Idioms relating to love in english and vietnamese

Theoretically, the study mentions about some definitions of semantic and syntactic features of idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese.. As a result, the learners and teacher

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

IDIOMS RELATING TO “LOVE” IN ENGLISH

AND VIETNAMESE

(Thành ngữ về tình yêu trong tiếng Anh và tiếng Việt)

BUI THI LE LAN

Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01

Hanoi 2020

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

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

entitled “IDIOMS RELATING TO “LOVE” IN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2020

Bui Thi Le Lan

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Dr Le Thi Minh Thao

Date: 20/11/2020

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This document contains our master thesis in English language at Hanoi Open University It describes the results of my research on the potential of crowd sourcing applications in organizational the content The last few months have proven to be challenging months, both personally and organizationally It is meaningful for me to finishing this research project This thesis could not been completed without the help of many people

I would like to express by thanking to my supervisors from Hanoi Open University, Dr Le Thi Minh Thao Thank for her whole-hearted guidance and precious instruction for this graduation paper from the beginning to the completion Without her assistance, encouragement and valuable adjustment, this study could not be fulfilled

Secondly, my heartfelt acknowledgement also belongs to all of my lecturers and teachers at Faculty of English of Hanoi Open University for helping, assisting and advising during my research Assoc Prof Hoang Tuyet Minh, Dr Le Van Thanh, Dr Dang Ngoc Huong, their feedbacks for my master thesis proposal outline were always valuable They build the initial foundation of my knowledge and offer

me the opportunity to complete my graduation thesis

Of course, this acknowledgement would not be complete without sending my thanks my parents and family, who supported me throughout my entire study and encouraged my activities Thanks to be loved, support and faith of my parents, I was able to finish my study and make it a great time to look back on

Last but not least, I am proud of expressing thanks to friends and acquaintances who have supported and given a hand during the completion of my study

BUI THI LE LAN

TABLE CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study 1

1 2 Aims and objectives of the study 1

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Research methods 2

1 5 Scope of the study 2

1.6 Significance of the study 2

1.7 Structure of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 3

2.1 Review of the previous studies 4

2.2 Review of the theoretical background 6

2.2.1 Theory of syntax 6

2.2.2 Theories of semantics 9

2.2.3 Definition of semantics 10

2.3 An overview of idioms 12

2.3.1 Definitions of idioms 12

2.3.2 Some features of idioms 14

2.3.3 Classification of idioms 17

2.4 Definition of Love 26

2.5 Summary 28

CHAPTER 3: COMPARISON BETWEEN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS RELATING TO ‘LOVE’ IN TERMS OF SYNTACTIC FEATURES AND SEMANTICS FEATURES 29

3.1 Similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms relating to ‘love’ in terms of syntactic features 29

3.1.1 Phrase Structures 29

3.1.2 Clause Structures 34

3.1.3 Parallel Structures 35

3.1.4 Comparative structures 35

3.1.5 Similarities 36

3.1.6 Differences 37

3.2 Similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms denoting ‘love’ in terms of semantic features 38

3.2.1 Similarities 41

3.2.2 Differences 42

3.3 Summary 42

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSIONS 44

4.1 Recapitulation 44

4.2 Implications 44

4.3 Limitations and suggestions for further study 47

REFERENCES 48

of Western and Eastern literature, “love” is probably the most ideal emotion for using idioms to define The purposes of this thesis are to examine in which methods and conditions are used to express the feeling “love” as well as to make some evaluations and comparisons between Vietnamese and English idioms The

descriptions and concepts of idioms in terms of syntactic and semantic features are thoroughly described and made clear by mostly basing on the descriptive method, including careful and selective sources from dictionaries, documents, studies and essays to papers, magazines and other usable sources At the same time, the contrastive method and analytical method are precisely operated to drag out both of similarities and dissimilarities of English idioms and Vietnamese ones relating to

"love" in terms of syntactic and semantic features From that, the study will show difficulties and suggest some solutions for teaching and learning English idioms, helping teachers and learners of English have a better overview and thus improving language acquisition

Theoretically, the study mentions about some definitions of semantic and syntactic features of idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese As a result, the learners and teachers can point out the similarities and differences of idioms relating to “love” between English and Vietnamese

Practically, this study will provide information that can help teachers and learners of idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese, which contributes

to the teaching and learning English

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study

With the tendency of globalization nowadays, English by far has become as one of the most popular and useful language in all over the worlds In Vietnam, English has long been regarded as a tool of international communication, and together with its rising importance, the need of learning English is becoming more and more urgent It can’t be denied that all foreign learners in general and Vietnamese learners in particular desire to master English as the native speakers However, they usually face up with a lot of difficulties that prevent them from gaining successful conversations One of the reasons for these problems lies in the way people perceive and use idioms

Idiom is a special phrasing or a peculiar expression which performs metaphor

or sometimes, literal meanings Every nation in the world has its idioms Some of them are particular and represent for the culture to which they belong On the contrary, a lot of idioms share the same meaning with others in many languages, denoting the needs of interfering different cultures and traditional customs in all over the world Having the ability to use idioms could help leaners to adapt the antiquities and customary habits of certain culture or country, while mastering idioms will provide learners the self confident and encouragement to well communicate with both nonnative and native speakers Idioms appear everywhere, from daily communication likes newspapers, magazines, television advertisements

to more formal contexts such as books, novels, literature and studies

Theoretically, the study mentions about some definitions of semantic and syntactic features of idioms relating to love in English and Vietnamese As a result, the readers and users can point out the similarities and differences of idioms relating

to “love” between English and Vietnamese

Practically, this study will provide information that helps teachers and learners

of idioms relating to” love” in English and Vietnamese, which contributes to the teaching and learning English

There have been many studies about idioms in varied aspects, with different opinions and arguments The writer is pleased and honored to perform a study about

the topic “IDIOMS RELATING TO “LOVE” IN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE ” with the hope that the research has attamed to give some suggestions for the Vietnamese teachers as well as learners in teaching and learning English and Vietnamese idioms in general and idioms relating to “love” in particular with the hope that they can master their meanings and use them better and more effectively in teaching and in learning language

1 2 Aims and objectives of the study

The study is executed with the aim points out the differences and similarities between English and Vietnamese idioms relating to “love” in syntactic and semantic features As a result, the study could be used for learning, teaching and translating English as well in other to motivate, encourage and submit certain solutions which could assist English learners to apply and use both English and Vietnamese idioms correctly

The objectives of the study are:

• To explore and identify the syntactic, semantic features of English idioms relating to “love” and Vietnamese ones

• To comprehend and make critical comparisons to find out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms relating to ‘love’ in terms

of syntactic and semantic features

• To motivate, encourage and submit certain solutions which could assist English learners to apply and use both English and Vietnamese idioms correctly

1.3 Research questions

(i) What are syntactic, semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms relating to “love”?

(ii) What are the similarities and the differences between English and

Vietnamese idioms relating to “love” in terms of syntax and semantics?

(iii) What are the possible implications for the learning process of learners and teachers to use English idioms relating to love effectively?

1.4 Research methods

The descriptions and concepts of idioms in terms of syntactic and semantic features are thoroughly described and made clear by mostly basing on the descriptive method, including a careful and selective source from dictionaries, documents, studies and essays to papers, magazines and other usable sources At the same time, the contrastive method and analytical method are precisely operated

to drag out both of similarities and dissimilarities of English idioms and Vietnamese ones relating to “love” in terms of syntactic and semantic features The combination of these data collection methods will help the author achieve the aims of the study Last but not least, for better result, statistical method

is generally applied to carry out valuable judgments

1 5 Scope of the study

This study is limited of English and Vietnamese idioms relating to “love” in term of syntactic and semantics aspects In syntactic features, the study will perform the key characteristics such as phrase structure In the same way, an examination into “love” in English and Vietnamese idioms will be performed to analyze the semantic aspect

Thus, the study will concentrate on English and Vietnamese idioms relating to

“love” to analyze these idioms in both languages in terms of syntactic, semantics features

Following the rules above, the English idioms and Vietnamese ones are carefully selected from a range of dictionaries, studies, books and the internet With mostly based on a reliable and valuable sources of academic researches, a sum of

178 idioms consisting of 102 in English and 76 in Vietnamese is evaluated and used for covering this paper

1.6 Significance of the study

It cannot be denied that idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese are an important part in our daily communication as well as in the process of teaching and learning a foreign language

Following the aims, objectives and the scope of performing a study of English idioms relating to “love” with Vietnamese ones in terms of syntantic and semantic features above, the study will support English users in Vietnam with the knowledge and suggest ideas to correctly and flexibly apply this sort of idioms effectively

Theoretically:

The study mentions about some definitions of semantic and syntactic features

of idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese As a result, the learners and teachers can point out the similarities and differences of idioms relating to “love” between English and Vietnamese

Practically:

This study will provide information that can help teachers and learners of idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese, which contributes to the teaching and learning English The results of the study will be of great benefit to the following:

Teachers of English: The given data will provide the teachers with information on how to teach and use idioms especially idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese more effectively

Students: This study will bring for students the background and useful knowledge about idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese.The content

of the thesis will some how be useful material for those who study English as second language and have certain interest in the idioms and its deep meaning, especially helps them overcome the difficulties they encounter in using idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese in particular Therefore, they can speak English more naturally and be successful in communication

1.7 Structure of the study

The research consists of four chapters:

Chapter I: Introduction, this chapter presents the rationale, aim, objective,

scope, significance and structural organization of the thesis

Chapter II: Literature Review and Theoretical Background, this chapter

generally analyzes the theoretical background of the study as well as the definition

of the concept of idiom and love

Chapter III: Findings and discussion for the study with presenting the syntax

and semantics of idioms relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese

Chapter IV: Conclusion, which provides the recapitulation, concluding

remarks, limitation of the study, as well as some suggestions for implications achieved from the discussion in the thesis and for further research

Finally, the study ends with the References and Appendix

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 Review of the previous studies

There are a great number of studies and researches about all kinds of idiom and related matters such and linguistic, syntax and translation in both of English and Vietnamese The knowledge support of these researches have contributed to my paper and should be appreciated before going into the main part of the study

*The approaches of linguists to idioms could be parted into five moments which expose the different trends of consideration of idioms: (Curry, 1994)

*The structure of an idiom phrase and its distinction from 1960s to early 1970s

*The developing of idioms from late 1970 to 1980s

*The metaphor of idioms from 1980s to 1985s

*The activities of teaching, adapting and ackknowledging idioms from 1985 to

1990

*The expansion of view and jugdement as well as its effection in 1990s

Idioms are available phrases, sentences, relatively fixed, sustainable, not intending to express an idea Idioms are used to emphasize meaning with lively expression, contributing to the color of art so that idioms are not only a treasure in daily communication language but also a valuable source of material for literary creation Many researchers have manipulated idioms, both native – like discourse

by English as well as a foreign language speaker In English, there are some important books such as “Cambridge Idioms Dictionary” by Cambridge university press “The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms” by Ammer, “Idioms and Idiomaticity” by Fernando, or “ Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms” by Ayto and

so on.[1], [3],[9],[19]

Dr Montgomery Howwar (2013) of Aligarh Muslim University wrote an article about “Seeking the Nature of Idioms: A Socio-Cultural Study in Idiomatic English and Arabic meanings” on International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, he analyzed some Arabic and English idioms taking into consideration their bound culture, equivalence and context in order to explore the types of idioms, and to focus on using one of the techniques of dealing with idioms that is equivalence [26]

Furthermore, some other articles also took English idioms into consideration

Dr Richard Xiao (2010) from Edge Hill University paid more attention to “Can

‘translation universals’ survive in Mandarin? Idioms, word clusters, and reformulation markers in translational Chinese.” In which three linguistic features investigated in translation studies – namely idioms, word clusters and reformulation markers, in translational Chinese as represented in a one-million-word balanced corpus of translated Chinese texts in comparison with native Mandarin represented

in a comparable corpus of non-translated Chinese texts [39]

In Vietnam, idioms are quietly interested by many linguists There are some valuable works which are famous and familiar with Vietnamese reader such as “Từ vựng - Ngữ nghĩa tiếng Việt” (1981) of Professor Do Huu Chau who critically

explained Vietnamese idioms and analyzed them into syntactic and semantic features In 2005, the linguist Nguyen Lan (2005) has summarized most of Vietnamese idioms in the book Từ điển thành ngữ, tục ngữ Việt Nam Last but not least, Professor Hoang Van Hanh is also a well known linguistic specialist in Vietnam with great contributions to the linguistic field Mai Chau (2006) being aware of the importance of idioms in daily speech as well as in learning language, many researchers have given out efforts in studying issues and aspects of this field Some researchers have concentrated on analyzing in syntactic and semantic features

in English and Vietnamese idioms denoting human body parts, animals, etc such as

“A contrastive analysis of the grammatical and semantic features of words and

idioms denoting intelligence and wisdom in English and Vietnamese”, written by

Phan Thị Minh Chau, (2005) or “A study of some characteristics of structures,

meaning and culture of English idioms about animals” by Pham Thi To Nhu,

Danang University “A contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese idioms using

the terms of body parts” by Nguyen Thi Hiep carried out in 2001 The thesis

“Semantic structures of words denoting human body organs in English

-Eye-Ear-Nose-Mouth - (versus Vietnamese)” was written by Nguyen Duong Nguyen Hao in

2001 In “An investigation into idioms and proverbs relating to women in English

and Vietnamese”, Ho Thi Hoang Ngan (2012) painted clearly the syntactic and

semantic features of the image of the women in English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs (2012) However, the cultural factors in English and Vietnamese idioms relating to women have not been dealt with so far [3] [2] [27][28][41]

In another linguistic thesis named “Đặc trưng ngôn ngữ - văn hóa của các từ

chỉ bộ phận con người trong thành ngữ tiếng Việt (so sánh với tiếng Anh)” of

Nguyen Thi Phuong (2009) described and analyzed words denoting human-body parts in English and Vietnamese idioms to find out similarities and differences About 1100 English idioms and 867 Vietnamese ones were collected and she found that the appearance of words denoting human-body parts in these two languages was quite different [39][38]

In Nguyen Huong Giang’s study (2015) “The image of mouse, horse, cat,

chicken in English idioms and proverbs with reference to Vietnamese equivalents”,

the image of these animals in English and Vietnamese are resorted as a way of explaining human behavior, human feelings and even human relations Although, cultures of both countries are different, there are similarity meanings in English as well as Vietnamese idioms [12]

Idioms are part and parcel of mastering any language They are a prominent natural part of our everyday discourse since they reflect cultural and linguistic boundaries enabling communication between different cultures This thesis, therefore, attempts to explore the different types of idiom, shed lights on some English and Vietnamese idioms and focus on the difficulties faced by learners and translators Bearing in mind these aims, some English and Vietnamese idioms were selected and then explained The overall results showed that idioms can never be translated literally; context, equivalence and semantic relativism should be considered when dealing with idioms To be communicatively and linguistically

competent, translators as well as learners should find the equivalence in the same language first and then in the target language As a result, it is strongly recommended that translators as well as learners should be fully aware of some translation techniques and the context of the discourse s/he is dealing with

2.2 Review of the theoretical background

2.2.1 Theory of syntax

The word syntax comes from Ancient Greek word: σύνταξις "coordination", which consists of σύν syn, "together," and τάξις táxis, "an ordering" In linguistic, syntax is a collection of rules, standards as well as methods which regulate the structure of sentences in a certain language, specifically order of words in Oxford University Press, (2016) [4]

The works on syntax had been written long before modern grammar official fixed and appeared In old times, syntax concept was ruled by a structure named by Grammaire Générale which was discovered by Antoine Arnauld in “Grammaire Générale” in 1660 This framework states that human brain thinking processes will reflect straightly into language As a result “there is a single, most natural way to express a thought” [5]

The framework lasts until the 19th century which been replaced by the development of linguistics and by the argument of progressive linguists

Bickerton (1990) recognized that it is not true about the state “there is a single, most natural way to express a thought” because of the impact of internal and external environment on human thinking And so the logic base for studying language’s structure had been denied [6]

It only became clear when linguists discovered and adapted modern theories

of syntax in the late 20th century The famous work “generative grammar” of professor Noam Chomsky, (2002) is considered as the most popular framework to study and analyze about syntax with the main hypothesis that “language is a configuration of the human mind” and “syntax is based upon the component structure of sentences”, following the concept that syntax features certainly focus

on the arrangement of a sentence more than its communication purpose [7]

 Syntax

Syntax is the proper order of words in a phrase or sentence Syntax is a tool used in writing proper grammatical sentences Native speakers of a language learn correct syntax without realizing it The complexity of a writer’s sentences creates a formal or informal level of diction that is presented to its audience

 Hearing and Speaking Syntax

Syntax is one of the major components of grammar It's the concept that enables people to know how to start a question with a question word ("What is that?"), or that adjectives generally come before the nouns they describe ("green chair"), subjects often come before verbs in non-question sentences ("She jogged"), prepositional phrases start with prepositions ("to the store"), helping verbs come before main verbs ("can go" or "will do"), and so on

For native speakers, using correct syntax is something that comes naturally, as wordorder is learned as soon as an infant start absorbing the language

Nativespeakers can tell something isn't said quite right because it "sounds weird", even if they can't detail the exact grammar rule that makes something sound "off"

to the ear "It is syntax that gives the words the power to relate to each other in a sequence”.to carry meaning—of whatever kind—as well as glow individually in just the right place"(Burgess 1968)

 Syntactic Rules

English parts of speech often follow ordering patterns in sentences and clauses, such as compound sentences are joined by conjunctions (and, but, or) or that multiple adjectives modifying the same noun follow a particular order according to their class (such as number-size-color, as in "six small green chairs") The rules of how to order words help the language parts make sense

Sentences often start with a subject, followed by a predicate (or just a verb in the simplest sentences) and contain an object or a complement (or both), which shows, for example, what's being acted upon Take the sentence "Beth slowly ran the race in wild, multicolored flip-flops" The sentence follows a subject-verb-object pattern ("Beth ran the race") Adverbs and adjectives take their places in front of what they're modifying ("slowly ran"; "wild, multicolored flip-flops") The object ("the race") follows the verb "ran", and the prepositional phrase ("in wild, multicolored flip-flops") starts with the preposition "in"

 Syntax vs Diction and Formal vs Informal

Diction refers to the style of writing or speaking that someone uses, brought

about by their choice of words, whereas syntax is the order in which they're arranged in the spoken or written sentence Something written using a very high level of diction, like a paper published in an academic journal or a lecture given in

a college classroom, is written very formally Speaking to friends or texting are informal, meaning they have a low level of diction "It is essential to understand that the differences exist not because spoken language is a degradation of written language but because any writtenlanguage, whether English orChinese, results from centuries of development and elaboration by a small number of users , Jim Miller(Miller, 2008)

Formal written works or presentations would likely also have more complex sentences or industry-specific jargon They are directed to a narrower audience than something meant to be read or heard by the general public, where the audience members' backgrounds will be more diverse

Precision in word choice is less exacting in informal contexts than formal ones, and grammar rules are more flexible in spoken language than in formal written language Understandable English syntax is more flexible than most " the odd thing about English is that no matter how much you screw sequences word up, you understood, still, like Yoda, will be Other languages don't

work that way French? Dieu! Misplace a single le or la and an idea vaporizes into

a sonic puff English is flexible: you can jam it into a Cuisinart for an hour, remove

it, and meaning will still emerge.”(Copeland, 2009)

What is the study of syntax about? It is about the property of human language known as syntax ‘Syntax’ means ‘sentence construction’: how words group

together to make phrases and sentences Some people also use the term grammar to mean the same as syntax, although most linguists follow the more recent practice whereby the grammar of a language includes all of its organizing principles: information about the sound system, about the form of words, how we adjust language according to context, and so on; syntax is only one part of this grammar The term ‘syntax’ is also used to mean the study of the syntactic properties of languages In this sense it’s used in the same way as we use ‘stylistics’ to mean the study of literary style We’re going to be studying how languages organize their syntax, so the scope of our study includes the classification of words, the order of words in phrases and sentences, the structure of phrases and sentences, and the different sentence constructions that languages use We’ll be looking at examples

of sentence structure from many different languages, some related to English and others not All languages have syntax, though that syntax may look radically different from that of English

To understand the way syntax works in languages, and to introduce the most important syntactic concepts and technical terms which you’ll need in order to see how syntax works in the world’s languages We’ll encounter many grammatical terms, including ‘noun’, ‘verb’, ‘preposition’, ‘relative clause’,‘subject’,

‘nominative’, ‘agreement’ and ‘passive’ Often, terms are not formally defined when they are used for the first time, but they are illustrated so you can understand the concept, in preparation for a fuller discussion later on More complex terms and concepts (such as ‘case’ and ‘agreement’) are discussed more than once, and a picture of their meaning is built up over several chapters

Syntax, was the study of free forms that were composed entirely of free forms Central to his theory of syntax were the notions of form classes and constituent structure (Bloomfield).He defined form classes, rather imprecisely,

in terms of some common “recognizable phonetic or grammatical feature” shared

by all the members What Bloomfield had in mind as the criterion for form class membership (and therefore of syntactic equivalence) may best be expressed in terms of substitutability Form classes are sets of forms (whether simple or complex, free or bound), any one of which may be substituted for any other in a given construction or set of constructions throughout the sentences of the language The smaller forms into which a larger form may be analyzed are its constituents, and the larger form is a construction For example, the phrase

“poor John” is a construction analyzable into, or composed of, the constituents

“poor” and “John.” Because there is no intermediate unit of which “poor” and

“John” are constituents that is itself a constituent of the construction “poor John,” the forms “poor” and “John” may be described not only as constituents but also

as immediate constituents of “poor John.” Similarly, the phrase “lost his watch” is composedof three word forms-“lost,” “his,” and “watch”-all of which may be described as constituents of the construction Not all of them, however, are its immediate constituents The forms “his” and “watch” combine to make the intermediate construction “his watch”; it is this intermediate unit that combines with “lost” to form the larger phrase “lost his watch.” The immediate constituents

of “lost his watch” are “lost” and “his watch”; the immediate constituents of “his watch” are the forms “his” and “watch.” By the constituent structure of a phrase or sentence is meant the hierarchical organization of the smallest forms of which it is composed (its ultimate constituents) into layers of successively more inclusive units Viewed in this way, the sentence “Poor John lost his watch” is more than simply a sequence of five word forms associated with a particular intonation pattern It is analyzable into the immediate constituents “poor John” and

“lost his watch,” and each of these phrases is analyzable into its own immediate constituents and so on, until, at the last stage of the analysis, the ultimate constituents of the sentence are reached

2.2.2 Theories of semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning in language It primarily focuses on the correlation between the symbolic constituent of a sentence such as words and phrases and what they demonstrate for, their references First discovered by French linguist Michel Breal (1890), the word semantics relates series of awareness from normal using to higher application In simple meaning, it describes a range of understanding which could carry out the world choice The difference between semantics and syntax is syntax is just a formal arrangement of constituents of a language without their own meanings, while semantics requires the critical meaning for every use of words [8]

There are many theories of semantics which has been studied and analyzed for centuries and they could generally classified into three basic concepts:

• Model theoretic semantics: Discovered by Richard Montague (1960) in the late 1960s, this formal theory of ordinary language semantics is about how and in which expressions reflect theirs relational meaning among themselves And more amazingly, the truth values of a sentence and its reasonable denotations to other sentence are analyzed to a model [9]

• Truth conditional semantics: First mentioned by the linguist Donald Davidson, (1973) the theory tries to find the language connection with the reality which differentiates it from model theoretic semantics Its result shows that every components of a sentence must rely and reflect the truth conditions of themselves in order to carry out the true meaning of the combination There is a simple example for this theory: “Winter is cold” is true only when winter is cold, if two conditions of the meaning “winter” and

“cold” are not logical with each other then the semantics could not be performed [10]

• Beth Levin, (1991) Lexical semantics: is the theory of context It states that

the meaning of a word is totally revealed by its situation Each component of the sentence must collaborate with others in term of meanings which could depend on their own level and form in order to carry out the meaning of the sentence As a result, it would be easier for the speakers to conveniently deliver their thoughts depending the current context.[11]

Whereas syntax is the grammar, structure, or order of the elements in a language statement, semantics is the meaning of these elements Semantics has a thousand-of-year history but the word “semantics” made it earliest entry into the Old English Dictionary only in 1890s Cliff Goddard (1998) remarks that semantics, the study of meaning, is at the center of linguistic quest to understand the nature of language and human language abilities for two reasons First, expressing meanings

is what language is all about- everything from words to grammatical constructions and structures Second, semantics can shed the light on the relationship between language and culture The term “linguistic semantics” to state that linguistic semantics is the study of meaning in so far so as it is systematically encoded in the vocabulary and grammar of natural languages On the other hand, Frawley (1992) defines in obvious terms linguistic semantics as the study of literal, contextualized, grammatical meaning The most commonly agreed-upon definition of semantics remains the one given by Bre’al as “the science of the meanings of words and of the changes in their meaning” With this definition, semantics is included under lexicology, the more general science of words, being its most important branch.[34][25][33]

Semantics (as the study of meaning) is central to the study of communication and as communication becomes more and more a crucial factor in social organization, the need to understand it becomes more and more pressing Semantics

is also at the centre of the study of the human mind- thought processes, cognition, conceptualization- all these are intricately bound up with the way in which we classify and convey our experience of the world through language

2.2.3 Definition of semantics

In languages, idioms are the type of unit in which one can find a great deal of information in terms of language, culture, national identity and even human philosophy

Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences It focuses on the conventional meaning conveyed by the use of words and sentences

in language

According to Nguyen Hoa (2004) semantics as a discipline will not limited to meaning of word, but semantics has to expand into such a fuzzy or more gray area: the meaning of, and the distinction between the meaning of the sentence and the utterance And meaning reflects human conceptualization of our possible words or reality [13]

Furthermore, semantics focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata Semantics tries to understand what meaning is as an element of language and how it

is constructed by language as well as interpreted, obscured and negotiated by speakers and listeners of language

The study of semantics looks at how meaning works in language, and because

of this it often uses native speaker intuitions about the meaning of words and phrases to base research on

Semantics also looks at the ways in which the meanings of words can be related to each other Here are a few of the ways in which words can be semantically related

Semantics looks at these relationships in language and looks at how these meanings are created, which is an important part of understanding how language works as a whole Understanding how meaning occurs in language can inform other sub-disciplines, such as Language Acquisition, to help us to understand how speakers acquire a sense of meaning, and Sociolinguistics, as the achievement of meaning in language is important in a social situation

Semantics is also informed by other sub-disciplines of linguistics, such as morphology, as understanding the words themselves is integral to the study of their meaning, and syntax, in which researchers in semantics use extensively to reveal how meaning is created in language, as how language is structured is central to meaning

Semantics of idioms

The internal organisation of English idioms indicates that idioms are a very complex and distinctive entity peculiar only to the English language That is, English idioms have their own fixed constraints in terms of semantic and structural characteristics One cannot split a certain idiom into individual parts and try to derive the conceptual meaning from each part Moreover, one cannot use the normal rules of English grammar to explain what is conveyed in the idiom

Vinogradow (1977) once cleverly likened the meaning of an idiom to “the special chemical mixture” of the meaning of all the components, which is, notably and completely new in quality This means that the meaning of an

However, some idioms whose literal meaning and figurative one is almost identical so that readers can guess the meaning Another feature related to semantics is that idioms can convey positive, neutral or negative meaningsliteral meaning, but also the figurative meaning These meanings of the word do not exist separately but together as a perfect whole In this whole, the literal meaning is the center and the figurative meaning is the extension, which shows the cultural distinction of using the word between this commodity and others However, we focus much on idiomatic expressions containing the word ‘cat’, therefore, besides the literal meanings of the word ‘cat’, we mainly study the figurative meanings of these idioms which are, in the study, called the idiomatic meanings

Literal meaning

The literal meaning of a word is the strict dictionary meaning of a word, the

‘dictionary definition’ For example, if you look up the word snake in a dictionary, you will discover that one of its literal meanings is ‘any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venous reptiles having a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions.’ Obviously, idiom has its idiomatic meaning Many idioms, however, can also have both the literal and idiomatic meanings In the study, we do not focus on the literal meanings of all the relating to “love” in English and Vietnamese

Idiomatic meaning

Specific characteristics of idiomatic meanings as we mentioned above, an idiom is a combination of words that has a meaning that is different from the meanings of the individual words themselves It can have a literal meaning in one situation and a different idiomatic meaning in another situation It is a phrase which does not always follow the normal rules of meaning and grammar “To sit on the fence” can literally mean that one is sitting on a fence I sat on the fence and watched the game However, the idiomatic meaning of “ to sit on the fence” is that one is not making a clear choice regarding some issue, for example: The politician sat on the fence and would not give his opinion about the tax issue Therefore, we can see that the idiom not only gives or transfers the information but also implies the nuance, attitude and feelings of the speaker The literal meaning of the idiom is the meaning that we can see basing on the each unit’s meaning and the idiomatic meaning, is the extension which shows the cultural distinction of using the word between this commodity and others The idiomatic meaning of the idioms is the meaning beyond or other than the sum of the meaning of the individual words

2.3 An overview of idioms

2.3.1 Definitions of idioms

English is very rich in idiomatic expressions It is difficult to speak or write English without using idioms An important fact must be stressed is that idioms are not only colloquial expressions, as many people believe They can appear in formal style and in slang They can appear in poetry or in the language of the journalist, the writer and the Bible What, then, is an idiom? The question may have many answers

In English

The Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics stated that an idiom is “an expression which function as a single unit and whose meaning cannot be worked out from its separate parts” (Longman Dictionary, 1992) [21]

David Crystal announced that “idiom is a term in grammar and lexicography

to refer to a sequence of words which is semantically and often syntactically restricted, so that they function as a single unit” (D Crystal, 1995)

According to Hornby (1995), idioms are “a phrase or sentence whose meaning

is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be leant as a whole unit” (Hornby, 1995)

In Cambridge International Dictionary of idioms (1998) idiom is defined as a colorful and interesting aspect of English They are used generally in all types of language, informal and formal, spoken and written

Idiom regularly has a stronger meaning than non-idiomatic phrases For instance, “look daggers at someone” has more highlighting meaning than look angrily at someone, although they signify the similar thing

Idioms may also imply a particular attitude of the person using them, for example, disapproval, humor, irritation or admiration [14]

Words do not just come individually; they also come in expressions – group According to Wright (2002) idiom is an expression with following features Firstly, idiom is fixed and is recognized by native speakers We cannot make up our own idioms The second feature is that idiom uses language in a non-literal-metaphor-way As mentioned in Oxford Dictionary idiom is defined as “a group of words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word understood by its own” [15]

in-Idioms itself have grammar Some idiomatic expressions are fixed and cannot

be changed such as:

Two head are better than one

(Ba anh thợ gia bằng Gia Cát Lượng) However, in most cases, we can change the tense and the pronoun such as I am/she is/we are all at sixes and sevens

According to Wright, idiom is an expression with following features Firstly, idiom is fixed and is recognized by native speakers We cannot make up our own idioms The second feature is that idiom uses language in a non-literal-metaphor-way Take these idioms as examples

John is up to his eyes in work now

At the meeting, I felt a bit out of my depth

I was over the moon when I heard she’d had twins

It broke my mother’s heart to see her home burnt to the ground

If you are up to your eyes, you are very busy When a person is out of her or his depth, he/she might be in the sea but he/she is more likely to be in a circumstance that he/she cannot comprehend for some reasons If you are over the moon, you are extremely joyful about something If something breaks your heart, you are very gloomy about it

In these examples, it is clear that the idiom is a whole expression This is the traditional view of idioms

We are familiar with the idea of heavy rain causing a stream to overflow and flood the surrounding area; crowds are often described as water and the same verb

flood is used The literal meaning of a hot potato, it is not for eating; it means a

controversial issue Idioms are very important because they are commonly used in daily life It is nearly impossible to speak, read or listen to English without meeting idioms The next reason is the metaphorical use of a word is more common today than its literal meaning However, it is important to know its literal meaning because it creates a picture in our mind and this picture enables us to understand other meanings more easily The last reason why idioms are so important is that they are fun to learn and to use If the language you want to learn is more colorful and interesting, there is more chance that we will remember it clearly Our English will sound more natural

In Vietnamese

According to Nguyen Luc, Luong Van Dang in Vietnamese, idioms frequently use fixed expressions; grammatically, they are not complete sentences, which mean they are only words or phrases Idioms do not show any comments, experiences,

ethnical lesson or critics, so they often have figurative function, not educational function For example, in Vietnamese we say "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"

hay "vẻ đẹp nằm trong đôi mắt của kẻ si tình" is the famous idiom This sentence is

used when a person can’t find out the reason why to love another In this case

“beauty” can be the beauty, wisdom, personality of the person being loved [41]

Most of idioms are formed from incomplete meaning words; they cannot stand alone but in a sentence Vietnamese idioms are often used in proverbs, folk songs,

or literature works That makes idioms meaningful only when they are in sentences

Take this as an example, “công dã tràng”, at least, it has to be in sentence: “đúng là

công dã tràng” or “chuyện anh làm chỉ là công dã tràng” Instead of expressing an

idea literally, people tend to use idiom to make their speech more beautifully or funnier For example, to express the idea of a person who sometimes works,

sometime does not, we use this idiom “hắn ta đi làm bữa đực bữa cái”

Idioms use brief expressions based on stories, folk tales, or classic references, which happened a long time ago Now we encounter similar situation, thus by hearing those idioms, the listener knows exactly what the speaker means

2.3.2 Some features of idioms

It is undeniable to say that meaning is probably the most important element when discussing about semantic feature of an idiom The key for linguists to separate a fixed impression from an idiom is its figurative meaning To illustrate, there is an idiom “a hot potato”, which means speak of a problem (generally at the moment) that most of everyone is talking about and it is often uncertain It is easy

to recognize that the meaning of the idiom’s components are quite far from the meaning of the whole idiom, which means it is kind of impossible to understand an idiom if we separate each words causing it For this reason, it is significant that we had better understand an idiom in a figurative way than in a literal way

On the contrary, the meaning of an idiom can be understood either relatively

or totally apart from the meaning of its whole constituents If the meaning of an idiom is not completely different from the meaning of its all components, it could

be understood both of its figurative meaning and its literal one

There are many example like: easy come easy go, you get what you give, speak your mind and so on which the meaning of these idioms could be easily predicted by understanding the meaning of their constituents

In addition, there is another important semantic feature of an idiom is that it could have an active, unbiased or negative meanings For instance, idioms which come with an active meaning are give it a shot (encourage someone to try to do something), cross your fingers (wish to have a good luck), see eye to eye (agree with someone about an issue On the other hand, idioms state for a negative meaning are give someone the cold shoulder (paying no attention to someone), wolf

in sheep’s clothing (speaking about a person who makes up to be a good one but is not) and devil to pay (warning someone when their action could cause trouble or casualty) Last but not least is idioms with a neutral meaning For example : be in the same boat (to be in someone’s situation), a grey area (speaking about something that is unclear or uncertain), have mixed feeling (when someone is unsure or

confused about something), etc Because of its characteristic, idioms coming with positive meanings seem to be at the most

On the whole, the principal semantic features of idioms are their meanings could either reflect the meaning of their components or are totally different Besides, idioms can express active, unbiased or negative meanings depending on the user

It is asserted that language follows rules If it did not, its users would not be able to make sense of the random utterances they read or heard and they would not

be able to communicate meaningfully themselves Idiom, however, breaks the normal rules The word “idiom‘’ comes from the Greek “idiot”, “one’s own, peculiar, strange” Hence, idiom is considered anomalies of language, mavericks of the linguistic world; and most of the linguists when studying features of idiom have focused on these animalities of idiom Idiom may be characterized by several

features; but they may be summarized under two main headings: semantic and

syntactic peculiarities

In terms of semantic peculiarities, Jackson and Amvela (2000) indicate that idiom has “ambiguity”, it means that idiom may have either a literal or an idiomatic meaning For example,

If someone “beats a dead horse”, they may in fact be in the process of striking

the carcass of an animal (literal meaning); or they may be wasting time discussing a

matter that has already been closed (idiomatic meaning) Similarly, “To sit on the

fence” can literally mean that one is sitting on a fence “I sat on the fence and watched the game”; whereas its idiomatic meaning that one is not making clear

choice regarding some issue “The politician sat on the fence and would not give his

opinion about the tax issue” However, once a reader or hearer realizes that a given

expression is idiom, even if they are not sure of its exact meaning, they will automatically discard the literal meaning of the expression, and seek an idiomatic meaning Furthermore, the context in which the idiom occurs also plays an important role in the reduction of this potential ambiguity

Another noticeable semantic feature of idiom is affirmed by Cruse although idiom consists of more than one word, it displays to some extent the sort of internal cohesion that we expect of single words” In order words, idiom may be characterized as “a lexical complex, which is semantically simplex” And this semantic integrity of idiom leads to its lexical integrity It means that idiom has a number of syntactic grammatical (1986) constraints:

The first constraints are on replacements or substitutions Fernando (1996) shows that an idiom may be varied in terms of number and tense (inflectional changes) or the replacement of one structure word like an article by another or by zero He gives some examples:

+ “He smelt a rat and he kept mum” (past tense, past time)

(The Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English 1983

“Everybody smells a rat in a doctored obituary, even the window”

(Present tense indicating a timeless truth)

(The Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English 1983)[32]

However, these replacements can be only applied to a small number of idioms

In general, most idioms are indivisible units whose components can’t be varied

Some do not permit pluralization like in “kick the buckets”(kick the bucket) or

“smell the rats” (smell a rat); some do not permit singularization such as “twiddle one’s thumb” (twiddle one’s thumbs) or “raining a cat and a dog” (raining cats and dogs).In addition, replacement of characteristic lexis in idiom isn’t possible

even synonymous words For example, in “we look forward to meeting you”,

“look” can not be replaced by “see” or “watch” Hence, “we see/watch forward to

meeting you” is not idiomatic Similarly, in “wash one’s dirty linen in public”,

“linen” can not be replaced by “socks”, neither can “thought‟ be replaced by

“idea” in “have second thoughts”

• Idiom also resists re-ordering of its parts We consider “John kicked

the bucket” In the literal sense, this expression has a passive variant, “The bucket was kicked by John” But in its idiomatic use, i.e when “kicked the bucket” means “died”, the expression does not allow the use of the

corresponding passive alternative Other changes of the order of the words

like in “The short and the long of it” (The long and the short) or in “What

Peter pulled was his sister’s leg” (What Peter did was pull his sister’s leg)are impossible

• Additions and deletions are also not normally permitted within idiom Thus,

we can’t say “To pull someone’s left leg” and “To kick the large bucket”,

they have no normal idiomatic interpretation because of the addition of

“left‟ and “large‟, whereas “straight from horse’s mouth‟ and “turn a new leaf‟ are both unacceptable because “the‟ and “over‟ have been omitted

Such (1986) constraints make idiom fixed or invariant and separate them from non-idiom Cruse recognizes another feature of idiom which shows its status as phrases in a way that “if idiom may be inflected, the inflectional affixes are carried

by the grammatically appropriate elements within the idiom, whether or not they are semantic constituents; that is to say, the elements of idiom retain at least some of their grammatical identity [38]:

“John has a bee in his bonnet about many things” (John luôn bận tâm về mọi thứ) (*John has bees-in-his bonnets about many things); this expression is

wrong because the grammatical appropriate elements “have a bee in one’s about

something” is invariant, it does not permit pluralization

Learning idioms plays an important part in advancing language skill Many students have much difficulty in describing their own ideas and feel that they

can’t speak fluently or write a complete essay This happens because they all rely

on using separate words leading to make such “fragment” or “run-on” sentences Therefore, in order to be confident in using foreign language, to understand and use idioms in right way would be good choice for those who have strong desire to advance their level of English However, learning idioms could cause a lot of obstacles because of culture differences and other facts

2.3.3 Classification of idioms

2.3.3.1 An overview of the classification of idioms

The idioms in English are so numerous and so full of variety that the first problem that a teacher is going to encounter is not merely how to do justice to them, but where to begin There are innumerable expressions like, at hand, catch up with,

do away with, stand for, fall for, to come to in English, which we come across in conversation, in newspapers, on the radio and television, and there are longer expressions like, to let the cat out of the bag, take the bull by the horns, turn over a new leaf, play second fiddle to and so on In terms of our definition of an idiom, the meaning of these expressions cannot be understood even if the learner knows the meaning of individual words like horns, fiddle, catch etc It is also clear that there is

a difference between expressions such as catch up with or stand for and turn over a new leaf Therefore, it is evident that these expressions have to be grouped or organized to make the learning and teaching of idioms meaningful If the learning

of idioms has to yield results, the teaching of them will involve the choice of idioms and organization of idioms into categories that will meet the requirements of different levels of students This naturally leads us to a discussion on the importance of classifying idioms

We have mentioned above some examples of expressions like to catch up with, at hand and longer expressions like “let the cat out of the bag”, “play second fiddle”, etc Though linguists have termed these expressions broadly as idioms, they have made a distinction by further classifying them into two large groups They call the shorter expressions like take in, put on, etc… phrasal verbs and the longer one’s common idioms which we propose to label as Regular idioms By Regular idioms

we mean those long expressions which are generally recognized as idioms by the average educated people These people are most likely to know what turn over a new leaf or take the bull by the horns means

English idioms include two popular dictionaries which give a deep care about them: Oxford dictionary of Current Idiomatic and English Longman dictionary of English idioms The discussion about these two dictionaries will be performed by examples and analysis for deeper understanding about the classification of idioms

in worldwide

It is important, especially for second language learners, to be able to identify and deeply understand idioms of the native speakers As a result, leaners tend to seek out for reliable supports when they encounter such hard and strange idioms Besides teachers and textbooks which can only provide finite knowledge, one of the most dependable sources that leaners can take advantages of is dictionaries There are two popular dictionaries which give a deep care about English idioms: Longman dictionary of English idioms and Oxford dictionary of Current Idiomatic English The discussion about these two dictionaries will be performed by examples and analysis for deeper understanding about the classification of idioms

in worldwide

Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English also agrees the same definition and features of an idiom It defines that an idiom is a group of more than

two words which works together to perform a figurative meaning Besides, it also makes clear that with the semantic accord, an idiom could become a single syntactic component Furthermore, the dictionary also accesses that with their principle features as well as their unique types of structures, idioms have made themselves as the most typically English component in terms of vocabulary In addition, with a variety of idiomatic expressions collaborating with the capability to be used in many concepts of communication or daily conversation, idioms are considered as one of the most interesting and most useful grammatical elements in English The needs of idiom dictionaries are also concerned with due to their figurative meaning features as well as extraordinarily grammatical structures, especially for those who are not non native speakers and unfamiliar with the related language However, the concepts of idioms are only merely explained without proper evaluations and discussions Besides, Oxford Dictionary aims to cover a wide range of idiomatic expressions, which is extremely numerous, instead of focusing on idioms only Generally speaking, Oxford Dictionary delivers a deeper and more concrete concept of idioms than Longman Dictionary It provides a neat definition, both figurative and literal meaning of idioms as well as attached examples [19]

The following categories are classified into five types:

• Clear idioms like “nerves of steel” and “take cover “

• Figurative idioms like “food for thought” or “take with a grain of salt “

• Controlled connections, also named as semi idioms, are idioms which one part expresses a literal or familiar meaning while other parts reveal figurative meanings in certain concepts For example: “an apple of one’s eyes “and “darken someone’s door “

• Free connections are a group of words or phrases which combine together with their literal meanings and are free to connect like “Actions speak louder than words and “keep one's feet on the ground” The idioms in this type are mostly parted out of the dictionary because its authors and editors recognize that this type of idioms is usually not able to define as the exact characteristics of an idiom

• Unclear type: It is the facts that there are many cases which are impossible

to make clear whether they are idioms or just an idiomatic expression Oxford Dictionary of Current idiomatic English is the first dictionary which accepts that it is sometimes difficult and mistaken to define whether a fixed expression is an idiom or just an idiomatic expression, due to its conventional definition and accustomed meaning from the old days Oxford really tries to define and classify idioms mostly basing on the syntactic features of idioms, which contain a variety and confusions both in grammatical structures and methods as well [29]Therefore, a number of idiomatic expressions appearing in the dictionary

is still classified as an idiom like “I can tell you “and “God bless you “ Of course, there are also mistaken like this in general dictionaries and even in major dictionaries and Oxford Dictionary of Current idiomatic English is still one of the most reliable dictionaries for studying and learning about idioms at the moment

Longman Dictionary of English idioms gives a state of idiom: “An idiom is a fixed expression with a figurative meaning which separates itself from the meaning

of its constituents” Idiom’s features are also noted along: idioms mostly have figurative meaning than literal one Besides, some idioms are more related to the definition of an idiom than others which are probably more related to their literal meaning In addition, Longman Dictionary also states that an idiom must contain more than, or at least, two words It could be used in spoken language as well as written one However, the informal using is considered more popular than the formal using

According to Longman Dictionary, (1992).there are some types of idioms which are listed below [21]

• Traditional idioms: The idioms in this type are mostly full and complete sentences The way to use this idiom is just to add a subject to identify the purpose of the sentence They are usually considered working as specific parts of sentences For example, the verb phrase can work like a complement, subject or object of the given sentence “Keep an eye on somebody” and “cut to the chase” are typical examples for this type of idioms

• Idioms of actions which express feelings or emotions like “hold one’s horses” and “found one’s feet” are usually difficult and make trouble for users, especially non native speakers, to apply it The problem here is, the meaning of the related idiom is often figurative and not really literal while the action in the idiom means quite different from which it does in other languages As a result, the confusion between meaning and action makes it unpopular comparing to another idiom

• Sets of words such as “days and nights” A number idioms of this type belongs to the first group, work as specific types of sentence which the order

is often fixed

• Idioms which contain “it” like “Coining it” and “Dog it” “It” in this type of idioms does not relate to the constituents standing before it like it often does

• Insinuation like “brewski” This type of idioms is familiar and quite special

in English society, which could be trouble with non native speaker since they do not perform a clear meaning

• Sayings: they could be proverbs such as “A broken friendship may be soldered but will never be sound “or just informal sayings such as “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink “

• Common phrases in communication or conversation such as “How come” and “How do you do” They often fail to express literal meanings

• Similes such as “About as useful as a chocolate teapot” “Come down on somebody like a ton of bricks”

And so, there are expressions in this dictionary which are not considered as idioms For example, most of insinuations do not have figurative meanings and, however, being treated as metonymy In the same way, sayings and common phrases do not have figurative meanings, despite the fact that they usually appear in

the group of idiomatic language, still are not idioms It is hard to recognize the dissimilarities between common phrases which appear in the dictionary and the ones which are not mentioned in Another example, the idioms contain “it” such as

“coining it” and “Dog it” are not really called idioms, they refer as phrasal verbs than complete idioms

Longman Dictionary does not provide any foundations to secure the expressions which contain “it” are whether idioms or not Despite the fact that Longman Dictionary based on signs and features of idiom [formal, informal, jargon and waggish] to categorize idioms, which is the same way of other usual dictionaries apply to group idioms, it is essential to mention as well as explain logical limitations for idioms in the aspect of framework, manners in order to achieve better understanding about idioms It is undeniable that the most important mission of a dictionary is to give definitions for the meanings of expressions, neither to guide nor to argue how to apply them in the way the users want to do However, as it is presented to serve and support for most of non native speakers who were not familiar with this language until recent time, it would have been more reasonable to deliver a proper counseling for the concept of idioms than just define and classify them Of course, there are still advantages of idioms that English learners can look for in Longman dictionary such as giving neat definitions and providing related instances as well

On the whole, there are millions of idioms in all over the world and each idiom could be different in one language from another As a result, it makes out a numerous way to classify types of idioms With a restricted knowledge of this paper, idioms would be categorized into two ways as follows: idioms based on semantic structure and idioms based on syntactic structure

2.3.3.2 Based on semantic structure

According to Vinogradov (2004), a specialist in linguistic field has contributed great studies for linguistics around the world He states that there are three main kinds of idioms based on their semantic structure; they are phraseological fusions, phraseological unities and phraseological combinations [20]

• Phraseological fusions: Considered as the most combination kind of idioms,

it is hard to study this kind of idioms because of its special features Specifically, in this type of idioms, the meaning of an idiom could not be expressed by comminating the meaning of each components of the idiom

On the other hand, the meanings of individual constituents of the idioms is way too far from the meaning of the idiom, furthermore, their meanings are also not linked to each other to perform a certain description for the idiom

As a result, it usually challenges linguists of two languages to translate it while keeping both literal and figurative meaning because its complicated feature, as well as it can cause misunderstand for users to effectively communicate to others due to its enigma To illustrate, there is an example idiom “cook someone’s goose” (to ruin, make someone trouble) which the

meaning of the idiom does not relate to any word of it and it is also the same

in reserve [18]

• Phraseological unities: While the phraseological fusions totally deny itself in term of meaning, the phraseological unities do assist the whole idiom by the meaning of its components Although it just partly combines the components in low level, the meaning of the idiom could be understood by perceiving its constituents’ meanings It equals to the term “synonym” in normal sentences, which means a few words in the sentence could be replaced by other word while still keeping the sentence’s meaning As a result, the communication can achieve better performance while using this kind of idiom because it can be understood by normal and simple words For example, “look like a million dollars” (a person who looks fabulous and attractive) can explain this kind of idioms A million dollars, of course, is attractive to anyone and it could be replaced by the word “attractive” for a literal meaning without misplacing the original meaning of the given idiom

• Phraseological combinations: This is the easiest kind of idioms to understand because the literal meaning is mostly alike to a figurative one The meanings of its components are linked and supportive for each other while they also reflect the meaning of an idiom Although it delivers lower figurative meaning than other kinds of idioms, it takes a main part in normal communications and daily life due to its convenient and easy-to-use features “Practice makes perfect” (working hard to achieve good result) “in high spirit” (to be happy and joyful) are simple example to look at [22][23][24]

2.3.3.3 Based on syntactic feature

Being sorted as forms of words, this part mainly focuses on the structure of idioms, from that the classification will be clearly explained into five kinds: idioms rolling like nouns, idioms rolling like verbs, idioms rolling like adjectives, idioms rolling like adverbs and at last, idioms rolling like prepositions A table will be performed below for better presentation

Table 1 Types of Idioms based on Syntactic Features

Examples

N + Adj Business as usual

N + PP Cash in your chips

N + NP Stars in your eyes

V + PP Go out of business

V + Adv +

PP

Let someone down gently

Adj + PP Economical with the truth

Preposition P + N on cloud nine

P + N +

PP

With bells on

Adv + Adj In full swings

2.3.3.4 An overview of phrases, clause and sentence structures

Phrase

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

a complete thought

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

In which the first sentence contains five phrases: "of words," "acting as a single part

of speech," "as a single part," "of speech," and "not containing both a subject and a verb." Except for the phrase beginning with as, all the phrases are acting as adjectives The phrase beginning with as is adverbial.[30]

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

In this study, we focus on verb, noun, adjective, adverb and prepositional phrases

According to Oxford dictionary, “a group of words, which make sense but not complete” is stated as a Phrase and “is a group of linking words without a Verb or a Subject” In daily and normal communication, there are five kinds of popular phrases which could be applied for: Noun Phrase, Verb Phrase, Adjective Phrase, Adverb Phrase and Prepositional Phrases

Noun Phrases

Noun phrase, also called “Nominal phrase” (NP) is a phrase containing a noun

or an identify pronoun as the leading term of the phrase It could perform a variety

of missions in a sentence Its syntactic feature is related as a normal phrase And so, noun phrases are favorably used in communication and they are probably the most common phrase which are used for most of contexts Noun phrases could play in four particular roles in a sentence: [31]

Noun phrase as a subject: That blue house is now for rent

Noun phrase as a direct object: Paula really wants a pair of shoes

Noun phrase as an object of preposition: there is a flash mob dance on that red

regarding to it As an example, “Charlie wants the toy at the end of the line

“contains a verb phrase” wants the toy at the end of the line “with the verb wants” and other complements “the toy at the end of the line “ Verb phrases usually do not consist a subject inside For this reason, Verb phrases are frequently treated as a predicate in grammatical structures

Verb phrase could be commonly separated into two kinds: one is finite and another is nonfinite Finite verb phrases have the beginning of the phrase containing

a finite verb On the contrary, nonfinite verb phrases have the beginning of the phrase containing a non-finite verb such as gerunds (verbs with the suffix “ing”

after them), participle (verbs in their participle forms) and infinitive (bare verbs) Depending on the related contexts that Verb phrases could be used as a finite or non-finite type

- Verb phrase as a finite: The whole class has failed in the examination

- Verb phrase as a non-finite: Being as a mature person, I must be responsible for

myself Adjective Phrases

An adjective phrase is a phrase of which beginning word is an adjective The beginning adjective in an adjective phrase are mainly used to set off a phrase such

as smarter than me and end a phrase such as extremely expensive Sometimes it even stands in the middle of a phrase such as very shame about it, the complements

of an adjective phrase are mainly prepositional phrases or adverb phrases However,

clauses could also be the complements of an adjective phrase e.g I am better than

you are Adjective phrases, as well as adjectives, primarily work in two general

roles in clauses, which are either prenominal or predicative In the prenominal role, the adjective phrases present inside a noun phrase and amend that noun phrase In much the same way, about the predicative way, the adjective phrases state beside

the noun phrase which they amend and generally tag along a linking verb

• An example for a prenominal adjective phrase: the footballer better than you is

now on the rival team

• An example for a predicative adjective phrase: I only want a small and lovely house

on the related concepts, could have a variety of meanings

Adverb phrases amend for a noun: unluckily for us, someone has stolen the

car

• Adverb phrases amend for a verb: I always drive carefully

• Adverb phrases amend for an adjective: I found it extremely difficult to

complete the report

• Adverb phrases amend for a prepositional phrase: They were utterly against

that obligation

Prepositional Phrases

A common prepositional phrase often contains two parts: one is a preposition and the other is a complement There are three features of a preposition phrase which are post modifier of a noun, post modifier of an adjective and last, adverbial

• Prepositional phrases work like an adjective: The shoes on the ground floor

are bitten by a cat

• Prepositional phrases work like an adverb: I watched the movie before class