Idioms and proverbs containing color terms in english and vietnamese from the cultural perspective

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HA NOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A THESIS IDIOMS AND PROVERBS CONTAINING COLOR TERMS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM THE CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE Thành ngữ , tục

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HA NOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

IDIOMS AND PROVERBS CONTAINING COLOR TERMS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM THE CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

(Thành ngữ , tục ngữ có chứa từ chỉ màu sắc trong tiếng Anh

và tiếng Việt dưới góc nhìn văn hóa)

BUI THI PHUONG DUNG Field: English Language Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Dr Le Phuong Thao

Hanoi, 12/ 2020

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

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

entitled “IDIOMS AND PROVERBS CONTAINING COLOR TERMS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM THE CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE”

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

(Signature and full name)

Dr Le Phuong Thao Date:………

I am really grateful to the organizers of the course as well as the organizing board of master thesis defense for proper preparation and enthusiastic supports before, during and post our study process

I would like to convey my special thanks to all lecturers at the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies - Hanoi Open University for their helpful and interesting lectures that broaden my knowledge and lead me to my work

Last but not least, I would like to show my sincere gratitude to my family and all of my classmates together with close friends for their love, care, encouragement and financial as well as spiritual support for me to finish this thesis

of methods such as qualitative, quantitative, collating and comparing as well as the synthesis methods conducted by data collection, data analysis, and drawing representative conclusions The writer collect and analyze data from books, newspapers, articles, magazines on the internet and in everyday life, then study them from a semantic and cultural perspective After being recorded, the writer analyzes them, resulting in the semantics of the word indicating the color in the idiom, the defined proverb, and specific explanation and clarification of the word indicating the color in the idiom, custom English and Vietnamese language From the research results, the writer tries to learn how to use the words for color in everyday English learning and application in the hope that it will help readers realize the importance of word indicating color language and proverbs in English and Vietnamese in terms of culture in teaching and learning English to have better understanding and discovery

In addition, this study also helps with correcting with students’ mistakes of words and enables having a better understanding of schools of words about colors as well

as related words in English and Vietnamese; therefore, the study bears a great potential of becoming basis for other authors to make more intensive studies in the future

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vi

LIST OF FIGURES viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 9

1.1 Rationale of the study 9

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 9

1.2.1 Aims 9

1.2.2 Objectives 9

1.3 Research questions 10

1.4 Methods of the study 10

1.5 Scope of the study 10

1.6 Significance of the study 11

1.7 Structure of the study 11

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 12

2.1 Previous study 12

2.2 An over view of idioms and proverbs 15

2.2.1 Concepts of idioms and some common features 15

2.2.2 Concepts of proverbs and some common features 17

2.2.2 Overview of idioms and proverbs with words denoting color 20

2.3 English and Vietnamese culture 25

2.3.1 Definition of Culture 25

2.3.2 Western Culture and Eastern Culture 26

2.4 Semantic – cultural characteristics in idioms, proverbs 28

2.4.1 Relation between language and culture 28

2.4.2 Cultural semantics of word 29

2.4.3 Semantics – culture in idioms and proverbs 30

2.5 Summary 34

CHAPTER 3: COMPARISION BETWEEN CULTURE FEATURES OF IDIOMS AND PROVERBS CONTAINING COLOR TERM IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 35

3.1 Symbolic values on human 35

3.1.1 Object 35

3.1.2 Attributes, properties 45

3.1.3 State, state of mind 57

3.1.4 Health state 62

3.1.5 Fortune 67

3.2 Presentation values of words denoting color about social phenomena 71

3.2.1 In English idioms, proverbs 71

3.2.2 In Vietnamese idioms, proverbs 73

3.2.3 Comparison 76

3.3 Expression values of words denoting color on natural phenomena 77

3.3.1 In English idioms, proverbs 77

3.3.2 In Vietnamese idioms, proverbs 79

3.3.3 Comparison 81

3.4 Summary 82

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 84

4.1 Scope of human values occupies the highest quantity In which, several smaller scopes and attributes, properties are ranked the decisive position Error! Bookmark not defined 4.1.1 Scope of object Error! Bookmark not defined 4.1.2 Scope of human attributes and propertiesError! Bookmark not defined 4.1.3 State and state of mind Error! Bookmark not defined 4.1.4 Health Error! Bookmark not defined 4.1.5 Fortune Error! Bookmark not defined 4.2 Symbolizing scope of social phenomena and attributesError! Bookmark not defined 4.3 Scope of neutral phenomena and attributes Error! Bookmark not defined REFERENCES 87

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: The system of words denoting color in English has homonym cases 24 Table 1.2: The system of words denoting color in Vietnamese has homonym cases 24 Table 2.1: Concurrence in denotative scope of several color factors in Vietnamese and English idioms and proverbs 34 Table 3.1 Name and appearing frequency of color factors in English idioms, proverbs

in the object scope 35 Table 3.2: Name and appearing frequency of color factor in Vietnamese idioms, proverbs belonging to object scope 37 Table 3.3 Symbolic space of color factors in English idioms, proverbs in composition with Vietnamese (object scope) 44 Table 3.4: Names and appearing frequencies of color factors in English idioms, proverbs in the attribute, property scope 45 Table 3.5 Names and appearing frequencies of color factors in Vietnamese idioms, proverbs in the scope of attributes, external properties 47 Table 3.6 Names and appearing frequencies of color factors in Vietnamese idioms, proverbs in the scope of internal attributes and proverbs 53 Table 3.7: Names and appearing frequencies of color factors in English idioms, proverbs in the scope of state and state of mind 57 Table 3.8: Names and appearing frequency of color factors in Vietnamese idioms, proverbs in the scope of state and state of mind 59 Table 3.9: Symbolizing capacity of color factor in the scope of state, state of mind in Vietnamese and English idioms, proverbs (+: yes; -: no) 62 Table 3.10: Names and appearing frequencies of color factors in English idioms, proverbs in the scope of health state 63 Table 3.11: Names and appearing frequencies of color factors in Vietnamese idioms, proverbs belonging to scope of health state 64 Table 3.12 Names and appearing frequencies of color factors in English idioms, proverbs in the scope of fortune 67 Table 3.13: Names and appearing frequencies of color factors in Vietnamese idioms, proverbs in the scope of fortune 68 Table 3.14: Names and appearing frequencies of color factors belonging to social scope in English idioms, proverbs 71

Table 3.15: Names and appearing frequencies of color factors in Vietnamese idioms, proverbs in the social scope 73 Table 3.16: Names and appearing frequencies of color factors belonging to natural scope in English idioms, proverbs 77 Table 3.17: Names and appearing frequencies of color factors in the natural scope in Vietnamese idioms, proverbs 79

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

It can be seen that in the relationship between language and objective reality, language is considered as a tool to structure and model objective reality In the same natural phenomenon, the same ability to perceive, but each community of people, each language has a number of words indicating different colors Color is one of the attributes of objects that exist in the world around us that human vision can perceive Color exists in the material world, but it closely attaches to the spiritual life of human beings, contributing to making life more lively and full of life Different colors with different meanings have brought rich colors to life The color word class is not small in quantity and rich and diversified meanings, which are shown in many text styles, especially in language Therefore, the word class showing colors becomes the object that is studied and studied by language from many different sites 7 such as structure, semantics, symbolism and perception However, there has not been any research on the cultural aspect of words indicating colors used in idioms and proverbs of different languages Recognizing the importance of this aspect in language research, applied in teaching and learning, the writer chooses the topic: “

IDIOMS AND PROVERBS CONTAINING COLOR TERMS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM THE CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE” to study with the hope of

providing meaningful explanations evoke substance, learn about the combination of basic color words and semantics of this group of words from a cultural perspective in English and Vietnamese to find the similarities and differences in this group of words in two different languages The research of this topic will contribute to the practice of teaching and learning English

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

1.2.1 Aims

The research centralizes in analyzing idioms and proverbs contain words indicating colors in English and Vietnamese in terms culture It is aimed at helping English learners and readers deeply comprehend and smoothly use the fields colors, its related words as well as their cultureal features in English and in Vietnamese

1.2.2 Objectives

The major objectives of this study, put forward in order to gain the aims of the study, are as follows:

- To identify cultural features of idioms and proverbs in English

- To identify cultural features of idioms and proverbs in Vietnamese

- To find out similarities and differences in terms cultureal features between languages of English and Vietnamese

1.3 Research questions

In order to achieve the study’s aims and objectives, the following research questions which need raising for exploration are:

- What are the culture fields of the color words in idioms and proverbs in English

- What are the culture fields of the color words in idioms and proverbs in Vietnamese

- What are the similarities and differences between the colors words in idioms and proverbs in English and Vietnamese from cultural perspectives?

1.4 Methods of the study.

Firstly, statistical – descriptive method is used to analyze cultural features of the color words in both English and Vietnamese I find out the idioms, proverbs containing words denoting color in Vietnamese and English, and then reckoning the number of words denoting color in each language Thanks to these linguistic data, the author reckons and identifies the appearance frequency of each specific color in idioms and proverbs of two languages

Secondly semantics analyzing method: analyzing semantics and also iconic meanings of words denoting color in idioms and proverbs

Thirdly, comparison method: aims at finding out similarities and differences on language – culture of two languages through characteristics of culture and language of words denoting color and of idioms and proverbs

Fourth is systematization system: When collecting words denoting color, the author arranges them according to specific criteria on iconic meanings and combination ability

Combining with methods stated above, the author released the supposition: Originating from two different cultural kinds, Vietnamese culture is associated with agricultural production, but English culture is associated with shifting cultivation of wandering hill tribes…, from there, they form different thinking characteristics, thus the author gives the supposition on significant difference in applying colors in idioms, proverbs and in ways that each community thinks and implies the cultural factors in these words The translating and concluding ways of thesis are based on collected evidences

1.5 Scope of the study

Due to the limitation of time and space, the thesis paper cannot cover the whole cultural meaning of the color words in idioms and proverbs in English as well as their Vietnamese equivalents The thesis mainly concentrates on researching aspects of definitions of word and meaning in addition to some information about cultural meaning

Another aspect is paid a lot of attention in the research is investigation and comparison between cultural analysis of the English color words in idioms and proverbs

in contrast with Vietnamese equivalents based on official data taken for reference

1.6 Significance of the study

Researching this topic has the scientific and actual meanings, as follows:

Contributing into learning about differences on language stipulated by characteristics of culture and thoughts

Providing more researching documents on cultural characteristics of two nations and contributing directly into teaching and learning Vietnamese language to foreign people and vice versa

1.7 Structure of the study

The thesis is comprised of four chapters Chapter I, Introduction, indicates

rationale, aims and objectives, scope of the study, research questions, methods of the study

and structure of the study Chapter II, Literature Review, presents the previous studies,

theoretical background, theoretical framework relating cultural features of the color words

in idioms and proverbs in English and their Vietnamese equivalents Chapter III, Findings

and Discussion, provides cultural color words in idioms and proverbs in English and in

Vietnamese and making a comparison between them Chapter IV, Conclusion, briefly

summarizes the remarkable findings of the study, concluding remarks, and gives the limitations of the research and recommendations or suggestions for further research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous study

Discuss about culture and cultural characteristics, there are many different tendencies For example, E.B Tylor (1871) researched the original culture, V Ia Prop discussed about Folklore and reality V.M Rodin (1998) studied about the cultural schools

in the world; R Lado (1957) studied about linguistics through cultures and etc And under the interdisciplinary viewpoint, the cultural characteristics of nation are also paid much attention to by researchers In Vietnam and also in the world, there are many works about this matter, in which the matter of cultural characteristics of nation in relation with language is also paid much attention to

About the first conception, we can mention German linguists: Humboldt, Weinberger and Triber and American linguists: Boas, Sapir and Whorf Thanks to his theory, Humboldt thinks that the language is the strength forming spirit, he emphasizes into the ability of language creating ability in mind of each speaker and speech of people with their spirit, and their spirits are their speeches And L Westerberg recognizes that the language in any state also created the whole worldview; each language is associated with

a nation and each language shows a conception on world and of course, the world is exposed in different ways

The thoughts of Sapir and Whorf about relation between language and culture can

be summarized as follows: thinking deciding language and the awaking process of people decides the culture and social behavior, worldview and the whole picture of world happening in awareness and etc Therefore, in their opinion, the culture and thoughts

depend on language, Sapir said that the language was “direction of social reality” and was

“direction representing culture” (Quoted in the study of Stern 1983) And Whorf

introduced a lively example about different ways that Eskimo people express for a word

“snow” In addition, Whorf thought that researching the grammar categories of languages

would lead to deep knowledge about culture

About the tendency of heightening the role of culture, we can mention Malinowski

The author thought that the culture played very important role, “language imperatively has

the origin from reality of culture” and “we cannot explain it if we cannot refer continuously

to broader context of verbal speech (Quoted in the study of Stern 1983)

Contrary to two opinions stated above, we can see a representative of third opinion

in the work “Structure and opinion original society”, Radcliffe – Brown thought that

although there was the general relation between characteristics of social structure of a community and language that this community spoke

In Vietnam, the researching situation has not many contrary ideals like this Most

of people who pay attention to culture and language studies confirmed any specific relation between them, but according to different tendencies We can mention several culture and language researchers, such as Tran Ngoc Them, Nguyen Lai, Nguyen Kim Than, Ho Le,

Do Huu Chau, Ly Toan Thang, Dao Than, Tran Tri Doi, Nguyen Duc Ton, Pham Duc Duong, Nguyen Van No… Several culturists mentioned language as Dinh Gia Khanh, Tran Quoc Vuong and etc

Although there are many tendencies and researching results about culture, and the works dealing with cultural expressions in many aspects, but clarifying the characteristics

of national culture presented through language, especially referring to idioms and proverbs,

is a problem which should be analyzed and systematized more sufficiently and comprehensively

When discussing about the expression of culture, they talk about the expressions of culture though difference means, such as: sound, color, shape, line and other expressing means One of important means for studying about culture and culture decoding is language: language in daily communication, language in literature works, language in folk creations and etc The scientific works have mentioned more or less these matters The researching directions include:

Researching proverbs from the viewpoint of prosody studies: Studying about

prosody of proverbs (Phan Thi Dao, 2001; Vietnamese proverbs from the viewpoint of national cultural character (Nguyen Xuan Hoa), Characteristics of culture – semantics of proverbs and idioms in folk verses of Vietnamese People (Nguyen Nha Ban, 2005)… Lots

of works researching culture from viewpoint of language: Several evidences about

language, documents and culture (Nguyen Tai Can, 2005), Non-vocal communication through cultures (Nguyen Quang, 2008), Study about cultural – national characteristics through language and thoughts in Vietnamese people (Nguyen Duc Ton, 2002) and etc

Besides researching tendencies, the works stated above have many articles, dissertations, theses related to this matter We can refer to several works and articles:

With topic “Meanings of words denoting animals in Vietnamese idioms (in

comparison with English language), Nguyen Thi Bao has clarified the cultural meanings

of words denoting animals in Vietnamese proverbs in comparison with English language

Nguyen Thanh Tung researched the topic: “Studying the language – culture characteristics

of group of words denoting plants and animals in Vietnamese language (compared with English language) (Doctoral thesis) Through evidences which are the group of words

denoting animals and plants in Vietnamese and English, the author found out the similar

and different characteristics of language and culture in Vietnamese in comparison with English

With topics “Language – culture characteristics of words denoting human bodies

in Vietnamese idioms (compared with English), Nguyen Thi Phuong has identified the

relation between language and culture, based on idioms containing human bodies in Vietnamese and English, and analyzing the language and culture characteristics on Vietnamese evidences when compared with English

About researching the iconology of words denoting color in Vietnamese, there are many words, for example several articles and words, as follows:

Tran Thi Thu Huyen had the article “Flowers and colors in English and Vietnamese

idioms”, Language and life, Vol 12, 2001 The author did not quote the source and

linguistic data, she only introduced the general remarks from similarities about form to

similarities and differences in awareness of two nations about “color, flower, grass” in

idioms – proverbs The advantage of article was that the article did not only introduce the

similarities of idioms and proverbs in Vietnamese and English containing “flower”,

“grass”, “color” in terms of rhyming and semantic methods and several identical

characteristics in awareness of two nations through iconic meanings, but it also presented the differences in awareness originating from two different cultures However, the remarks were not analyzed and proved in proper way, thus the article only stopped in theoretical points with general remarks In conclusion, the author confirmed: through these words, we would understand more about country, people, history and culture of two nations But the author did not analyze clearly the way to understand in the whole article In the article

“Several characteristics of national culture shown through words denoting color”,

Language and life, Vol 6, 2006, confirmed that the vocabularies of several languages were

the places exposing most clearly the characteristics of national culture presenting clearly

in selecting the iconic meanings of colors in each culture And then, the author stated the relation between language and objective reality, language and culture The language is a tool for structuring and modeling the objective reality; between language and culture, there

is a close relation, developed in the reciprocal impact But the author introduced a theoretical point which should be discussed more: the way to perceive and systematize the words denoting color in each language has really supported the supposition of Sapir – Whorf about reciprocal relation between thoughts, language and culture In general, the article only discussed about fundamental matters, but it did not analyze deeply each detailed expression

Trinh Thi Minh Huong made the work “Iconology of words denoting color in

Vietnamese” (Master’s thesis), 2009 Based on evidences of documents belonging to

literary language style, the author highlighted the iconic meanings of words denoting colors in Vietnamese In addition, the author used a chapter for comparing the iconic meanings of words denoting color in Vietnamese and English idioms, although the insignificant number of linguistic data of idioms, the author presented several similarities and differences in ways to understand the color groups and iconic meanings shown in words denoting color in the action scope of idioms For purpose of aiming at iconic characteristic of words denoting color, the author did not analyze deeply the cultural meaning aspect of idioms and proverbs With limited number of idioms and only in one chapter, although the author showed basically the similarities and differences in iconic characteristic of color, she did not generalize and analyze deeply ways to cognize colors and also similarities and differences on characteristics of language and culture of two nations

The articles and researching studies stated above are the direct foundations for

author to implement the topic: Idioms and proverbs containing color terms in English

and Vietnamese from the cultural perspective

2.2 An over view of idioms and proverbs

2.2.1 Concepts of idioms and some common features

2.2.1.1 Concepts of idioms

It is important to recognize that idioms are not only colloquial expression as many people believe Idioms as a special form of language that carry a large amount of cultural information, such as history, geography, religion, custom, thinking pattern and so on They appear in formal style, in slang, in poetry, …

To research idiom, first of all, we must understand what is idiom This is the old theme that we discuss it Because to define the idiom exactly and popular accepted definition is a difficult question In the definition of idioms, some scholar emphasis on the words quantity of structure in idioms That is to say, how many language units to constitute the idioms? Is it except the phrases, words group, and words or sentences also can make

up to the idioms? Others emphasize the single meanings of idioms, it refers that the idiom’s meaning is arbitrary The idiom’s meaning cannot be synthesized or cut apart Different people hold the different opinions on the definition of idioms; they have different focal point on the definition of idioms So we must understand the definition of idioms exactly through the research Although we are unlikely to give an ideal definition to the idioms; but we should give a better definition of idioms before the research

In Vietnamese Dictionary, they say about idiom as follow:

“Thành ngữ là tập hợp từ cố định đã quen dùng mà nghĩa của nó thường không thể giải thích được một cách đơn giản bằng nghĩa của các từ tạo nên nó”

And according to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary:

“An idiom can be defined as a number of words which when taken together, have a different meaning from the individual meaning of each word”

And another definition of idiom:

“Idioms are words, phrases, or expressions that cannot be taken literally In other words, when used in everyday language, they have the meaning other than the basic one you would find in the dictionary Every language has its own idioms Learning them males understanding and using a language a lot easier and more fun!”

And sometimes idiom is defined as “a phrase, construction, or expression that is

understood in a given language This expression ha a meaning that differs from typical syntactic patterns or that differs from literal meaning of its parts taken together”

The definitions of idioms are many in our society In my opinion, the idioms consist

of set phrases and short sentences, which are peculiar to the language in question and steeped in the national and regional culture and ideas, thus being colorful, forcible and thought-provoking Strictly speaking, idioms are expressions that are not readily understandable from their literal meanings of individual constituents In a broad sense, idioms may include colloquialisms, catchphrases, slang expressions, proverbs and so on

2.2.1.2 Some common features of idiom

According to many linguists, a group of words which has a fixed structure, indivisible meaning, and can appear in speech like a word is called an idiom Therefore, idioms can be distinguished by their grammatical and semantic features

a Grammatical features

It is very easy to realize that most idioms are fixed expressions There are no changes in structure, word order and lexicology We can take the idiom black and blue (of bruises) as an example It would sound uncanny if we changed it into blue and black It means that it wouldn’t make sense Moreover, when an idiom is used in a complete sentence, it is hardly change into passive voice Let us consider the idiom to stuff one’s face in the sentence She is stuffing her face with chocolates (She is eating a lot of chocolates); It would be unnatural to say Her face is stuffed with chocolates

However, some other idioms are more flexible; we can make some changes if they don’t lose their idiomatic meaning This means that idioms are only fixed in some of their parts but not all The alteration of component words can help to form a different idiom of the same or different meaning Appearing on the mass media is in this way of using They

no longer keep the full form of the idiom but add some more components to make it more vivid, particularly effective when writing articles We can change the tense of the verb in

the idiom to give someone the cold shoulder (to treat someone in a cold or unfriendly way),

or the verb in to have one’s finger with to get one’s finger

In addition, idioms may take many different forms or structures Some idioms are noun phrases such as tender age, a black sheep, forty winks, etc Some are verb phrases such as to spare one’s blushes, to do someone proud, to cut one’s coat according to one’s cloth, etc The most important thing is that an idiom can have its own regular, irregular or even incorrect grammatical structure to be at large is an example of grammatical irregularity The idiom is formed by verb + preposition + adjective In English, no structure like this is normally accepted because an adjective doesn’t usually come after a preposition singly However, this can be considered as an exception in language

b Semantic features

When mentioning the semantic features of an idiom, we often talk about its meaning A linguist said “the meaning of an idiom is the special chemical mixture of all components’ meaning, which is completely new in quality” This means that it is very important to understand idioms metaphorically We cannot usually discover the meanings

by looking up the individual words in a dictionary when studying idioms; most of the idioms are metaphorical rather than literal For example, in order to understand the idiom (to feel) like fish out of water, we have to consider its meaning metaphorically as to feel uncomfortable because of unfamiliar surroundings

Another feature concerning itself with semantics is that idioms can range from positive, neutral to negative meaning Some idioms have positive meanings such as a willing horse (a keen worker), to get it into one’s head (to deeply understand), or to warm the cockles of one’s heart (to make someone feel pleased or happy) Some have neutral meanings as to watch the world go by (to observe the others while doing nothing oneself), etc And many other idioms are negative For instance, crocodile tears means insincere tears, to waste one’s breath means to talk or give advice without having any effects, or to wash one’s dirty linen in public means to discuss or argue about one’s personal affairs in public, etc All those examples show that the nuances of idiomatic meanings are very complicated They mainly depend on the nuances of their key components

2.2.2 Concepts of proverbs and some common features

2.2.2.1 Concepts of proverbs

The encyclopedic dictionary Wikipedia has a definition of proverb:

A proverb (from Latin: proverbium) is a simple and concrete saying popularly

known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity They are often metaphorical

All proverbs of nations over the world have the similarities However, because of different psychological characteristics of nations and un similar languages, the proverbs of each nation have its characteristics

Hoang Trinh in “From semiotics to prosody” has the remarks as follows: “Even

several proverb researchers in top rank must admit that no definition can permit to identify clearly what is a proverb” [91, page 173] Therefore, the author will study and analyze

deeply the scientific definition of proverb, but the author will quote several understanding ways and basic characteristics of proverb

According to Dictionary of linguistic term explanations (1996): A proverb is “a

brief speech with rather stable structure, summarizing the living experiences, ethics and knowledge of a nation Different from aphorism, a proverb does not imply any direct advice” [100, page 329]

Nguyen Thai Hoa in “Vietnamese proverbs – structure and prosody” has an outlook:

“Proverbs are speeches formed in daily conversations They are speech units but exist in

memory of community as a language unit, according to J Lyons “ready-made speeches”

[35, page 48]

For English proverbs, Wikiquote has a definition as follows: Proverbs are popularly

defined as short expressions of popular wisdom Efforts to improve on the popular definition have not led to a more precise definition The wisdom is in the form of a general observation about the world or a bit of advice, sometimes more nearly an attitude toward

a situation

Alan Dundas has a definition in term of structure: “A proverb is a traditional propositional statement consisting of at least one descriptive element, a descriptive element consisting of a topic and a comment” [106, page 180]

In conclusion, according to ideals of many researchers, regardless of shortness, a proverb is also a sentence showing a whole meaning, the meaning of proverb is the combination meaning of each word composing this proverb The meaning of proverb can

be a remark, experience, morality or an advice, judge, criticism and etc In term of form, a proverb usually has a rhythm, and its structure is a complete sentence and it can contain idioms, or it can be constructed by functional elements of idiom In term of function, it notifies a judgment, an experience or a conclusion about an aspect of worldview

2.2.2.2 Some common features of proverbs

a Syntactic features

In English, Mac Coin nigh , M (2015) states: “ Proverbs appear in a variety of different sentence types, from a syntactic perspective, these sentences maybe classified

into four distinct types according to the number of clauses and sub clauses they contain These sentence types are : simple, compound, complex”

(i) the most basic sentence in the simple sentence, which contains one main clause (subject and predicate) and no sub clauses They are typically simple, declarative, non- oppositional, and stylistically unmarked i.e they do not contain many stylistics markers

(ii) Compound sentence poses multiple independent clauses which are separated by

a coordinator (in English these are for, and, or, nor, but, yet, so) There is a grammatical equality in these sentences, which balances the wo clauses against one another through a central fulcrum in the shape of the coordinator These example often display a type of semantic equality or contrast, which is created through the replication of the syntactic

Sentences typically have four different functions: declarative (or indicative) interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory, which can be drawn together into two larger groups: Affirmative and Communicative Provers exhibit all these different functions, although some maybe more frequently used than others The declarative (or indicative) function is a favored one in proverbs – as it is in natural speech – as it coveys information

or ideas in the form of a statement

The communicative sentences types features the imperative form in which an order

is given These as we can imagine, were extremely common – although Mieder (2012 :147) has recently shown that this is no longer the case – as proverbs often give advice, counsel and instructions on how individuals should behave in both specific contexts and

in general life Once again, the affirmative and negative imperative patterns are found frequently

To sum up, in term od syntactic features, firstly , proverbs may take many different kinds of sentences such as simple sentences, compound sentences and complex sentence Secondly, proverbs exhibit all the different functions as affirmative and communicative

Therefore, they are essential criteria used for the study of syntactic features of set expressions of behavior in English and in Vietnamese

b Semantic features

In Vietnamese, there have been a lot of different opinions about the semantic features of Vietnamese proverbs When referring to the meaning of proverbs, Chu Xuan Dien wrote: “ A proverbs usually has two meanings: literal and figurative” This is a concept that many people agree with The author Le Chi Que, Vo Quang Nhon, and Nguyen Hung

Vi in the book “Van hoc dan gian Viet Nam: affirm that “Proverbs always have two meaning: literal meaning and figurative meaning” This concept is not really convincing because we a part of proverbs, as we mentioned above, only have literal meaning Perhaps when making such affirmation, people only pay attention to the proverbial section summarizing the experiences, conception of the philosophy of human life A for proverbs that summarize the law of natural phenomena, experiences in labor, breeding, farming or some historical legend and local characteristic, which are only literal are not mentioned

A definition must cover all phenomena

There are authors who do not use the terms “literal”, “ figurative” but use the terms

“ single meaning” “many meanings” “ multiple meaning” like Hoang Tien Tuu He wrote : “There are proverbs that have only one meaning , but part of the proverbs occupies a large rate, the high quality and is the most typical part if this genre” According to him “ … Proverbs can be divided into two basics categories: the single meaning one and the multi meaning kind Proverbs of the single meaning type are those that can only be understood in” literal term

Proverbs of the multi meaning type can be divided into two categories: the first includes sentences that are bot understood in a “literal” sense and which can be understood

in figuration term

Survey the above opinions , we can see that, although researchers have different expressions, they all have in common that most proverbs have two meanings: Literal meaning and figurative meaning or also called symbolic meaning

2.2.2 Overview of idioms and proverbs with words denoting color

2.2.2.1 Overview of words denoting color in Vietnamese and English

Color is the most complicated expression of awareness and optic perception It is the object of series of different science and technology branches In physics, it is realized

as light strip with different frequency and amplitude In chemistry, it is considered as product of specific colorful agents In optics, it is an expression of light spectrum In printing branch, color printing is considered as technique for implementing color

overlapping ways to have color like in reality… For linguistics, the color recognition is the other matter which should be paid much attention to

“Color is a sense property of human vision Color originates from impact of spectrum light on eyes by spectrum intuitions of light absorbing organs” (Wikipedia)

Color in Vietnamese language is approached by lexicographers and researchers in many different viewpoints

Dictionary of Vietnamese language (Hoang Phe – chief editor) has a definition on

color:

Colors, excluding black and white

Specific properties: art is pervaded with national color

Do not attach special importance to physical attributes of color, Dao Than has a definition:

“Color is an attribute of object, exists objectively in the material world, and human vision can recognize it [72, page 11]

Color in English is similarly defined by different characteristics

Color considered in this thesis is not the color with physical characteristics considered or chemical characteristics, detailed spectrum …, but it is the color in linguistics Therefore, we can agree with definition of color made by Dao Than as foundation of this thesis

Color is presented by nouns and adjectives in the system of parts of speech In which, the adjectives denoting color are used most broadly And in this thesis, almost words denoting color are adjectives

When defining color and also each detailed color, in the master’s thesis “Semantic

characteristics of modern Vietnamese adjectives”, Chu Bich Thu quotes the ways to define

and explain color by researchers The author states that the lexicographers frequently

explain their meanings in the visual way For example, “yellow” is defined as “with color

as color of saffron, luffa flower” In which, the outstanding study is the study of Russian

researcher Ю CTeпaHoB, this author thinks that the meanings of words denoting color (and smell, taste) are identified by word instructing simply the objects expressed

And A.H Ш also thinks that there is no other defining way for these units The semantic stricture of words denoting color (and smell, taste) has three semantemes:

Certain color (smell, taste)

Color likes the color of X (in which X is the representative article bearing the clearest characteristics in adjective which is considered)

In addition, the author of work “Vietnam – Southeast Asia – Language and culture” also introduce a conception on color names, as follows: “When people want to

communicate a characteristic of article, they must compare with other article with same characteristic and different characteristic from other article, like people make definitions Firstly black may be crow, and hot implies fire Afterwards, they use the combination method: when Vietnamese people want to mention black, they will talk “black as crow”, if they want to mention hot, they will talk “hot as fire”… And then, the concepts about color, form, magnitude…are introduced The names of colors are originated from names of articles with these colors Rose flower – rose color, cordyline tree – cordyline color, peach follower – peach color” [20, page 113] This translation is unconvincing because it is only

true in the post period of language – period when the language units are created with reasons

Similarly, in English, the colors are defined by lexicographers basing on referential meanings, or by visual way, they select the most typical derivative object For example,

Oxford dictionary defines “blue” as follows: colored like clear sky…and “green”: colored

like grass…

Distinguishing and awareness on color in Vietnamese and English have many differences and generally in different languages, they divide the color strip, recognize different Chroma and colors Therefore, the systems of color names in English and Vietnamese in particular and in languages over the world generally are different

Learning about this difference, over the world, there are many studies showing clearly this matter In literature, a German great poet Goethe had a book arguing about color and sometimes, the author heightened this book more than other literary works of him and Ph O Runge had a great contribution into systematizing colors Under the

viewpoint of linguistics, B Berlin and P Kay in “Basic colors in term” has reckoned and

had remarks about basic colors of languages Based on actual survey of 78 different languages, two researchers have concluded: all languages have at least two words denoting black and white, adding red for three words, and adding green or yellow for four words, adding both green and yellow for five words, adding blue for six words, and adding violet, pink, orange, grey or mixture of these colors for seven words and above From conclusions stated above, we can recognize that the system of basic colors and auxiliary colors in each language is different Therefore, the numbers of words denoting color in general of languages are different , and the recognition and ways for calling color names are also different

In the color system of English: white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, violet,

pink, orange, grey are the basic colors, whereas in Vietnamese, the basic colors do not

have blue, green, orange Thus, when talking about blue color of sky, in English called

blue sky, and green color of grass called as green grass; whereas Vietnamese language

only uses the green color and when denoting the green color of thing, Vietnamese language

uses additionally predicates for denoting: blue sky, green grass… In Vietnamese language,

green is the basic color and blue sky, blue sea, green grass… are only auxiliary colors or

derivative colors

Calling names and distinguishing the color groups in two languages are different Chu Bich Thu [85] introduced the way for distinguishing the color group based on contents

of meanings in meaning strictures of adjectives denoting colors, as follows:

Group of basic colors: black, white, red, yellow, green These names are only

dogmatic and their meanings are identified by comparing with colors ò representative articles

Group displaying the transitional colors includes violet, ashen, indigo-blue, grey,

beige, pink, titian, purple, green, bottle green, and etc., their meanings are identified by

words denoting basic colors and can be explained more by comparing with colors of representative articles

Adjectives denoting the derivative colors from nouns denoting representative

articles, names of these colors have reasons: mahogany, indigo, kapila, peach, sooty,

brown, Monk's brown clothes, and silver The meanings of these words are identified

through comparing with colors of representative articles The representative articles are shown by words of original names

Each color in the system has different referential and iconic characteristics Some words denote the black color, but for black horse, called as “ngựa ô”, for black cat, called

as “mèo mun”, for black dog, called as “chó mực”

In English, distinguishing colors have many differences As stated above, the number of colors and classification of main colors, auxiliary colors, derivative colors in

two languages are different In English, there are 11 basic colors: black, white, red, green,

yellow, blue, brown, orange, pink, purple and grey Regardless of basic colors or auxiliary

colors, the system of colors in English frequently belongs to two groups: group of

nonfigurative colors and group of descriptive colors In which, black, white, yellow, green,

brown and grey, magenta are the nonfigurative words denoting color Salmon, rose, saffron, lilac, pink, purple are descriptive words Names of pink and purple are originated

from names of things in the objective reality, pink is originated from name of rone, and

purple indicates a kind of dye Only for orange, indigo, violet, it is difficult to identify

whether their names preexist or the objective articles preexist Almost auxiliary colors in English belong to the group of colors describing articles and phenomena in the objective world In order to create a layer of words denoting derivative colors , English people can place an auxiliary element as deep, dark, or light, pale or bright before words denoting

color; to create a color like basic color but in lighter level, English people use suffixes

“-y”, “ish”, or combine two colors (brown black, reddish - purple,…)

It should distinguish between homonym and words denoting color in Vietnamese and English

In English, the homonym phenomenon is more diversified and complicated, because English is the inflectional language Through surveying, we also list several cases,

as follows:

Table 1.1: The system of words denoting color in English has homonym cases

Brown Brown: brown cent/ fry (onion)

Green Green: vegetable/ fool (verb) (slang

word) Pink Pink (Creating the knocking sound)

In Vietnamese, the phenomenon of homonym, which has same phonology but different from meanings of two or more different language units, is a common phenomenon

in the vocabulary system The system of words denoting color in Vietnamese also has many homonym cases, by surveying, we list several cases, as follows:

Table 1.2: The system of words denoting color in Vietnamese has homonym cases

Pink Pink (adjective): great (in great blessing)

Brown Brown (noun): Brown tuber

Green Wok (noun): A tool for cooking

Golden Golden (noun): Valuable metal

2.2.2.2.Characteristics of idiom and proverb with words denoting color

The idioms with words denoting color in Vietnamese and English occupy a great proportion This group of idioms bears enough characteristics of idiom and in which there are one or several language factors denoting color Here the color can belong to main color group or auxiliary color group or derivative color group

The idioms, proverbs with words denoting color in Vietnamese and English do not belong to a specific structure

For Vietnamese idioms, the group of idioms with words denoting color can belong

to comparison structure, such as Black like fire columns, blue in the face, white as ivory,

and etc or they can belong to symmetrically metaphorical idioms: purple with rage, white

rice and pure water, white hair and wrinkled skin, black hair and red blood, in black and white and etc Or they belong to the kind of asymmetrically metaphorical idioms: hungry

as green bone, blackened iron face

For English idioms, the group of idioms with words denoting color is frequently classified into a specific kind and it also belongs to idiom groups classified according to

different characteristics It can belong to group of comparison idioms (as white as a sheet,

as brown as a berry, as red as blood,…), or belong to groups of logical idioms, no logical

idioms

The idioms with words denoting color in English are frequently classified into a specific group by its colorful characteristics But in Vietnamese, it is not or in other words, the classification of Vietnamese idioms is mainly based on content or structure, but in English, apart from two classification methods stated above, the idioms are also classified

according to groups based on elements that they contain, for example: color idioms, body

idioms, …

For proverbs, it is similar The proverbs with words denoting color in Vietnamese and English have the general similarities; moreover they also have many different characteristics in terms of structure and classification ways Different from idioms with words denoting color, the color frequently participate directly into showing the meaning

of idiom In proverbs, the color also has the iconic characteristics, but to symbolize the meaning of proverb, the second meaning layer must be used It means that to understand a proverb with words denoting colpur, we frequently learn about the detailed characteristics

of color and or specific image in word group (or in idioms, if a proverb contains any idioms) Many words denoting color are used in idioms to become elements and central

iconic images For example: green light, yellow as saffron, red as blood, or to become a side of matter which should be generalized For example: in black and white, As red as a

turkey cock, A fair face may hide a foul heart…

2.3 English and Vietnamese culture

2.3.1 Definition of Culture

Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached values; culture system may, on the other hand, be considered as products of action, and on the other as conditioning elements of further action

(Kroeber, AL, & Kluckhohn, C 1945 p.78-105)

Culture is the shared knowledge and schemes created by a set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing, and responding to the social realities around them

2.3.2 English Culture and Vietnamese Culture

In the world, there are two kinds of cultures, which create different eastern- western culture; however, each nation keeps oneself private character about geography, historical, material, customs and habit … It means that its language reflects culture of a nation, especially by vocabulary Vietnam with complex terrain, long-standing agriculture, and long magnanimous fight against invaders and in monsoon tropical region, which is considered as main character of Vietnam, reflected in names, means of productions, rice processing, customs and habits about marriage, customs and habits about religion

All things are very popular in Vietnam; however, these things are very strange for Western people To Western culture, their life is very active, free to accept new things, such as science, internet,…in the life Beside, English is rye agriculture, which is different from Vietnam agriculture Their work is more developing with advance machines Hence, their character is individual Contrary to, Vietnamese one is combinative each other

For a long time, Western culture and Eastern one have been having differences Some following pictures show those differences Let us discover these interesting things

2.4 Semantic – cultural characteristics in idioms, proverbs

2.4.1 Relation between language and culture

The term “culture” originated from Latin word cultus which appeared in the ancient

time means cultivating Afterwards, according to metaphoric method, the meaning of this word has been broadened But exactly, the word “culture” in different languages has many

meanings And we can understand in the most basic way: “Culture is the organic system

of material and spiritual values created and accumulated by people during the process of actual acting, in the interaction between human and natural environment, social environment” [88, page 34]

The culture is the social foundation and the motive force promoting the national development The methods for expressing, storing and communicating culture are diversified and abundant In which, the outstanding and typical method is the language method for expressing culture Basically, culture is the material and spiritual values with iconic characteristics and it exists in long time and created by human, and each nation has its culture and each community has its culture There are the cultural values representing for the whole humankind, but there are cultural values with typical characteristics, it only exists in a community but does not see clearly in other community and vice verse These typical cultural values are the cultural characteristics This difference creates characteristics; in the category of culture, the cultural characteristics of each nation are firstly identified by difference between culture of this nation and culture of other nation

We can understand that the cultural characteristics are the dominances about one or several aspects of culture of a nation or a community These dominances establish the basic and typical cultural values with sustainability, and other values, all of them form the culture Therefore, the cultural characteristics of a nation are the typical values about spirit and material that a nation has accumulated during the historical process; it has the sustainability, long-term meaning and localized value Consequently, the cultural characteristics form the cultural character Learning about natural culture means learning about this character, or identifying the difference

As stated above, the cultural characteristics of nation are stored and communicated

by different forms, in which the language is an important mean for showing culture “All

words in language are the mean for connecting external phenomena with internal world

of human… Especially, the specific character of each nation is always shown by their mother tongue; the language is the place preserving the national spirit, culture and alliance strength between nations – all of them leave the artful hallmark in each sound”

(W Humbold, according to 1, page 302) “The language contains the whole cultural

heritages of previous generations, identifying the behaviors of current generation, in a

certain level, the language is the premise for people in the future, it means that the language generates and create human” (W Humbold, according to 1, page 203)

“Language contains the whole cultural heritage of previous generations, identifying the

behaviors of current people, in a certain level, the language is also the premise for human

in the future, which means the language generates and creates human (M Kheydegger,

according to 1; page 203) As a result, “Language is the condition for existing, and also

the cultural product of humankind, thus, in all studies on language, the culture must be considered as their object” (Vinocua, 1960) But we should recognize that the language

is not only the mean for transmitting and storing culture, but it is also the cultural product

of humankind, like other cultural products, as E D Sapir confirmed: “Language is the

cultural product but it is not a functional entity” [According to 5, page 51] Nguyen Van

Chien in “Identifying the vocabulary of Vietnamese culture” has a concept: “More exactly,

the language is a cultural phenomenon The culture has big denotation, meanwhile, the language has more narrow denotation, but it has bigger connotation The relation between culture and language is the encompassing relation Between them, there are differences, intersecting characteristics and similarities” [5, page 51]

It also means that all studies on culture cannot help researching the language materials All things that people create are cultural, and all of them have the hallmark of language, thus when decoding culture, we can base on many parameters, but an important key for decoding culture of nation is the language of this nation

In summary, the language and culture have a tight relation The language is the mean for transmitting, storing and reflecting the specific culture of nation The language is the leading important cultural factor bearing the clearest national nuance And vice verse, the cultural characteristic of each nation has impacts on development of national languages

2.4.2 Cultural semantics of word

In “Identifying the vocabulary of Vietnamese culture”, Nguyen Van Chien thinks

that it is possible to divide the vocabulary of language into two kinds: vocabulary implying culture and normal vocabulary The difference between cultural vocabulary and normal vocabulary is that the cultural vocabulary with message of national culture; the cultural vocabulary has a relation with national culture, including the material culture, spiritual culture, sometimes it reflects directly the culture, sometimes it is the symbol of culture The cultural vocabulary is sometimes the words with deep relation with culture, for example, words appearing from nice classic references or words spearing in religion While, the normal vocabulary does not have the characteristics stated above, they only have the pure meanings

The meaning of word reflects the objective reality but through awareness of subject,

it is the representative of specific cultural community Therefore, although it is the objective reality, through different prisms, apart from general characteristics of humankind, the meanings of words also bear the specific characteristics which only appear

in a specific cultural community The specific characteristics in meanings of words can be the information on natural, geographic, historical conditions, living conditions, social structure, experiences… of a vernacular community Nguyen Duc Ton quoted the exact

ideal of a Russian researcher: “Regardless of general rule reflecting the objective reality

of native speakers belonging to different languages (cultures), the system of meanings cannot help reflecting the characteristics of national culture of actions held by tools and

of communication Because the language has a function: “It is the existing form of social and historical experiences that each nation has its private social – historical experiences, thus inevitably the meaning structure of word has the cultural – historical elements We can research the social – historical experiences in particular, and though history in general of each nation through meanings of word, and through language history of this nation” [88, page 25] This is the cultural – national function of language

2.4.3 Semantics – culture in idioms and proverbs

The vocabulary of nation does not transmit the objective world through community prism, but it also contains the cultural factor In which, it is possible to talk that the idiom, proverb layer is one of factors containing lots of cultural hallmarks of a nation Each nation has a treasure of idioms, proverbs, showing the viewpoints on world, human life and experience…, whereby the cultural elements are expressed, because the idioms, proverbs are always associated with specific historical conditions of specific community

In the vocabulary of a language, the cultural factor is not only shown in associative meaning layer of word, because each nation has an unique associative thinking way about

a specific image and matter; but it also shown in the central meaning layer of word The idioms and proverbs with words denoting color are same, but they do not only have the color elements showing the cultural element about central meaning and associative meaning, represented meaning, but it also have the other meaning transferring elements

bearing culture And once again, all these iconic images are generalized into an “iconic

image” “an experience, meaning with cultural value” with private thinking way of specific

community

For idioms, the cultural meanings are shown in many different aspects First of all,

it is the phenomenon where a notion is expressed by different images in each idiom of different countries Or in other words, in the vocabulary layer, the associative meaning of word in each nation is unique The same phenomenon, same matter, same notion are

thought in different ways For example, to express anger, Vietnamese people frequently

use the iconic image: purple with rage, but English people frequently use a black look…

And because of this reason, in vice verse several idioms of nations over the world bear many same lexical elements but they are different in term of meaning Vietnamese

people usually use the image “to cross river” to indicate a girl who gets married, but vice verse, for English people, the image “to cross river” symbolize the “death” Or for white

color, beside similarities, each nation also transmits different meanings through idioms, proverbs Vietnamese people frequently use the white color to symbolize the bereavement

and heart-breaking, but English people use the white color to imply the inequity (a white

lie, white elephant)

In proverb, the cultural semantics of word is similar Each image containing culture

in idiom, proverb is also transmitted according to symbolizing way with national characteristics

The cultural meaning of idiom, proverb does not only concentrate in specific images, but it covers the whole idiom, proverb A proverb contains experiences and conceptions about world, human life, images for showing these conceptions have the cultural factors and moreover these experiences and conceptions are also the culture of community

Therefore, when analyzing the characteristics of language – culture through idioms, proverbs, the author does not stop in typical images transferring meanings in idioms, proverbs… But they are also contained in conceptions of whole idiom, proverb For

example, when talking about the proverb “a person with red loincloth squeezes a person

with brown loincloth” Firstly, the images “red loincloth”, “brown loincloth” express two

different objects through the meaning transferring method metonymy: “red cloth” is the image symbolizing rick people and “brown loincloth” symbolize poor and common people

Afterward, generalizing two images stated above and other elements in the whole proverb,

we have the meaning of proverb, a philosophy of human life in the old society

2.4.4.2 Denotative sense of words denoting color in English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs

According to Nida [116, tr 40], the meaning of word is divided into two kinds: Demonstrative sense is equivalent to denotative sense) and connotative sense (equivalent

to expressive sense) The researcher thinks that the cultural values looked back to denotative sense (referred article) of semantics can affect the connotative sense of term

For example, according to researcher, in Western Europe, the terms for word “Pig” frequently have the negative connotative sense Because “Pig” is not ranked in high

position as loved animals, but in Melanessia (islands in the Northeast of Pacific Ocean of

Australia and in the South of Micronesia include Bismarch islands) “pig” is the important

symbols and names corresponding to animals with very positive connotative sense Similarly, the denotative senses of words denoting color also have impacts on their symbolic sense when entering in idioms and proverbs

According to B Berlin and P Kay (1969), the denotative scope of basic color group

is “about using scope, they are not limited in a narrow denotative layer”, “they are more

outstanding than other words through big using frequency and broad denotative scope”,

whereas for words denoting auxiliary colors, the denotative scope is more narrow In reality of denotative scope, the words denoting color enter idioms with what denotative scope and how does it affect the symbolizing ability of this word group

a) Denotative scope of words denoting color in Vietnamese idioms and proverbs:

Through statistics, we recognize that the denotative scope of words denoting color

in Vietnamese idioms, proverbs is much diversified

The basic color group has broader denotative scope than auxiliary colors or derivative colors

Considering color groups, the red color group has the broadest denotative scope The violet color group has the narrowest denotative scope If considering each specific color, the red color has the broadest denotative scope

Many auxiliary colors only have s specific denotative scope, for example:

Day Lily (yellow) only has the denotative scope of “Shirt” (Day lily shirt)

Mock lemon flower only has a unique denotative sense “summer crop”

Gourd flower has a denotative sense of “colored cloud on the sky-line”

Fox blood has a denotative sense of “windy”

The denotative scope of words denoting color in Vietnamese idioms and proverbs

is very broad This can forecast the board presentation capacity of colors about all fields

of social and natural lives

b) Denotative scope of words denoting color in English idioms and proverbs

Through analyzing linguistic data, we recognize that the back color has the broadest denotative scope and the cherry color has the narrowest denotative scope

Considering color groups, the red color has the broadest denotative scope and the violet color has the narrowest denotative scope

The denotative scope of basic colors is almost broader than auxiliary color group There are auxiliary colors denoting a specific article, for example: ivory in linguistic data only has a unique denotative scope as tower or health for ruddy, point for cardinal

In general, through two linguistic data sources, we recognize that the denotative scope of words denoting color in idioms, proverbs of two languages are much diversified and the denotative scope includes the specific things and phenomena in the life, especially denotative scope belonging to human body However, in comparison with English linguistic data, the denotative scope of words denoting color in Vietnamese is broader and almost any color has the denotative scope of one or more specific human organs

In two languages, several colors have the concurrence on denotative scope:

Table 2.1: Concurrence in denotative scope of several color factors in Vietnamese

and English idioms and proverbs

Leg

Face Eye Hand

Hand

Eye Sea

2.5 Summary

Through statistical data, initially we recognize the generality and specialty of words denoting colors in cultural units of a language From linguistic data stated above, we confirm that colors are not only merely physical colors, but they also enter in human knowledge as specific character of phenomenon and property of people and objective world From knowledge about color related to generalities, colors in idioms and proverbs become the specific characteristics of community

The statistical data and remarks stated above show initially us the basic judgment, simultaneously forecasting the researching results about basic difference between Vietnamese cultural language and English cultural language through specific characteristics of color factor in idioms, proverbs

These matters will be presented in next chapter

CHAPTER 3: IDIOMS AND PROVERBS CONTAINING COLOR TERMS IN

ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

Through investigating the linguistic data source, we recognize that there are two symbolic groups which should be distinguished and clarified The linguistic data source has the symbolic color factors and linguistic data group with words denoting color constructing the symbolic structure

The group of symbolic linguistic data is the group with words denoting color which can combine with other element through metaphor or metonymy for symbolizing The symbols are in form of word or word group They can symbolize a part or the whole

Many color factors are dependent or combined with other symbolic factor and they must participate into a specific syntax structure Here the symbolic structure is the symmetric or asymmetric metaphoric structure, comparing structure Symbols belong to form of group (fixed), many groups or sentences They can be the complete symbolic structure (usually idioms) or only partial symbolic structure (proverbs)

3.1 Symbolic values on human

3.1.1 Object

3.1.1.1 Idioms and proverbs containing color terms in English

There are 60 units, occupying 13.3%

Table 3.1 Name and appearing frequency of color factors in English idioms,

proverbs in the object scope

No Name of color Appearing time

The color factors appear in this scope: blue, red, scarlet, rosy, oink, white, black,

and yellow, green, brown

The combined factors are also diver field, but mainly words denoting human organs:

belly, liver, hair, leg, thumb

Green thumb: skilled gardener

Black leg: betrayer

The combined factors are words denoting animals: sheep, dog, mare…

Black sheep: debauched child

Red dog: quarterback of football team

Grey mare: a wife wears the breeches

The combined factors common nouns denoting human: woman, knight

Scarlet woman: a woman who works an illegal job

In addition, there are many words combined with words denoting clothes (suit,

collar, hat, cap, and bonnet), denoting plants (leave), denoting nonfigurative objects (year, hope),…

Pink collar worker: female workers

Green year: youth

Independent color factors symbolize for objects: 7 circumstances

Grey – green: symbolize oppositely for old – young

The blue color: each auxiliary color symbolizes for other objects: dark blue: athletic athlete of Oxford University; Light blue: athlete of Cambridge University…

Brown: people (crowd)

Violet: human (shrinking violet: good natured person)

The color factors in circumstances stated above symbolize completely for idiom, proverb unit

We recognize that to symbolize for a specific object, English people also use many different methods: metaphor, metonymy

3.1.1.2 Idioms and proverbs containing color terms in Vietnamese

Colors are not merely natural colors in the objective world They are symbolized only specific objects in awareness of linguistic community Depending on characteristics

of specific colors, the symbolic object is what The idioms, proverbs with words denoting color present clearly this characteristic Belonging to this scope, there are 15 color symbolizing factors belonging to 114, occupying 13.6%

Through survey, we reckon the color factors with symbol appearing in this scope with following frequency:

Table 3.2: Name and appearing frequency of color factor in Vietnamese idioms,

proverbs belonging to object scope

No Color Frequency

Through statistical table, we recognize that to symbolize a specific object,

Vietnamese people frequently use mainly colors as red, black, red, silver, blue…but

specially, in red color group, the red color has the highest appearing frequency But to symbolize a specific object group, It is not only the appearing color, but it also combine with other words and create the special symbolic structures

Color factor for symbolizing: 87 units

* Partial color factor for symbolizing

A color has a symbolic sense, but its symbolic sense is only a component constituting the symbolic sense of idiom, proverb unit In this case, the color factors are combined with specific words through metaphor or metonymy

Metonymy structure: Color factor + human organ or human organ + color factor:

37 units

The words denoting human organs are external organs: head, cheek, face… Thus,

this combination symbolizes for object groups that we can recognize from their appearances

Color is an important factor which creates different objects although they combine with a specific human organ The color factor frequently symbolizes for an opposite and mutual relation

“Human organ + Red/ lipstick/ peach”: symbolizes for beautiful woman

“Head + Silver/ white”: symbolizes for old people, opposition “Head + Green/

lipstick”: symbolizes for young people

“Silver head” symbolizes for old people, because of their external appearance, the human age is presented on skin and hair… Therefore, the image “silver head” becomes a symbol of old age Vice verse, “Green head” symbolizes for youth Green – Silver in this case is opposite and they are the category antonym pair, time category Green hair

symbolizes for the youth, because the green color is the color of growing, developing; vice versa silver is the color of withering, wisdom and loss This is the actual image and by

metonymy, they understand “silver hair” is a symbol of old age, of old people and it is opposite to “green hair” youth

In this case, green and baby pink are used to denote “black” of hair This is the

youth, green color of hair

“Head + red” is opposite to “Black head”

The properties red – black in this case symbolizes for an object belonging to

different age scope This typical characteristic depends on knowledge of native people

about reality: when a child is newly born, he is usually “blood colored”, chronologically this child will grow up and the red pigment will decrease gradually Therefore, “red head” becomes a symbol of children and opposite to “black head”

The metaphoric structure “Words denoting animal + color”: In this method, there

are 10 units

Words denoting animal include: Dog, rabbit, toad

• Black - white: opposite symbols

“Black dog – white dog”, the properties black – white are opposite, thus when

combining with a word denoting animal, it creates different symbolic objects and same category

“Words denoting animal + Silver/ yellow/ purple”: symbolize for brave, dauntless

people

“Golden toad”, “purple toad” symbolizes for brave and courageous people

This typical property bases on folk thoughts of Vietnamese people through the tale

“The Toad who sued the Great God of Heaven”: A toad which frequently lives in corners

is the most fearless and dogged In the old days, it set the Thames on fire In this time, the whole world was interminably in drought, there was no a drop of water to drink No one could stand this situation; all animals gathered and sued the Great God of Heaven A purple toad was a leader of these animals Thanks to its intelligence, the purple toad arranged an excellent battle Finally, animals caused a stir in zenith The Great God made concessions and asked their aspiration The purple toad, a proper representative of community was appointed to meet the Great God and proposed a clam for rain to the earth The animals returned to the earth In this time, it was rainy in the earth All animals lived happily and

peacefully A purple toad was called as “Younger brother of Great God” who as a privilege

of praying for rain It only called three sounds, it would rain

The metaphoric structure “Words denoting plant + color”: having 5circumstances

In this method, there are only two colors symbolizing object and only two words

denoting plant “leaf, fruit” Therefore, the objects symbolized by them may belong to same category “Green leaf – yellow leaf” have the symbolic objects belonging to same category

“Green leaf – yellow leaf” symbolize for two opposite objects: old people – young people,

but especially this symbolic sense is frequently used when they want to remind the separation, miserable feeling of Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay in the family relation The images of a leaf on tree branch and a falling leaf have two different colors, the yellow leaf frequently falls according to rule of time and symbolizes for image of old parents and the green leaf is still on tree branch and symbolizes for young people

“Green fruit” is an image symbolizing for people with profound scheme But it only has this symbolic sense when it is opposite to “iron fang” The symbol of color factor in

this case only is temporary

Metonymy structure “(Name) + clothes + color”: has 6 units

“Lipstick/ Pink – Brown”: opposite symbols for rick – poor

About words denoting clothing, only “trousers” and “loincloth” appear Through

colors of clothing used, Vietnamese people symbolize for many different objects The

objects in this scope frequently have different virtues and social positions “Baby pink–

Brown” is not an opposite color pair, they are only a temporary antonym pair, they create

two opposite symbolizing poles: rick – poor Two colors of clothing are one of cultural characteristic “color cycle” in Vietnamese people’s clothing The farmers are exposed to

sun and dew and associated with brown soil cuts; and the rick people live in the lap of

luxury with valuable articles “red lacquer trimmed with gold”