which lexemes interrelate and define each other in specific ways.”

For example, the field of “words denoting time” consists of advice, time, mood,

characteristics…

Idioms, as means of non-literal language, have a great extent use in everyday language They carry a metaphorical sense that makes their comprehension difficult, since their meaning cannot be deduced from the meaning of their constituent parts Their meanings are more than simply the sum

of their individual parts

In terms of opacity, Idioms are categorized in a continuum from transparent to opaque called the spectrum of idiomacity Therefore, idioms can

be divided into: Transparent-Opaque Idioms including:

a) Transparent Idioms

These idioms have a very close meaning to that of the literal one Hence, transparent idioms are usually not difficult to understand and translate because their meanings can be easily inferred from the meanings of their constituents, both components have a direct meaning but the combination acquires figurative sense

Phraseological combinations are commonly included in this category

E.g Time is money…

b) Semi - Transparent Idioms

The idiom usually carries a metaphorical sense that could not be known only through common use i.e., the meaning of its parts has a little role to play in understanding the entire meaning

E.g A race against time

c) Semi-Opaque Idioms

This type refers to those idioms in which the figurative meaning is not joined to that of the constituent words of the idiom Thus, the expression is separated into two parts; a part with a literal meaning, and another part with a figurative sense Phraseological unities belong to this category

d) Opaque Idioms

Opaque idioms are the most difficult type of idioms, because the meaning

of the idiom is never that of the sum of the literal meanings of its parts So, it would be impossible to infer the actual meaning of the idiom from the meanings

of its components, because of the presence of items having cultural references These culture-specific items have a great influence on the comprehensibility of idiomatic expressions

Generally speaking, 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

2.3.5 Cultural Features

Every language has its own vivid and colorful idioms which were created

by people when using for a long time and has deep nation history and local color

Maalej (2005) identifies idioms as culture-specific aspect of a particular language, i.e., the non-existence of a direct one to one correspondence between a target language and a source language is the result of culture-specific idioms

view of it speakers, to their national character, as well as their traditional social relations, thus becoming an embodiment of national dispositions and spiritual values

As we all know, language is closely related to culture and can be said as a part of culture From a dynamic view, language and culture interact with each other and shape each other Language is the carrier of culture which in turn is the content of language We can dig out cultural features from language and explain language phenomena with culture

Idioms as a special form of language exist in both of them and carry a large amount of cultural information such as history, geography, religion, custom, nationality psychology, thought pattern…, and therefore are closely related to culture They are the heritage of history and product of cultural evolvement Consequently, we can know much about culture through studying idioms and in turn get better understanding of idioms by learning the cultural background behind them

2.3.6 Idioms which contain Words Denoting Time (IT)

English idioms were classified into several special groups including numbers, time, body parts, animals and briefly listed by Seidl & Mordie in

“Pocket English Idioms” (1993) According to them, IT is a special kind of

idioms in which time terms with special meanings are considered key words In other words, IT are one specific group of idioms that demonstrate the way each person time using terms in set expressions and how they associate these terms with other things in the world

Pham Vu Lua Ha in “Mastering English Idioms” (1996) mention idioms

with key words from special categories such as idioms involving animals, colors, numbers, size, body parts, time…He defines IT as idioms which contain time words or terms as key words or main components

In the next part, an overview of theoretical background of syntax, semantics and an overview of phrase, clause and sentence structures is mentioned, including noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, adverb phrase, preposition phrase and sentence Culture and language always exist together and translation theories are mentioned

The last part has presented an overview of theoretical framework including definition of idioms, classification of idioms, syntactic features, semantic features, cultural features and idioms which contain words denoting time in English

In short, this chapter has reviewed the previous related studies Moreover, this chapter has also presented general notions of idioms as well as syntactic, semantic and cultural features which will be foundation for analysis in Chapter 3

Chapter 3: SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH IDIOMS DENOTING TIME WITH REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE

3.1 Syntactic Features of English idioms which contain words denoting time with reference to Vietnamese

Idioms and proverbs may take many different forms of phrases and clauses that

are discussed in the previous chapter This thesis is conducted based on Quirk R et al.’s view on structures including Noun phrases, Verb phrases, Adjective phrases,

Adverb phrases, Prepositional phrases, Clauses and Sentences

3.1.1 Phrase Structures

 IT with Noun Phrase Structures (42)

English IT are relatively numeral over the Vietnamese ones The general

patterns of English include: (Article) + N/NP, (Article) + N/NP + Prep, (Article) + N + N, (Article) + adj + N/NP, Numeral + N + Numeral + N, One’s + N Meanwhile the Vietnamese patterns containing Noun Phrase are (Article) + adj + N/NP, Numeral + N + Numeral + N, N/NP + V, N/NP + V

i (Article) + N/NP: (3 E)

Eg A dog's life, Daydream, Day-tripper

ii (Article) + N/NP + Prep: (8 E)

Eg A race against time, Time to call it a day Order of the day, A blast from the past

iii (Article) + N + N: (10 E)

Eg Twilight years, The New York minute, Sunday driver, Day person

iv (Article) + Adj + N/NP: (9 E & 1V)

Eg A black day, A dirty weekend, The big time

Bách niên giai lão

v Numeral + N + Numeral + N: (3V & 1E)

Eg Năm thì mười họa, Một sớm một chiều

vi One’s + N: (3E)

Eg Not one’s day, Donkey's years, One's sunset years

Eg Mùa hạ buôn bông, mùa đông buôn quạt, Sông có khúc, người có lúc,

 IT with Verb Phrase Structures (70)

There is a surprisingly big number of patterns in Verb structure, both in

English and Vietnamese idioms English idioms mainly appear in the patterns: V + (Article) + N/NP (+N), V + Prep, V + N/NP + Prep, V + N/NP + N/NP, V + Prep + N/NP, V + N + Prep + N, Prep + V, Prep + V, (Prep + V) Vietnamese ones occupy

a large number in this form and they are in the patterns: V + (Article) + N/NP (+N), V + Prep, V + N/NP + Prep, V + Prep + N/NP, Prep + V, Prep + V, (Prep + V)

i V + (Article) + N/NP (+N): (16E + 13V)

English Vietnamese

Come Monday, Burn the midnight

oil, Carry the day, Be no spring chicken,

Make good time, Make somebody's day…

Ăn bữa sáng lo bữa tối,

Ăn đời ở kiếp, Đi đêm về hôm, Thua keo trước được keo sau…

ii V + Prep: (1E + 9V)

English Vietnamese

theo thuở, ở theo thời…

iii V + N/NP + Prep: (9E + 3V)

English Vietnamese

Get/have your day in court

Need something yesterday

Pass the time of day (with

someone) Have time on your hands/time

Spring into action, Spring to

vi V + N + Prep + N: (4E + 1V)

English Vietnamese

Spring something on someone,

Put years on somebody, Save

vii Prep + V, Prep + V, (Prep + V): (3V)

Eg Sáng rửa cưa, trưa mài đục, tối giục nhau về, Nay gánh mai đội,

Nay đợi mai trông

 IT with Adjective Phrase Structures (21) (7E + 14V)

The basic patterns in the Adjective phrase structure:

(Be) + comparative form + N/NP, Numeral + N + Adj, Adj + Adj, Adj + N/NP, Adj +Prep are found in the verb phrase structure of Vietnamese idioms whereas

English ones only appear in two patterns:

(Be) + comparative form + N/NP, Adj + Prep + N

i (Be) + comparative form + N/NP: (6E + 7V)

English Vietnamese

Be as clear/plain as day Different as night and day

Ủ rũ như diều hâu tháng chạp

Rõ như ban ngày Tối như đêm ba mươi

ii Adj + Prep + N: (1E)

Eg Pressed for time

Eg Ba ngày béo bảy ngày gầy

Eg Chậm mà chắc, Chẳng chóng thì chày

Eg Giàu chiều hôm, khó sớm mai

Sớm một ngày hay một chước

Khôn ba năm dại một giờ

vi Adj + Prep: (1V)

Eg Khổ trước sướng sau

 IT with Prepositional Phrase Structures (12)

Prep + N/NP + (N/NP), Prep + Prep + N/NP, Prep + Adj + N are the

common structures of English idioms adjective phrase Vietnamese ones only appear

in one pattern in this form and it is: Prep + N/NP + (N/NP)

Giữa ban ngày ban mặt

ii Prep + Prep + N/NP: (3E)

Eg All the livelong day, All in a day's work, Late in the day

iii Prep + Adj + N: (2E)

Eg Of mature years, In broad daylight

 IT with Adverb Phrase Structures (15)

The basic patterns in the verb phrase structure: Adv + Adj, Adv + V, Adv + N are found in the verb phrase structure of Vietnamese idioms whereas English ones only appear one pattern: Adv + N

i Adv + Adj: (3V)

Eg Trước sau như một, Trước có vụng rồi sau mới khéo, Càng mong lại càng lâu

ii Adv + V: (2V)

Eg Ba lần đo, một lần cắt, Buổi tối nghĩ sai, sáng mai nghĩ đúng

iii Adv + N: (7E + 3V)

English Vietnamese

Ahead of time