Grammatical and semantic features of english idioms denoting negation with reference to their vietnamese equivalents

1 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A THESIS Grammatical and semantic features of English idioms denoting negation with reference to their Vietnamese equivale

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS Grammatical and semantic features of English idioms denoting negation with reference to their

Vietnamese equivalents (Nghiên cứu đặc điểm cú pháp và ngữ nghĩa

của các thành ngữ chứa từ phủ định trong tiếng Anh

có liên hệ với tương đương trong tiếng Việt )

NGUYỄN THỊ HẰNG

Field: English Linguistics Code: 8.22.02.01

Hà Nội, 11/2020

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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 ENGLISH IDIOMS AND PROVERBS DENOTING “NEGATION” WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated , no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2020

Nguyen Thi Hang

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Date:………

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to address my most sincere gratitute to the following people for their invaluable support and encouragement First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor – Nguyen Dang Suu, Ph.D for his outstanding supervision, kind treatment and remarkable devotion and for guiding, supporting, encouraging

me and providing me with all the materials I would need for the research in order

to complete this final assignment He was always there for me, without her help, things must be extremely difficult and impossible I would also like to give my thanks to all of my classmates for helping me finish my research From that I

am able to bring out the results of the survey and have the most suitable suggestions for teaching and learning English idioms and proverbs denoting negation to students at high school

In addition, I would like to thank all of the teachers and professors at Hanoi Open University for guiding, helping and motivating me when I am studying there

Hanoi, 8 tháng 12 năm 2020

Học viên

Nguyen Thi Hang

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TABLE OF CONTENS

PAGE

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.2.1 Aims of the study 2

1.2.2 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 3

7 Structure of the study 4

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Review of Previous Studies 5

2.2 An overview of English idioms 6

2.2.1 Definition of idioms 7

2.2.2 Types of idioms 9

2.3 Idioms and other language units 10

2.3.1 Idioms and collocations 10

2.3.2 Idioms and proverbs 11

2.3.3 Idioms and phrases 13

2.4 Main features of “ negation” 13

2.4.1 Grammartical features 13

2.4.2 Semantic features 16

2.5 Definition of negation 17

2.5.1 Main features of negation in English 18

2.5.1 Main features of negation in Vietnamese 23

2.6 Summary 25

CHAPTER 3: ENGLISH IDIOMS DENOTING NEGATION WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS 26

3.1 Semantic features of English idioms denoting negation with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents 26

3.1 1 Phrase Structures 26

3 1 1 1 Noun phrase 26

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3.1.1.2 Verb phrase 28

3.1.1.3 Adjective phrase 31

3.1.1.4 Adverb phrase 32

3.1.1.5 Prepositional phrase 32

3.1.2 Sentence Structures 34

3.2 Semantic features of English idioms denoting negation with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents 38

3.2.1 Ability 39

3.2.2.Activities 39

3.2.3 Age 40

3.2.4 Personality 41

3.2.5 Psychological State 41

3.2.6 Money 41

3.2.7 Power 42

3.2.8 Situation 42

3.2.9 Success and Failure 42

3.2.10 Warnings 43

3.2.11 Advice 43

3.2.12 Appearance 44

3.2.13 Time 44

3.2.14 Characteristics (Human characteristics and characteristics of objects) 44

3.2.15 Quality……… 45

3.3 Comparison between English idioms denoting negation with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents 45

3.3.1 In terms of grammatical features 45

3.3.2 In terms of semantic features 47

3.4 Implications of teaching English idioms and proverbs to students 49

3.4.1 For teaching 49

3.4.2 For learning 50

3.5 Summary 50

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 52

5.1 Recapitulation 52

5.2 Concluding remarks 52

5.3 Limitation of the study 63

v 5.4 Recommendations for further study 53

REFERENCES

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ABSTRACT

This thesis attempts to investigate grammatical and semantic features of English idioms and provervs denoting negation with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents

The study is implemented via the adoptions of descriptive and contrastive, inductive,

and deductive methods The investigation is based on 252 samples of English idioms and provervs denoting negation with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents from a wide variety of dictionaries and websites about idioms The findings are compared and contrasted to reveal the outstanding similarities and differences between English idioms and provervs denoting negation and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of grammatical and semantics Additionally, some suggested implications will help me teach students how to learn and use idioms and provervs denoting negation in social situation

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 The structures of EIDN noun phrase and their Vietnamese equivalents……… ………27 Table 3.2 The structures of EIDN verb phrase and their Vietnamese equivalents……….……….……30 Table 3.3 The structures of EIDN adjective phrase and their VietnameseEquivalents……….……….….…… 31 Table 3.4 The structures of EIDN prepositional phrase and their Vietnamese Equivalents……….34

Table 3.5 Sentential structures of EIDN and their Vietnamese equivalents……….……….35 Table 3.6 A summary of EIDN and their Vietnamese equivalents ingrammatical Structure……….………… 36

Understanding the meaning of idioms in general and idioms which contain words denoting negation in particular is the first difficulty of learners and the second one is the way of using idioms in each specific context Moreover, Studying idioms which contains words denoting negation is a part of language learning and it can help learners use language more naturally and effectively

As a high-school teacher, I know that understanding the meaning of idioms in general and idioms which denote negation in particular is the first difficulty of learners and the second one is the way of using idioms in each specific context Moreover studying idioms which denote negation is a part of language learning and

it can help learners use language more naturally and effectively I am interested in the way English and Vietnamese people use idioms to satisfy their own need in daily communication Here and there, there are several studies on idioms with

certain linguistic units Thus, the topic “Grammatical and semantic features of English idioms denoting "negation" with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents” is chosen for my thesis Hopefully, the result of the study will be

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

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

1.2.1 Aims of the study

- This research aims at studying grammatical and semantic features of English idioms denoting negation with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents The author hopes to provide certain knowledge of English and Vietnamese idioms for learners of English which will help them learn and use English more easily and effectively

1.2.2 Objectives of the study

To achieve the above aim, the study must fulfill the following objectives:

- Investigating the grammatical features of idioms denoting negation in English with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents

- Investigating the semantic features of idioms denoting negation in English with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents

- Finding out the similarities and differences of the grammatical and semantic features of idioms denoting negation in English with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents

3 What is implication for teaching and learning English idioms denoting “negation”

to Vietnamese learners?

1.4 Methods of the study

This study is planned to identify and describe some grammatical and semantic features of English idioms denoting “negation”with reference to theVietnamese equivalents In this study, the descriptive, contrastive, deductive and inductive methods are used for finding out the grammatical and semantic features of English idioms denoting “negation”, comparing with Vietnamese equivalents when necessary The descriptive method is used in the study to describe and interpret English idioms denoting “negation” and their Vietnamese equivalents with the help

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of a powerful source of dictionaries and lexicons to obtain the grammatical and semantic features The contrastive method is used to identify the structural differences and similarities between English and Vietnamese idioms Thedeductive method is applied to present the general features of English and Vietnamese idioms

to more specific ones, and in contrast, the inductive method isused for presenting the specific characteristics to more general ones By applying these five methods, it

is possible for me to find out the grammatical and semantic characteristics of English idioms denoting “negation” with respect to theVietnamese equivalents

1.5 Scope of the study

Negation is a large category of both English and Vietnamese grammar, so it is difficult to cover all of its aspects During the data collection, the writer has come across many idioms denoting negation, that’s why this research has dealt with the aspects of grammatical and semantic features of idioms denoting negation in English with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents

The simple syntactic nature of negation belies the profoundly complex and subtle expressions of negation in language, as expressed in linguistically distinct categories and parts of speech (adverbs, verbs, copulas, quantifiers, affixes) As will

be partly explored here (Horn, 1989/2001; Pullum & Huddleston, 2002), the investigation of the form and meaning of negative expressions in English and other languages and of the interaction of negation with other operators (including multiple iterations of negation itself) is often far from simple, extending to scope ambiguities (Everybody didn’t leave), negative incorporation into quantifiers and adverbs (nobody, never, few), negative-raising (I don’t want to go = “I want not to go”), and the widespread occurrence of negative polarity items (any, ever, lift a finger) whose distribution is subject to principles of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics

The number of samples being investigated in the research is 260 The idioms are collected from books, dictionaries, and internet All the collected idioms will be classified and put together in categories of different features of grammatical and

semantic

1.6 Significance of the study

Theoretically, this research is restricted to idioms denoting negation It is focused on making a contrastive analysis in terms of grammatical and semantic aspects

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Practically, my study will investigate into EIDN with noun phrase structure, verb phrase structure, adjective phrase structure, prepositional phrase structure, adverb phrase structure and sentence structures In aspect of semantic opacity, an investigation into Ability, Activities, Age, Personality, Psychological, Money, Power, Situation, Success and Failure, Warnings, Advice, Appearance, Quality and Characteristics (Human characteristics and characteristics of objects) will be carried out

1.7 Structure of the study

The thesis includes 4 chapters:

Chapter one, “Introduction” presents the rationale, the objectives, the scope, the

tasks, the methods, the significance and the design of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review provides the background of the study, including

definition of key concepts in idiom and proverbs studies, the syntax and semantics

of idioms and proverbs as well as the review of previous studies

Chapter 3: English idioms containing the word ‘no’ with reference to

theVietnamese equivalents

Chapter 4: Conclusion

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will provide an overview of the theoretical background as well as relevant knowledge and summaries of previous research‘s findings and conclusions associated with the theme of the investigation In other words, the review is to explain several related terms and definitions as to idioms and verbs These later would further highlight the features conducted

of the study as well as suggest an array of possible implications for teaching English idioms denoting negation

2.1 Review of Previous Studies:

There have been a number of writers making investigations into idioms and proverbs with different points of view and objectives

In English, there are some famous ones being collected and written by researchers such as “The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms” by Ammer, C

[1] and “Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms” by Cowie (1994), it isvivid that

idioms are not only appeared in books, but in dictionaries

In “NTC’s American Idioms Dictionary”, Spears, R and Kirkpatrick, B [37] focus

on the meaning, usage and appropriate contexts for each idiomatic phrase Moreover, we can mention Dixon, R.J (1971) [19] with “Essential Idioms in English”; Seidl, J and McMordie, W (1988) [54] with “English Idioms and How to Use Them”, McCarthy, M (2002) [40] with “English Idioms in Use” And

"Handbook of American Idioms and Idiomatic Usage" by Whitford Harold and

Dixon (1953) or Boukai's "Idiomsfor Everyday Use", etc

Also, several Vietnamese researchers have interested in the study of idioms It

is the appearance of “Từ điển thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam” by Đặng Hồng Chương [46], “1575 Thành ngữ - Tục ngữ cần bàn thêm” by Lê Gia [48] … and a number of contrastive studies on the various aspects of idioms have been carried out in Da Nang University by Vietnamese researchers

“Thành ngữ Tiếng Việt” of Nguyễn Lực and Lương Văn Đang (1978) [88] is one of the earliest books about idioms in Vietnam They are two authors who made

a significant contribution in the field of Vietnamese idioms They wrote “Thành ngữ Tiếng Việt” which is a collection of Vietnamese idioms arranged in alphabetical order with clear explanations and examples extracted from Vietnamese novels, newspapers and magazines Moreover, Nguyễn Trần Trụ who wrote “Thành ngữ tục ngữ lược giải” [59] explains meanings of the most common idioms and proverbs in

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such simple, clear ways that learners can use this book for consulting and reference

purposes." Từ điển thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Anh tường giải" by Bùi Phương Lan

(2000) introduces a sufficient collection of idioms and proverbs which is quite useful for those who want to study English thoroughly or use naturally

Finally, some M.A theses in the University of Danang which are related to the

field are “A study on some characteristic of structures, meanings and culture of

English idioms about animals” by Phạm Thị Tố Như (1998), “A contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese idioms using the terms of human body parts” by

Nguyễn Thị Hiệp (2001), “A study of idioms containing color words in English and

Vietnamese” by Nguyễn Thị Diệu Hảo (2005), “A study on English and Vietnamese idioms of comparison” by Ngô Đình Diệu Tâm (2005), “An investigation into syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting causes and results” by Nguyễn

Thị Thu Mai (2009) Most of them mainly focus on thesemantic and some cultural aspects of idioms However, until now there has beenno research Utat deals with the syntactic and semantic features of English idioms denoting negation and dteir

Vietnamese equivalents

2.2 An overview of English idioms

An idiom (or, idiomatic expression) is an expression whose meaning is not easily understood based on its words alone So, if English is not your first language, you should not be upset if you find yourself stumped when you hear something you suspect is an expression - especially if it's an idiomatic expression

Idioms have two layers of meaning To decipher an idiom, you must recognize and understand the meaning of both layers

Learning about English idiomatic expressions will not only expose you to these "life lessons", but it will enrich your command of the English language Often, they offer advice or suggestions on better ways in which to live or interact with others They can be considered "deep" or "life lessons." For this reason, the cryptic nature of idioms contributes to their depth, and significance Telling someone to simply "think innovatively" might not be as effective as rehearsing the idiom "Put the cart before the horse."

Idioms require a moment of hesitation, to ponder their meaning Once the underlying message behind an idiom emerges, it causes one to pause and consider the truth behind the saying

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The more familiar with idiomatic expressions you become, the more likely you can incorporate them into your own English writing and/or speech - should you find an appealing situation in which to use one They are often impressive, and enjoyable to share!

The difference between idioms and fixed expressions are very clear when it comes to the definition of each one While idioms mean something other than the

literal meaning of its individual words, for example: every cloud has its silver

lining (after hard time, there is a better one- Trong cái rủi, có cái may); there is a light at the end of the tunnel (Tia sang cuối đường hầm ), fixed idioms take on a

more specific meaning than the expression itself, for instant: All of a sudden or

out of the blue(surprise and sudden, come into mind (come to think ); get out of one’s head (want to forget ).The main problems between idioms and fixed

expressions are the ability to recognize and interpret an idiom correctly; and the difficulties involved in rendering the various aspects of meaning that idiom or fixed expression conveys into the target language

An idiom or fixed expression may have a similar counterpart in the target

language, but its context of use may be different For example: English idiom: To sing a different tune (to say or do something that signals a change in opinion

because it contradicts what one has said or done before) Vietnamese: lưỡi không

xương lắm đường lắt léo

Although idioms are thought to be used in more informal situations, learners will become masters if they understand and use them confidently and correctly In addition, idioms often have a stronger meaning than non-idiomatic phrases Following are some definitions of idioms collected from different sources:

O’Grady (1998, p 279) defines “idioms have a meaning that is not a simple function of the literal meaning of their parts and that they manifest a high degree of

In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the ninth edition (2015) idiom is

defined as “a group of words whose meaning is different from the meanings of the

individual words: ‘Let the cat out of the bag’ is an idiom meaning to tell a secret by mistake” This means that an idiom can be defined as a number of words which if

taken together, have a different meaning from the individual meaning of each word While Cruse (1986) defines idioms as an expression the meaning of which cannot

be inferred from the meaning of its parts And Cowies (1975) defines that an idiom

is “a group of words with set meanings that cannot be calculated by adding up the separate meaning not deducible from those of the separate words…” As for Palmer (1990), “and idiom is an expression whose meaning cannot be inferred from the meaning of its parts”

In “Collins COBUILD Dictionary of Idioms” (2002), an idiom is defined as a kind of special phrase whose meaning mostly differs from literal meaning of the combined words “Idioms are typically metaphorical: they are effectively metaphors which have become „fixed‟ or „fossilized‟” (p.v)

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

In “Chambers Dictionary of Idioms” (1996), the term “idiom” is not an easily defined one – it can refer to many kinds of words and phrases In this dictionary, the traditional definition of idiom is concerned that is “a group of words which has a different meaning from the sum of its parts” This means it is nearly impossible to make a good guess at the meaning of an idiom when knowing the meaning of all the words in the expressions

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

idioms However, in this study, the following definition is used: “an idiom is a fixed

phrase whose meaning cannot be exposed by looking at the meaning of its individual words” In addition, idioms have often been associated with not only

conversation and informal language but also in journalism and magazines – to make

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their articles and stories more vivid, interesting, and appealing to their readers, and

to get their opinions across effectively

In general, all of these above definitions, the one given In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is the clearest definition of idioms Therefore, it has been considered as the main reference for my research

Some foreign or Latin phrases which are commonly used in English, e.g “Fait accompli” means something that has already happened or been done and cannot be changed

Longman (1979) also indicates some types of idioms:

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

“Spill the beans” in sentence “He spilt the bean” – He revealed a secret or a piece

of information Another example is “It never rains but it pours” which means when troubles or unwelcome events happen they do not come singly but arrive in great quantity Other types of idioms are not almost full sentences but rather function like particular parts of speech An idiomatic noun phrase, for example, will often function

in a sentence in the same way a noun would, as a subject, direct object, or a

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

qualities, the best character)

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- Idioms in which actions stand for emotions or feelings The distinctions of culture among regions are specially reminded in this type of idiom It is important to note that these actions are not literal and that the meaning associated with a particular action in particular culture The meaning of idioms in different communities may not be associated with one another For instance, “I wash my hands of it” does not mean that the speaker really performs the action but means she/he refuses to accept any responsibility for something or someone

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

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

The noun phrase “cats and dogs” in “It is raining cats and dogs” (It is raining heavily) functions as an adverb

Idioms with “it”: many idiomatic verb phrases have the pronoun it as a fixed part of the idiom The pronoun does not refer to the word coming before it as normally it does Considering the idiom “It stands to reason (that)” – It is quite clear

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

Sayings: these are usually complete sentences; e.g “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” (It is better to content with something one is sure to receive than to lose it by trying to get something better that one may perhaps not obtain) Typical conversation phrases: some fixed conversational phrases whose meanings are not literal and which therefore may be difficult to understand; e.g so

to speak, now you’re talking, how do you do, etc

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

As you can see, there are a variety of types of idioms It appears in each field

of the life In this thesis, I want to demonstrate another aspect of idioms That is

“idioms denoting negation in English with Vietnamese equivalents”

2.3 Idioms and other language units

2.3.1 Idioms and collocations

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Because they are syntactic phrases that collocate habitually and exhibit a high degree of fixedness, and because they are lexically complex forms that constitute unified or coherent semantic units, complex verbs, phrasal verbs, and complex prepositions which have all been described as “idioms” and as “(bound or habitual) collocations” However, these terms are among a set of terms, including

“readymade utterance”, “fixed phrase”, “fixed expression”, “composite”, or “prefab

of language” (Bollinger and Sears 1981: 57), whose meanings are not clearly distinguished Of the various definitions of “idiom”, three criteria, both semantic and syntactic, emerge as predominant

The term “collocation” seems to date back to Firth, who discusses the collocation of ass with silly, obstinate, stupid, and awful (1957: 190–215); in defining the term, Crystal (1997: 69–70) refers to the habitual co-occurrence of auspicious with occasion, event, sign, an so on, while Carter (1987: 57) contrasts the collocation {have, get} pins and needles, which is always plural and nonreversible, with the free combination pin and needle Like idioms, collocations are groups of lexical items which repeatedly or typically co-occur, but unlike idioms, their meanings can usually be deduced from the meanings of their parts (but

cf Bussmann 1996: 81) Collocations are predictable to a greater or lesser degree, with some words having a very narrow collocational range (e.g., spick, which may occur only in spick and span) 8 and others having a very wide collocational range (e.g., clean, which can occur in a wide variety of structures and phrases)

In diachronic terms, the distinction between idiom and collocation is often difficult to draw, and questions of fixedness are related to questions of (degrees of) lexicalization, idiomatization, and grammaticalization (see below)

2.3.2 Idioms and proverbs

Among the many types of figurative language (e.g., metaphors, hyperboles, clichés, similes, synecdoche and metonymy) omnipresent in the English language, idioms and proverbs stand unique in that such idiomatic expressions have their origins in the fabric of human communication Many come from mythology, folklore, early civilizations, parables, fairy tales, legends, and literature Others come from religion, science, history, politics, sports, and daily life In short, both idioms and proverbs come from all areas of human endeavor, and some of them can

be traced back as far as 3,000years From the ancient to the most recent, idioms and proverbs owe their creation to the workings of human thought and language

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evolution Over time, the conditions (e.g., technological, industrial, economic, historical, or sociopolitical) that gave rise to these expressions are lost from collective memory

This is why virtually all native speakers of a language can instantaneously access and effortlessly explain the figurative meaning of an idiomatic or proverbial expression but very few can identify its origin The importance of etymological origin explorations notwithstanding, it is important to note here, at the outset of this entry, that idioms are not proverbs and vice versa Expressed more precisely, an

idiom, as in hit the nail on the head, for example, is a form of expression peculiar to

a language, whose meaning cannot be understood from the ordinary meaning of the words in it; that is, from the dictionary definitions of the individual words comprising the expression The sum total of an idiom’s individual parts does not lead one to the figurative meaning of that idiom (i.e., to do exactly the right thing;

do something perfectly in the most effective and efficient way; to find exactly the right answer; to describe exactly what is causing a situation or problem; to say the

exact right thing; or to be exactly correct: nói đúng / đoán trúng) It is simply said

that an idiom does not mean what it literally states

In contrast, a proverb (from Latin, proverbium), often indirect and metaphorical in meaning, is a short, well-known, memorable, and habitually highly condensed traditional saying (or a phrase) in frequent and widespread use that states

a general truth, fact, belief, or piece of advice based on common sense, observation,

or experience “Too many cooks spoil the broth,” “A bird in the hand is worth two

in the bush,” “People who live in glasshouses should not throw stones,” and “The early bird catches the worm” are but four proverbs among thousands of proverbs

found in the English language Like idioms, proverbs paint a bold imagery not soon forgotten Unlike idioms, however, proverbs play a universal didactic role in that their principal function in oral language, as well as in folk literature, is to teach and educate the audience and young generations

It is difficult to distinguish proverbs and idioms The meaning of proverbs can be more easily predictable than that of idioms An idiom is a well known phrase that has meaning of its own that can not be understood from the meanings of its individuals words Syntactically speaking, idiom is not a sentences, it is a phrase It

is a stable phrase to which the speaker do not or cannot add words to, or delect word from it, or even change the words when they like to the phrase

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2.3.3 Idioms and phrases

Idioms and phrases are similarly considered combination of words But there are two major differences between idioms and phrases The first discrepancy

is about the structures The structure of idioms tend to be frozen in form and position of the words as “ready-made utterances” or single “items” but phrases are free combinations of the words and idioms cannot be added, removed any word or changed orders without breaking the meanings of the idioms while phrase components have changeable relation Another is about the meanings, while idioms are groups of words whose meaning is different from the meanings of the individual words and cannot be inferred from the meanings of its parts, phrases are groups of words acting as a single part of speech and not containing both a subject and a verb, and does not express a complete thought

It is not an easy task to recognize the differences between ordinary phrases

and idioms We can take an example as illustration: (1) "She put her foot in her

mouth" (idiom) has the same structure as (2 ) "She put her bracelet in her drawer"

(phrase) "The drawer in which she put her bracelet was hers" and "Her bracelet

was put in her drawer" are sentences related to sentence (2) But "The mouth in which she put her foot was hers" and "Her foot was put into her mouth" do not have

the same idiomatic sense of sentence (1)

2.4 Main features of idioms

2.4.1 Grammatical features

An idiom is a fixed group of words Each word is considered as a component of an idiom and an idiom can consist of at least two components In the book titled “In other words”, Baker, M (1992) describes idioms are frozen structures of language which allow little or no variation in form and often carry meanings which cannot be deduced from their individual components Idioms are structurally and lexically restricted; hence, the components and grammatical structures of idioms cannot be changed, added, omitted or replaced They cannot

be varied in the way literal expressions are normally varied both in speech and writing In both English and Vietnamese, the stability in idioms is very high

However, according to Fraser, B (1970), there are specified idioms between those which are able to undergo all the grammatical changes and those which are unable to undergo the smallest grammar changes at all Thus, there are some idioms which have two or more alternative forms without losing their idiomatic

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meaning These different forms sometimes reflect differences between British and

American English For examples, “go along for the ride” and “come along for

the ride” have the same meanings “to join in an activity without playing an important part in it”; or also, “go for broke” and “go for it” share the same

meanings “to try your best” In many cases, several verbs can be used in an idiom such as “Go/sell like hot cakes” (to be bought or taken quickly because of being

popular or cheap) In fact, idioms are only fixed in some of their parts but not all Idioms are expressions, not subjected to analysis, only some syntactic changes may be carried out in them The idioms which can easily be subjected to syntactic changes are more flexible Tense changes within idioms can be possible made in most of idioms, so they indicate the animation of the actions in different tenses on

the person’s mind, for example: “come in useful” =>“came in useful” (to be

useful) In addition, some idioms can be broken or changed more or less in their

structures, for example, “easy come, easy go/ light come, light go” In the same way, prepositions can vary, for example, “come up/out smelling like a rose” (to

succeed; to do better than anyone else in some situations)

Moreover, each idiom has a stable structure and meaning; an idiom can have

a regular structure, an irregular or even a grammatical incorrect structure Firstly, idioms which have a regular structure have common forms but there is no combination between the meaning of each component and that of the whole unit,

for example, “come a long way” (to make a lot of progress and improvement)

Secondly, the idioms can be groups of words which have unconventional forms but their meaning can be worked out through the meaning of individual words

such as “make your enemy your friend” In accordance with the rule of grammar, the structures of the verb “make” are “make somebody do something” and “make

somebody/something + Adjective” However, in this case, the idiom does not

need to obey grammatical rule to make sense, it can still be understood that

“make your enemy become your friend” Finally, the idioms can be group of

words which both are grammatically inaccurate and the meaning is not precisely

expressed by gathering the meaning of each member-word such as: “Go over big

(with someone)” (to be very much appreciated by someone) The structure of the

above idioms is written as “V + preposition + Adjective” Although in English grammar normally prepositions are never followed by adjectives; in this case, the idiom is acceptable It can be considered as an exception in language

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According to Bell, R.T (1974), some of structural features which are crucial

in the recognition of idioms are:

 Alteration of grammatical rules: The idiom is not always grammatical but it is instituted, accepted and used by native speakers of the language with a

fixed structure and meaning Eg: She had several goes at the high jump before he

succeeded in clearing it (singular with a plural noun)

 Conventional Phrases: The idiomatic expressions are special expressions which are almost known and agreed by all the members of a

particular community Eg: At one go (at once)

 Alteration of word order: Idiomatic expressions in English usually do

not respect the English word order Eg: Go as red as beet (normal word order) or

Go beet red.(probably)

 Figurativeness: The fundamental characteristic of idiomatic expressions

is that the words are used metaphorically Therefore, the surface structure has a little role to play in understanding the meaning of the whole expression For

example, in the idiom “go to the dogs” (to become less successful or efficient

than before), the meanings of the words “to go” and “the dogs” are different from

the meaning of the whole expression

 Phrasal verbs: There is the most common type of idioms in English Many of them carry idiomatic meanings that cannot be inferred from the form,

unless the phrase is (to regain consciousness)

According to the authors of Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms such as Cowie, A.P, Martin, R and McCaig, I.R, there are enormous structural varieties

of English idioms, which can be classified under two general headings: Phrase idioms and clause idioms Besides these two main types, there is also another types of idioms, that is sentence idioms

 Clause idioms: Verb + Complement (Go berserk, come true), Verb + Direct Object (Control one’s anger),Verb + Direct Object + Complement (Go

beet red), Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object (Go home to mama), Verb +

Direct Object + Adjunct (Go home in a box)

 Phrase idioms: Noun phrase (The shape of things to come), Adjective phrase (Nearest and dearest), Prepositional phrase (With open arm) and Adverbial phrase (At one go)

 Sentence idioms: Sentence idioms may be simple or complex sentences

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such as “Dreams go by contraries”, “Tomorrow never comes”, “He that goes a

borrowing, goes a sorrowing.” …

To sum up, in terms of grammatical features, idioms may take a variety of forms or structures such as clause, phrase and sentence In relation with structures, idioms can have a regular, irregular or even incorrect grammatical structure Briefly, we decide to use Bell’s theory because his theory is suitable to investigate the grammatical features of English idioms denoting “negation” with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents

2.4.2 Semantic features

Idioms are composed of words which often contain images These hidden images can be either easy or difficult to imagine Thus, the surface structure has a little role to play in understanding the meaning of the whole expression It is the figurativeness of idioms that makes the expressions lively, impressive and deep in the meaning The meaning is the most important aspect when discussing semantic features of idioms The basic characteristic of idioms is figurative meaning which helps to distinguish whether a fixed expression is an idiom or not, for example,

“Read somebody like a book” (to understand someone very well, you can know

exactly what they are feeling or thinking without having to ask) and its

Vietnamese translation equivalent is “đi guốc trong bụng”

In some cases, the meaning of an idiom can be guessed because the image

created is already quite obvious, for example “go like the wind” (nhanh như gió)

However, in other cases, it is nearly impossible to do so because the meaning of idioms must be explained by referring to historical and cultural knowledge

Kunin, A.V., (2006) states that the meaning of an idiom is either partly (motivated idioms) or completely different from the meaning of all components (non-motivated idioms) The meaning of idioms cannot be guessed from the meaning of their components In some cases of partial difference, their figurative

meaning is not quite different from the literal one, for example, “What comes,

will come” (Việc gì đến sẽ đến), “Go in one ear and out the other” (nói vào tai

này ra tai kia), “easy come, easy go” (dễ đến thì dễ đi), etc… All these idioms are

symbolized with metaphorical expressions and understood metaphorically

According the authors such as Hopper, R., Knapp, M.L and Scott, L (1981) idioms can convey positive, neutral or negative meanings Some idioms have

positive meaning like “come into one’s own” (someone begins having success

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and satisfaction in life) As for idioms conveying negative meaning, some typical

examples of idioms are “go down in flames” (to fail spectacularly) and “come

apart at the seams” (to completely lose emotional control) With regard to neutral

meaning, some examples of idioms are shown: going-on (happenings; events) and

come after (to occur the following something)

Kimball (1972) studied the relationship between grammatical and Semantics

as Generative and interpretive semantic-grammatical theories are strongly equivalent

There exists a relationship between the meaning of words and their grammatical properties We can notice this relationship in most of the languages Words which systematically differ in terms of meaning also differ in terms of the grammatical environment in which they occur If we take the example of English

we find that there is a strong correlation between a verb’s semantic properties and its grammatical properties And this correlation is also found in most other languages

It is obvious that grammatical means word order and semantics means meaning Word order affects meaning The rules of English can be divided into several groups, two of which are grammar and semantics Grammar comprises morphology and syntax Morphology describes how words are formed from smaller particles: ing for present continuous for possessive, and so on

2.5 Definition of “ negation”

Negation is a subject of variation across languages Every language has its own syntactic, semantic and morphological devices expressing negation A great deal of research has been conducted by English and Arab Linguists on the similarities and differences of negation in the two Language Not only does this study tackle negation in its wide sense, but also it focuses on a special aspect that is the semantic and syntactic scope of negation in the English language

The goal of linguistic study is to discover the natures and facts of language, how it is acquired and how it functions? In recent years, much attention has been given to the question of how best to represent the structure of negative phrases and the nature of structures that negate themselves Negation data in various languages give many significant inferences about the underlying structural principles of negation (Gleason, 2001)

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Negation is a universal linguistic notion Indeed, it is one of the most basic elements in human mind that makes it an indispensible part of natural languages which are the tools for human thoughts Every language has negative particles or expressions; statements that involve negative particles are called negative statements As it is known, negation is the opposite of affirmation; (positive and negative) one sentence or statement can be the negation or denial of another Thus, negation is the process of making a sentence negative usually by adding negative particles within the structure All languages have their own rules to change the statement from affirmative to negative According to Gleason (2001), this allows us

to discuss what is not happening, or what we do not want Bloom (1970) suggests that when children are learning a language, it is likely that they learn to produce and distinguish between two basic types of sentences: the affirmative and the negative Negation is a fundamental linguistic phenomenon for the whole language system It appears at different semantic and syntactic levels and has different

purposes or meanings Brustad (2000) investigated negation in four Arabic dialects from a dialectological point of view These four Arabic dialects are: Egyptian

Arabic (EA), Moroccan Arabic (MA), Syrian Arabic (SA), and Kuwaiti Arabic (KA) She states that the four dialects have three strategies of negation: verbal negation, predicate negation, and categorical negation She has also defined

categorical negation in these dialects as that kind of negation which is not restricted

to a single entity or two of the category but includes the whole category which, according to her, does not mirror the mood of the speaker but has a normative

aspect that is arrived after witnessing the negation of a certain relationship, incident, member of a group, etc

There are some definitions of negation, but in general "Knowing a language

includes knowing morphemes, simple words, compound words, and their meanings." (Fromkin et al 2003: 205) This phrase means that the knowledge of

language is based on knowing fixed phrases that consist of more than one word Idioms can be included in word formations because they are created by giving two

or more words together The words acquire new meaning when given together and

it is important to learn idioms as a whole

2.5.1 Main features of negation in English

2.5.1.1 Grammatical features

There are some types of Negation in English

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2.5.1.1.1 Auxiliary Negation

Nowadays, when looking at a negative sentence, we usually see the auxiliary verbs with ‘not’ in contracted forms, not in full forms Full forms are used in very formal cases or when we want to emphasize Contractions of negated auxiliary verbs in English are formed by reducing the negative particle ‘not’ to n't, a clitic or suffix which is fused to the root verb form

Examples include isn't, aren't, wasn't, weren't (from be), hasn't, haven't, hadn't (from have), won't, wouldn't (from will), shan't, shouldn't (from shall), can't, couldn't (from can), mayn't, mightn't, and mustn't (from may)

2.5.1.1.2 Noun Phrase Negation

Another way of changing an affirmative sentence into a negative sentence is to place a negative determiner or a restrictive quantifier before a noun, which is called noun phrase negation

Determiner ‘not In English, there are several instances where ‘not’ can grammatically negate the subject of a sentence

Ex: “Not everyone can do this task.”

“Not one thing was left untouched by the wrath of the tornado.”

However, it doesn’t mean that all noun phrases can be negated by ‘not’ For example, we can’t say, “Not Lan went to school yesterday.”

2.5.1.1.3 Adverb Negation

In English, there are some negative adverbs which create negative sentences, without adding no/not/any negative expression So, when using negative adverb, we don’t need the ‘no’ part of a negative sentence

For example, if we want to say ‘I almost don’t know him‘, when using negative adverb it will be ‘I barely know him‘ As we can see, the negative expression (don’t) is erased from the sentence That’s the reason why many people make mistakes when using this negative adverb It is already negative, so there is no use of negative expression (no/ not/ neither/ nor/ etc)

Ex: “She never apologizes for her wrong behaviour.”

“John is rarely late for school.”

2.5.1.1.4 Morphological Negation

This type of negation is also called affixal negation and is marked by the presence of negative affixes: a-, non-, dis-, un-, in- (including the variants im-, il-, ir-), the suffix -less and the suffix -out

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Ex: atypical = not typical;

non-stop = without any stop;

dislike = not like;

unnecessary = not necessary;

ineffective = not effective;

impossible = not possible;

illogical = not sensible;

irresponsible = not responsible;

useless = not fulfilling the intended purpose

without = not having

Note: Items that are apparently formed

Through some types of grammatical structures of idioms containing negative words, we see that these structures are very diverse, and each type is divided into many small details But in this thesis, I only mention a few structures such as noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, preposition phrase and some simple sentence structures

2.5.1.2 Semantic features

The meaning of idioms is different from the sum of the literal meaning of its components, so it is very challenging to a majority of learners in mastering the true conversational English idioms The degree of challenges depends on the degree of semantic opacity of idioms In this section, we will attempt to discuss meanings of negation in English idioms

2.5.1.2.1 Multiple negation

When a clause contains two or more negative elements we need to distinguish cases where they express separate semantic negations from those where only one semantic negation is involved:

[1] i I didn’t say I didn’t want it [two semantic negations]

ii He consulted neither his wife nor his parents [one semantic negation]

In [i]we clearly have two semantic negations, one of want and one of say In [ii], however, there is just one semantic negation: it has scope over the coordination and expressed twice, once in each coordinate The negation in [ii] is non-verbal, and the fact that there is only one semantic negation is evident from the version with verbal negation, which is semantically equivalent: He didn’t consult either his wife

in their behavior was certainly not immoral or None of the problems seemed unimportant

2.5.1.2.2 The common semantic factor: ‘medium strength’

Let’s compare these examples below:

[2] i a.I’m not willing to be included b I’m willing to not be included [weak]

ii a I don’t want to be included b I want to not be included [medium] iii a I don’t insist on being included b I insist on not being included [strong]

It is clear that [b] is an implicature of [a] only in case [ii] In [i], [a] actually entails [b], but [a] is much more informative than [b] and would not be used to convey the latter In both [ii] and [iii], [b] entails [a], but the difference in meaning between [iiia] and [iiib] is very much greater than that between [iia] and [iib] As

we have seen, the only difference between [iia] and [iib] is that [iia] allows for the scenario in which I am indifferent as to whether I’m included or not But [iiia] allows for a much greater range of possibilities than [iiib]: it could be, for example, that I want to be included, but am just not insisting on it It is only in the medium strength case – where there is relatively little difference in meaning between matrix and subordinate negation – that the implicature applies

2.5.1.2.3 No subordinate negation implicature with modal auxiliaries

[3] i You mustn’t tell anyone [strong]

ii You shouldn’t take the job [medium]

In both of these the negation is located syntactically in the matrix clause but applies semantically to the subordinate clause: in this respect they are like the examples we have been considering There is, however, an important difference The semantic association of the negation with the subordinate clause is this time not

a matter of implicature but of sentence meaning

The examples in [3] have what we call ‘internal negation’: the negation applies semantically to the non-finite complement of the modal, not to the modal

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itself Thus [i] imposes or reports an obligation not to tell anyone To negate the modality we use need: You needn’t tell anyone Note, moreover, that must expresses strong modality, whereas we have seen that the implicature only applies

in the case of medium strength modality

Should, on the other hand, does belong in the medium strength category, but the subordinate negation interpretation, approximately “The right thing for you to

do is to not take the job”, is still the meaning proper, not an implicature

Example [3ii] differs from the examples with a subordinate negation implicature in that it does not allow the less specific interpretation in which the negation applies semantically to the matrix: it doesn’t mean “The right thing for you

to do isn’t to take the job”

2.5.1.2.4 Multiple semantic negation within a single clause

[4] i None of them had no redeeming features

ii No one, surely, has never experienced such temptation

iii Never before had no one nominated for the position

iv Neither investigator had no financial interest in the company

v No one didn’t consider it a retrograde move

By virtue of the relation between existential and universal quantification these are all equivalent to positive clauses with universal quantification: All of them had some redeeming features; Everyone, surely, has at some time experienced such Temptation Before, someone had always nominated for the position; Both investigators had some financial interest in the company; Everyone considered it a retrograde move Note that it is the first negative that is replaced by a universally quantified counterpart in the paraphrase Thus in [ii] no one precedes never, so we have everyone and at some time, but in [iii] never precedes no one, so we have always and someone (even though in the positive they do not occur in that order) The positive versions are of course easier to process and represent the default way of expressing the meanings concerned The more complex forms would thus typically need some special motivation, such as contrast In [4iii], for example, we are concerned with an occasion on which no one had nominated for the position in question, and [iii] contrasts this occasion with all previous ones of the relevant kind Such contexts of contrast will often lead to one or other of the negative markers being stressed

2.5.1.2.5 Other types

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[5] i [He didn’t say nothing:] he said it didn’t matter

ii Not all of them made no mistakes

iii Not many / Few people found nothing to criticise

iv [We not only made no progress:] we actually moved backwards

In [i] nothing follows the verbal negation, and this time the meaning involves existential quantification: “He did say something”; examples of this kind are used to contradict a negative assertion, in this case He said nothing

Example [ii] has negation of the universal quantifier all and is accordingly equivalent to a positive with existential quantification: Some of them made some mistakes

Example [iii], with negation of the multal quantifier many or combination of negation with paucal quantification in few, has no positive semantic equivalent of a comparable kind But given a reasonably large set of people under consideration it will tend to be pragmatically equivalent to Most people found something to

criticise

One of the commonest cases has not only with scope over a negative, as in [5iv] This differs from the other types in that we can drop the not only without affecting the other negative, giving We made no progress: we actually moved backwards Negation in English has a variety of meaning with different words and different structures, but in this thesis I want to do research in idioms denoting “no, not, without, and never”

2.5.2 Main features of negation in Vietnamese

2.5.2.1 Grammatical features

According to Diep Quan Ban (1992, 206), Vietnamese grammar is so complicated “Ngu phap Tieng Viet” distinguishes negation in Vietnamese as two main types descriptive and denial negation Descriptive negation is used in describe process to negate the characteristic of thing or person while denial negation is used

to refuse something positive

In another criteria, Huu Dat (2000, p.117) has written that negation in Vietnamese is expressed in many ways But there are two common ways: direct and

indirect statement Direct negation uses the negative words such as không, chưa,

chẳng Indirect negation is made by question negation, particularly by rhetorical

questions

Trời hôm nay không mưa, mà cũng không có nắng (p 206)

Second, Denial negation used to refuse something positive

Anh biết việc này chứ?

Nào tôi có biết đâu/ Tôi đâu có biết (p: 206)

Đạt (2000, p 117) has written that there are many ways to express negation in Vietnamese The two common are direct and indirect statement (p 117)

The first is direct negation with the negative words: không, chẳng, chưa, mà, gì, đâu And the second, indirect negation is made by question negation For instance:

Việc đó giám đốc đâu giải quyết được

Làm sao mà giám đốc giải quyết được? (p 116)

Hạo (1991)firstly, comprehensive negation is an appraisement, which negates the

existence of things or events of theme Negative words for this kind are không, chẳng,

chưa, which is put together with the existential word có and one of the indefinite

interrogative pronouns such as: gì (chi), nào, đâu, bao, sao, mấy Secondly, denial of

comprehensive of an appraisement is a speech act considered super linguistic which is

realized by: không, chẳng phải (là) before a comprehensive appraisement or before the part needed to negate directly with the possible word đâu at the end (statement); or, with the modality group có phải là before the comprehensive appraisement with the partical đâu at the end (Hạo, 2017)

In another work, (Hoa, 2014, p 12) notes that Vietnamese words of negations

include không, chẳng, chả, đâu/ đâu có, nào/ nào có, khỏi, cóc, đếch, ứ, chưa (no,

not at all, do not, never, yet) Among these adjuncts, không and đâu can act as the subject, the predicative as well as the complement of a linking verb Others often go before the words or phrases which are negated Hoa (2014) also agrees with Hao (1991) that this group of words and either show the negation of the existence or the denial of an appraisement

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With a variety of words denoting negations in Vietnamese idioms, in this thesis, I will find out idioms denoting: “Không, chẳng , chưa , đâu, etc……to demonstrate the equivalents with idioms denoting negation in English

2.6 Summary

In the above chapter, some previous studies have been presented that relate

to English and Vietnamese idioms, the overview of English idioms which consists

of definition of idioms, definition of EIDN, main features of idioms in term of grammatical and semantic features, the differences between idioms and other language units, and concepts of semantic fields are also all mentioned

To sum up, idioms can be motivated, partially-motivated and non-motivated

In addition, idioms can convey positive, negative or neutral meanings Idiomatic expressions have high reminiscence because in the conversation, utterances are usually used to express the speakers’ attitude or emotion Briefly, the theory of Hopper, R., Knapp, M.L and Scott, L is the most suitable in order to follow to

carry out the thesis

Noun phrases often function as verb subjects and objects, as predicative expressions and as the complements of prepositions Noun phrases can be embedded

inside each other; for instance, the noun phrase some of his constituents contains the shorter noun phrase his constituents

In form of noun phrases, English idioms denoting negation (EIDN) in the analyzed material are found with five structures such as Neg + N/ NP; Neg + Adj + N; Neg + N/ NP + Neg + N/ NP; Neg + N/NP + Prep + N/ NP; Neg + N + V-ed

Structure 1: Neg + N/ NP

With the structure of Neg + N/ NP, EIDN include 22 samples which accounts for 8,46 % out of 260 ones in total and when they are with relation of Vietnamese equivalents, they can be Verb Phrase ( 0.7%) and Noun Phrase (7.6%)

Let’s look at these examples:

I have got only one last chance to change

her mind toward this contrast, so it’s all

duck or no dinner with this meeting

- Peter apologized for making you sad

He is no offense to you

- There's no use asking me about it,

because I don't know anything

- Make no mistake, this decision is

going to cause you a lot of problems

- Tôi còn một cơ hội cuối cùng để thay đổi ý định của cô ấy với bản hợp đồng này, nên trong cuộc họp này được ăn cả ngã về không

- Peter đã xin lỗi vì đã làm bạn buồn Anh ấy không có ý làm tổn thương bạn

- Thật vô ích khi hỏi tôi về điều đó, bởi tôi không biết gì cả

- Đừng nhầm lẫn, quyết định này sẽ gây

ra cho bạn rất nhiều vấn đề

Structure 2: Neg+ N/NP + Neg + N/NP

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With this structure there are 10 samples which occupies 3,84 % And with Vietnamese equivalents, they can be 1 Verb Phrase (0,4 %), 4 Adjective Phrase (1,54%) and 5 Noun Phrase (1,9 %)

The followings are some examples to illustrate:

It was a joke, the joke went wrong, he

apologized so no harm no foul

The road to becoming a doctor is long,

hard, and exhausting, not to mention

expensive But no gain without pain

If you don't do exercise hard, you'll never

gain what you want As you know "no

guts, no glory"

Đó chỉ là chuyện vui, nhưng chuyện vui đó lại là một sai lầm của anh ấy Anh ấy đã xin lỗi Đúng là thùng rỗng kêu to Con đường trở thành một bác sĩ vừa lâu, vừa vất vả, mệt mỏi mà còn chưa đề cập đến tốn kém Nhưng có công mài sắt có ngày nên kim

Nếu bạn không tập luyện chăm chỉ, bạn sẽ không bao giờ đạt được những điều bạn muốn Như bạn biết đấy thùng rỗng thì kêu to

Structure 3: Neg+ Adj + N/NP

The structure of Neg + Adj + N of EIDN has 3 idioms occupies 1,15 % and when they are with relation of Vietnamese equivalents, they can be changed into Adjective Phrase (1,15%)

Hey, just kidding No hard feelings

It is no big deal when he fails in the race

for the first time, let’s try once

moretime!

His student tried to think about a reason to

stay at home.There is no earthly reason

Này, chỉ là đùa thôi mà Đừng tức giận như thế

Thất bại lần đầu tiên trong cuộc đua cũng không nghiêm trọng như thế Hãy thử lại thêm một lần nữa

Học sinh của ông ấy đã nghĩ ra một lý do

để ở nhà Lý do nghỉ không hợp lý tý nào

Structure 4: Neg+ N/NP + Prep + N/NP

Noun Phrase in EIDN consists of 20 samples ranks the second in 260 sentences with 7,7% and when they are with relation of Vietnamese equivalents, they can be 8 Verb Phrase (3,08 %), 5 Adjective Phrase (1,9%) and 7 Noun Phrase (2,79 %)

For example:

- Look at her, she sits on the chair,

surfs the Internet and not a care in

- Hãy nhìn cô ấy kìa Cô ấy ngồi trên ghế, lướt web và chẳng màng đến thế

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the world!

- She is not the sharpest tool in the

shed

- He's never going to get

that finished in a month of Sundays!

- Life is not a bed of roses

- Cuộc sống chẳng dễ dàng tý nào

Structure5: Neg + N + V-ed

In this, Noun Phrase in EIDN concludes 4 samples accounts for 1,54 % and with Vietnamese equivalents , it can be changed into 2 Verb Phrase, 2 Adjective Phrase with 0,8 % each one

For instance:

- It’s no use crying over spilled milk

- This new radio station's not all it's

cracked up to be

- Đừng hối tiếc về những thứ đã mất

- Chương trình radio này không như lời đồn

The above knowledge is summarized in Table 3.1 as follows:

Table 3.1 The structures of EIDN noun phrase and their Vietnamese equivalents

3 Neg+ adj + N/NP 3 1,12 - Adjective Phrase 3 1,12

5 Neg + N + Ved 4 1,54 - Verb Phrase

- Adjective Phrase

2

2

0,74 0,74

3.1.1.2 Verb phrase

According to Quirk (1985), “a verb phrase consists of a verb which eitherstands

a lone as the entire verb phrase, or is preceded by up to auxiliaries.” and complex