A cross cultural study of using hedges in refusing a request in english and vietnamese

Vinh universityForeign languages department ********** LÊ THỊ HƯƠNG A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF SEMANTIC FEATURES OF COMPARATIVE ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS USING NAMES OF ANIMALS PHÂN T

Vinh university

Foreign languages department

**********

LÊ THỊ HƯƠNG

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF SEMANTIC

FEATURES OF COMPARATIVE ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE IDIOMS USING NAMES OF ANIMALS

(PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU ĐẶC ĐIỂM NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT CÓ SỬ DỤNG TÊN CỦA ĐỘNG VẬT)

GRADUATION THESIS FIELD: LINGUISTICS

VINH, MAY 2011

Vinh university

Foreign languages department

**********

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF SEMANTIC

FEATURES OF COMPARATIVE ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE IDIOMS USING NAMES OF ANIMALS

(PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU ĐẶC ĐIỂM NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT CÓ SỬ DỤNG TÊN CỦA ĐỘNG VẬT)

GRADUATION THESIS FIELD: LINGUISTICS

Student: Lª ThÞ H¬ng

Class: K48B1 English Supervisor: Trần Bá Tiến, M.A

VINH, MAY 2011

For the completion of this work, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable contributions from many people First of all, I would like to thank Management Board

of the English Department at Vinh University for giving me a great opportunity to do

a study on the subject: A contrastive analysis of semantic features of comparative

English and Vietnamese idioms using names of animals.

My thanks also go to my supervisor, Mr Tran Ba Tien for his invaluable guidance, great sympathy and enormous patience I am deepy greateful to his inspiration which has motivated me throught the implementation of the project.

My warmest thanks are due to my loving parents, my older brother and my closest friends for their unconditional love, support and forbearance.

Finally, I am all too aware that despite all the advices and assistances, I feel that the study is far from perfect; it is, therefore, my sole responsibility for any inadequacies that the study may be considered to have.

Vinh, May, 2011

Le Thi Huong

Abstract

i

Nowaday, when communication has become more important to people all over theworld and English is one of the international languages, it is urgent and common thatthere are more people who use and speak English fluently However, it is not easy to

be a good and skillful English learner because English includes many aspects that need

a lot of skills and much hard working For Vietnamese learners of English, particularlyadvanced learners, knowing and understanding idiomatic expressions is a significantstep to mastering this language It can be noticed that such short expressions containnumerous linguistic features Among these, idioms are of great interest to the author.Although idioms have been studied and viewed at different angles by numerousscholars, no one has ever reached totally persuasive answers to the questions of them.Thus, it is still a controversial topic which attracts people’s interest The aims of thisgraduation paper are to investigate the ways in which metaphor and simile are used inEnglish and Vietnamese idioms and to make some comparisons between Englishidioms and Vietnamese ones In order to obtain these aims, data and sources arecollected and gathered through reading and selecting numerous English andVietnamese idiomatic expressions Then, the author categorizes and analyzes data ofsimiles and metaphors in idioms The contrastive analysis method is also employed tomake up the study on metaphor in English and Vietnamese idioms with an attempt toprovide a clearer understanding of the aspect The results show that there are bothsimilarities and differences between English idioms and Vietnamese ones throughsimiles and metaphors, which are specifically demonstrated in the thesis Lastly, somesuggestions are introduced for teaching idioms in school with the hope that student can

be more interesting at idioms

Table of contents

Page

Acknowlegements i

ii

Abstract iiTable of contents iiiList of tables iv

Part I introduction

1 Justification of the Study

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

3 Methods of the Study

4 Scopes of the Study

5 Format of the Study

Part II investigation

Chapter 1 theoretical background

1.1 Definition of Idiom

1.1.1 Points of View of English Author on Idiom

1.1.2 Points of View of Vietnamese Author on Idiom

1.2 Features of Idiom

1.2.1 Semantic feature

1.2.2 Syntactic feature

1.3 Criteria to Distinguish Idioms from Free-Word Groups

1.3.1 Word and Its Meaning

1.3.2 The Meaning of Idioms

1.3.3 Idioms and Free- Word Groups

1.4 Criteria to Distinguish Idioms and Proverbs

CHAPTER II ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS USING NAMES

OF ANIMALS

2.1 English and Vietnamese Idioms Using Names of Animals

2.1.1 The Names of Animals in English Idioms

2.1.2 The Names of Animals in Vietnamese Idioms

2.2 The Meaning of English Idioms Using Names of Animals and Their Equivalents

in Vietnamese

2.2.1 The Similarities

2.2.2 The Differences

CHAPTER III: SOME SUGGESTIONS TO TEACH ENGLISH

COMPARATIVE IDIOMS USING NAMES OF ANIMALS

3.1 Some Difficulties are Confronted by Learner

3.1.1 Difficulties in Understanding

3.1.2 Difficulties in Memorizing

3.2 Pedagogical Suggestions for Teaching English Idioms

3.2.1 Which idioms to teach

3.2.2 Separated lessons or integrated ones

3.2.3 Specific classroom activities

PART III: CONCLUSION

1.Recapitulation and Implications

2.Suggestions for Further Studies

References

Appendix

iii

List of tables

Table 1: The English comparative idioms are similar with Vietnamese ones

Table 2: The English comparative idioms are different from Vietnamese ones

iv

Part I introduction

1 Justification of the Study

In the age of increasing international communication, English has become thevital means for communication in all fields It is considered a bridge that brings peoplefrom different countries closer Thus, English is now popular in Vietnam, especially atschool and university During the course of learning English, we have chances to dealwith many aspects of English language In that, we are really interested in its linguisticfield, particularly English idioms because they play a very important role in reflectingcustoms, cultural traditions, history of a nation

According to Long Man, Idioms Dictionary, idioms appear in every languageboth in written and spoken one to emphasize meaning and “make our observation,judgments and explanations be more lively and interesting” Therefore, they haveaesthetic function

However, idioms also give us many difficulties in communication They areoften confusing because the meaning of the whole group of words taken together haslittle, often nothing to do with the meanings of the words taken one by one

For example, when we say: “The street is as fat as a whale”, we do not mean thatthe street is fat or big but what we imply is that the street is very crowded

It can be said that, one of various types of English idioms that makes the speakersand writers have difficulty in understanding and translating them into the mothertongue is English comparative idioms That is the reason why the author chooses the

topic: “A contrastive analysis of semantic features of comparative English and

Vietnamese idioms using names of animals” with the hope that this study might help

Vietnamese people who learn English as well as who are fond of idioms to understandand use them in the right ways

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

As mentioned above, this study is conducted to make a contrast of semanticfeatures of English comparative idioms Vietnamese ones Therefore, the mainobjectives of the study are:

- Help the learners and readers to improve their knowledge of English andVietnamese idioms, especially comparative idioms and help them understand thecultural characteristic of English and Vietnamese people via the idioms

- Give some suggestions for teaching idioms in class

3 Methods of the Study

The main method employed is qualitative one with the use of other methods:

- Contrastive and comparative method

- Statistic method

- Analysis and systematic method

4 Scope of the Study

The study concerns with problems that are idioms, English and Vietnameseidioms with comparisons and the meaning of English comparative idioms andVietnamese ones

5 Format of the Study

The research consists of 3 parts: Part I is the introduction of the thesis whichcontains justification, the aims and objectives, the scope, the method and the format ofthe study Part II is the development of the thesis with 3 chapters: Chapter 1 istheoretical background which provides the definition of idiom, criteria to distinguishidioms from proverbs, criteria to distinguish idioms from free-word groups; chapter 2

is the survey which investigates English and Vietnamese idioms using names ofanimals and chapter 3 is some suggestions to translate English comparative idiomsusing names of animals Part III is the conclusion of the thesis including the summary

of the recapitulation and implication and suggestions for further studies The studyalso contains acknowledgements, abstract, table of contents, list of tables, referencesand appendix

Part II Development Chapter 1 Theoretical background

This chapter examines a theoretical background of idiom Firstly, the authorpresents the definition of idiom Then, she talks about criteria to distinguish idiomsfrom free-word groups and idioms from proverb

1.1 Definition of Idiom

1.1.1 Points of View of English Author on Idiom

In English, various authors define the term “idiom” differently Idioms may betreated as a type of collocation involving two or more words in context However,since the meaning of an idiom can not be predicted from the meanings of itsconstituents, we may also consider idioms as a type of multiword lexeme

According to Jennifer Seild and W Mc.Mordie (1988) an idiom is “a number of

words which, when taken together, have different meaning from the individual meanings of each word”

For example, when we say “Do not beat a dead horse” we do not imply a certain

kind of animal is involved but what we mean is that the person should not waste time

on an issue that has already been decided

Similarity, when we say “ He likes a cat on hot bricks”, we do not imply that a

person likes a cat being somewhere, what we want to mean is that he is worried or

when we say “ like a dog with two tails”, we do not refer to a thing or person having

two tails Nevertheless, what we mean is that a person feels very proud and happyabout something, etc

We can see these phrases as “Do not beat a dead horse”, “like a dog with two

tails”, “likes a cat on hot bricks” are called idioms.

From Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Jonathan Crowther (1995) defined that an

idiom is “a phrase whose meaning is difficult of sometimes impossible to guess by

looking at the individual words it contains” In the same year, Dean Curry in the

“Illustrated American idioms” (1995) offered another definition of idiom as follows;

“An idiom is the assigning of a new meaning to a group of words which already have their own meaning” (1995: 49)

In general, the approaching of these authors is different but they have similaropinion about the definitions of English idioms So we can understand that an English

idiom is a number of words, whose meaning can not be predicted from the individualmeanings of each word it comprises

1.1.2 Points of View of Vietnamese Authors on Idiom

Hoàng Văn Hành (1994) defined that an idiom is as “a stable word with a solid

formation and structure, and a complete and figurative meaning, used in everyday communication, especially in spoken language”.

According to Hoàng Phê (1997), an idiom is considered to be “a set of

expression whose meaning is general inexplicable simply through the meanings of individual words it contains”.

“Bóng chim tăm cá” (the bird and the fish) implies to a person who is far away.

“Nghị điều trời thẳm vực sâu

Bóng chim tăm cá biết đâu mà tìm”

(Truỵện Kiều)

(But heaven showed no track, the sea no trail

Where could be seek the bird and find the fish)

1.2 Features of Idiom

1.2.1 Semantic feature

It is said that meaning is the most important factor when talking about semanticfeature of idioms Figurative meaning is the basic characteristic of idioms for it helps

to decide whether a fixed expression is an idiom or not As V.V Vinogradow

imaginatively expressed, the meaning of an idiom is “the special chemical mixture” of

the meaning of all components, which is completely new in quality Let’s consider

some examples: “horse of a different color”: a different matter altogether, something

of a different nature than that being noticed (Marvin Terban 1996, 115) It can not beunderstood based on the component words of the idiom for their meaning is differentfrom that of the set phrase Therefore, it is important to understand idiomsmetaphorically rather than literally

On the other hand, according to A.V Kunin (2006), the meaning of an idiom iseither partly or completely different from the meaning of all components In case ofany partial difference, their figurative meaning is not different from the literal one The

partly different ones are like: from door to door, give and take, cry for the moon, eat

crow, etc The meaning of these idioms can be guessed from the meaning of their

components

Another semantic feature of idioms is that idioms can convey positive, neutral,

or negative meanings Some idioms have a positive meaning such as: a fair godmother (a person who helps you unexpectedly when you most need help), the fruit(s) of

something (the good result of an activity or a situation), be (all) plain sailing (be

simple and free from trouble) Examples of idioms with neutral meaning include: in

somebody’s shoes (be in somebody’s position), bring something home to somebody

(make somebody realize how important, difficult or serious something is) Some

typical examples of idioms with negative meanings are: monkey business (dishonest or silly behavior), a mummy’s boy (a boy or man who is thought to be too weak because

he is influenced and controlled by his mother), a fair-weathered friend (somebody

who is only a friend when it is pleasant for them, and stops being a friend when youare in trouble)

In short, idioms can be motivated, partially – motivated and non – motivated.Also, idiomatic expressions can convey positive, neutral, or negative meanings

1.2.2 Syntactic feature

As the author said that an idiom is a set-expression The components in idiomscan neither be added nor substituted They can not be changed or varied in the wayliteral expressions are normally varied, whether in speech or in writing Even thatwhen an idiom is used in a complete sentence, it is hardly possible to change it into

passive For example: “to lay your card on the table” which means to reveal all the

facts openly and honestly or to reveal one’s purpose and plans, in the sentence “The

mayor laid the card on the table about his secret campaign funds” It would beunnatural to say: “The card on the table about mayor’s secret campaign funds was laid

by him” It is also noticeable that one can not make other changes without losing theidiomatic meaning Almost all idiomatic phrases fail in one way or another to permitthe usual grammatical operations which literal phrases usually do This relates to thegrammatical fixity of idioms

From these examples above, we realize that idioms may take many different

forms or structures Some idioms are noun phrases such as “a bear garden”, “child’s

play” “spring chicken”, “yellow dog” and “litter bird” In terms of structure, an idiom

can have a regular structure, an irregular or even a grammatically incorrect structure For the first type, they have common forms but there is no connection betweenthe meaning of each component and that of the whole unit Typical examples of

idioms with regular structure are: dead duck (certain to get into trouble or reprimanded), white elephant (a very costly possession that is worthless to it owner

and only a cause of trouble The meaning of idioms in this group can not be perceivedwithout having been learnt already

The second group has unconventional forms but their meaning can be worked outthrough the meaning of individual words It means that the meaning of the whole unit

sometimes can be perceived through the meaning of its components For instance: “I

am good friends with him” We see that this idiom is irregular and illogical in terms of

grammatical structure According to the rule of language, “I” is singular so “friend”must be singular, too However, in this case, the idiom does not need to obeygrammatical rule to make sense “I am good friends with him” can still be interpretedthat “I am a friend of his”

In the last group, grammatically incorrect, both its form and meaning are

irregular Such idioms as “Be up to no good” (doing or planning something wrong or dishonest), “ to go through thick and thin” (in spite of all the difficulties and

problems; in good and bad times) are considered as grammatical irregularity Thestructure of the idioms can be written as “Verb + preposition + adjective” In English,this is an incorrect structure because adjectives never come after prepositionsindividually As an idiom, however, the case is accepted

In conclusion, in terms of syntactic feature, firstly, an idiom is a set –expression That is, one can not make any changes without losing the idiomaticmeaning Secondly, idioms may take many different forms or structure Idioms can be

in form of noun phrases, verb phrases, preposition phrases In connection withstructure, an idiom can have a regular structure, an irregular or even a grammaticallyincorrect structure

1.3 Criteria to Distinguish Idioms from Free-Word Groups

1.3.1 Word and Its Meaning

1.3.1.1 What is word?

Words are one the most important units which make up the speech in a language.They are used to designate an intermediate structure smaller than a whole phrase andyet generally larger than a single sound segment However, the word may be defineddifferently depending on whether we focus on its representation, the thought which itexpresses, or purely formal criteria The term “word” appears to be a simple conceptbut in fact, it is extremely difficult to define Some linguists refer to semantics, somerefer to phonology, morphology syntax or combine various approaching to define theword

Semantically, Nguyễn Hòa (2004) defined “Words are regarded as the smallest

indivisible meaningful unit of a language which can operate immediately”.

According to Basic English Lexicology, the author wrote that “A word is a

dialectical unity of form and content, independent unit of language to form a sentence by itself”, for example “book, bookish, unlucky, go, eat …”

From Sapir (1931), the word is “One of the smallest completely satisfying bits of

isolated “meaning” into which the sentence resolves itself” We can understand the

word can be described as the basic unit of language uniting meaning and form Itconsists of one or more morphemes, each of which composes of one or more spokensounds or their written representations

Morphemes are the minimal meaningful language units, as they can not bedivided any further into meaningful parts A morpheme has its sound form andmeaning but unlike a word, it is not independent and occurs in speech only as part of aword although a word may consist of only one morpheme, is they coincide

From Oxford Advanced Learners’ dictionary of current English (1995), “A

word is a sound or group of sound that expresses a meaning and form an independent unit of a language”, for example: boy, girl, cat, hat…

From these definitions above, we can find that, it is not easy to give asatisfactory definition about the word as it can be viewed from different aspects

However, we can understand a simple way as “Word is the smallest, independent

and meaningful unit of a language” (Howard, J and Etienne, Z A(2000))

1.3.1.2 The meaning of word

In this part, we only mention the meaning of words, not the meaning ofsentences or any other units of language The meaning of a word reflects the realitybeing associated with a certain sound form

There are two main types of meanings in words: lexical meaning andgrammatical meaning Lexical meaning is the realization of concept or emotion Forexample, when we see of hear the word “cat”, our concept is released and the image

of a cat appears to our mind Thus, this realization is called lexical meaning On theother hand, grammatical meaning is united word with different lexical meaning It isthe meaning recurrent in identical sets of different words It divides words into groupswith their own grammatical features For example, the grammatical meaning of

“book, man, house, etc” is that they are singular and common nouns; the grammaticalmeaning of “beautiful, tall, short, etc” is that they are adjectives Both lexical andgrammatical meaning do not exist separately but always go together to make up themeaning of a word

In term of lexical meaning, a word consists of two types of meaning: denotationmeaning (denotation) and connotation meaning (connotation)

- Denotation indicates of points out things, concepts, etc For example, “bird,butterfly, grasshopper” denotes an animal that can fly; “rice” denotes one kind of foodthat people can eat

When the referent is a concept, an abstract thing, we have significant denotationand when it is an individual object we have demonstrative denotation

- Connotation shows us how things, concepts, etc are indicated It means that itconveys the speaker’s attitude, emotions and so on For example, “father, dad, daddy”have the same denotation meaning but different connotation meaning

Connotation may consist of emotive charge, evaluation, intensity, stylisticcolors Especially in communication and culture, connotation expresses the virtue ofwhat it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content For example, “blackcat” in Vietnamese culture has negative connotation of dirt and unluckiness, but inBritish culture, it has positive connotation of friendship and luckiness

Connotation constitutes additional properties of lexemes, including poetic, slang,and colloquial, formal, humorous, legal, and literary It can be said that connotationcan be seen as an additional meaning to denotation In general, both connotation anddenotation are important to determine word meaning in a given context

1.3.2 The Meaning of Idioms

In this part, we only mention general ideas about the meaning of idioms Fromstudying and analyzing of linguistics, we conclude that the meaning of idioms hasthree common points as follow:

 The meaning of idioms expresses and reflects objects and concepts

For example:

“As quiet as mussel” (someone is very quite)

“Mad as a wet hen” (someone is very upset, extremely angry, and ready to

fight)

“Sick as a dog” (someone is very sick, suffering miserably with an ailment)

 The meaning of idioms is a perfect whole, not the sum of meaning of the

separate components

For example:

“Butterflies in the stomach” (a fluttery feeling in the stomach, usually is

caused by nervous)

“Ants in your pants” (extreme restlessness, over activity)

“Blind as a bat” (totally blind)

“Cook your goose” (to wreck someone’s plans, to ruin someone’s project, to

spoil someone’s happiness)

 The meaning of idioms is expressive and figurative

For instance:

“As greedy as a pig” (someone who eats food greedily or voraciously)

“Snug as a bug in a rug” (cozy and comfortable, safe and secure)

1.3.3 Idioms and Free- Word Groups

A V Kevin (1984) defines an idiom “is a stable word- group characterized by

a completely or partially transferred meaning” It means that the meaning of an

idiom can be entirely new and different from the individual ones Meanwhile, a word groups contains different words but its meaning is easily deduced in a context.Thus, we can see that both idioms and free- word groups are stable structures, but themeaning of free- word group is not united and figurative

free-However, according to G B Antrushina (1985) structural invariability is one ofthe necessary features to distinguish idioms and free- word groups It is represented asthe following restriction:

 The Substitution

We can not substitute any meaningful components of an idiom although replacedwords are synonyms The meaning of idioms will be changed or nonsense if thesecomponents are replaced

For example:

“To die like flies” (die or collapse in very large numbers), we can not substitute

“pass away” for “die” although the two words are synonymous

“The early bird catches the worm” (work early is better), the word “worm” can

not be replaced by any other kind of insects

However, in a free- word groups, some substitution can be accepted withoutchanging the general meanings

For example:

“He gives his daughter a handbag” or “He gives his daughter a schoolbag”.

They are both accepted

 Adding Elements

Besides not being substituted any components in idioms, we can not add anyelements into the structure of idioms

For example:

“Like the cat that's got the cream” ( look very pleased with yourself), we can not

add any words into this idiom, such as “black” or “ yellow” to form “like the black /yellow cat that's got the cream” However, in free- word groups, we can add anyadjective other words such as “yellow, small, big…” before “cat” without affecting

the general meaning

 Grammatical Invariability

In idioms the grammatical structure is stable, thus we can not changegrammatical category of word in any case

For example:

“ as cheerful as a lark” ( look very cheerful and happy), we can not change

singular form of “ a lark” into plural form “lacks” or “ the lark”, while in free- wordgroups can accept this change

1.4 Criteria to Distinguish Idioms and Proverbs

According to Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, “A proverb is a short well-known

expression that states a general truth or gives advice” Nobody knows for sure the

origin of proverbs in terms of their inception and authors Vietnamese proverbs areorally transmitted and incessantly edited throughout generations By this virtue, theproverbs become so natural and clear that they are able to describe the Vietnamesecustoms and traditions simply and truthfully For that reason, these proverbs are alsodubbed as Vietnamese popular literature, which proliferates by thousands of phrasings

on all topics of various aspects of human life in society

Like many other proverbs from around the world, Vietnamese proverbs statebasic principles of folk wisdom and conduct, which have become an essential andenduring part of daily speech They are short, succinct sayings with an intendedmeaning, which is to instruct or advice about something worthy of our attention Most

of Vietnamese parents use proverbs to educate their children about basic moral tenets

of conduct and behavior

These proverbs are usually formed with or without rhyme, for example: “Ăn cây

nào rào cây ấy” means that one shall cultivate the tree from which one eats fruits; or

“Ăn quả nhớ kẻ trồng cây” means that when eating the fruit, one should rememberthose who planted the tree

In English, many proverbs have their Vietnamese equivalents such as:

“Throw a sprat to catch a herring” (Thả con săn sắt, bắt con cá rô)

“Birds of a feather flock together” (Ngưu tầm ngưu, mã tầm mã)

The common topics of proverbs are as follows, addressing routine issues of oursociety’s customs and traditions such as interpersonal psychology, commonexperiences, moral precepts, and conduct and etiquette of politeness.

It seems that idioms and proverbs to some extent are similar In fact, theborderline between them is not very solid So there are three criteria that can be used

to distinguish an idiom from a proverb as follow:

 The Meaning

A proverb which is considered to be like a complete literary work, a full saying,expresses the experience, justice of a community to educate advice or warn the latergeneration Idioms are not instructive, moral in nature as proverbs

For example: “a honey tongue, a heart of gall” (khẩu phật, tâm xà)

This proverb means to warn somebody that a person having a good appearancemay hide an evil heart or doing a harmful thing

 Stability of Structure

As stated before, one of the characteristic of idioms is stable or fix It means that

we can not change, shorten, omit or add any other elements into the sequence ofidioms

For example:

“Make a pig's ear of something” (make a complete mess of something)

This idiom can not be shortened in any way even that we can not say “make an

ear of a pig of something”

Whereas, a proverb is often shortened by it’s nature For example, the proverb

“there is no place like home” can be shortened into “no place like home” without

changing the meaning

 Function of Idioms

It can be said that, the content of a proverb expresses a judgment or experience oradvice, while the content or an idiom is only a concept A proverb consists of threebasic literature functions: realized function, artist function and educational function.Whereas, an idiom only consists of artist function, belongs to language

For example:

Idiom: “A bull in china shop”: (a person who is clumsy)

Proverb: “Every bird likes its own nest” (every person has his hometown)

In conclusion, in this chapter, the author have just introduced the definitions ofidiom in English and in Vietnam and presented some criteria to distinguish idioms andfree- word groups Then, she gave some ways to distinguish idioms and proverbs That

is an overview of idioms which we wanted to mention before introduce the next part

CHAPTER II ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS USING NAMES OF ANIMALS

Idioms are shaped in a community after a long period’s living of the local peopleand it is the reflection and expression of the culture of a certain race, thus thedifferences on geography, history, custom and living habit will be reflected in theword used in idioms among cultures over the word In this part, the author willanalyze the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese culturesexpressed in the images of idiomatic comparisons

2.1 English and Vietnamese Idioms Using Names of Animals

2.1.1 The Names of Animals in English Idioms

According to Jones (2007), “animals have always played an important part inculture People revere some animals Others are pets we love and view as familymembers We sometimes gaze some other animals at from afar in their wild habitats.Still others are raised or hunted for food and some are used to help ease a man'sworkload” Because animals are so close to human’s life, they have a very stronginfluence on many aspects of human’s culture every where in the world They play avery important role in religion, art, belief… and especially in language

Animal diction occupies an important place in the realm of people’simaginations Thanks to the use names of animals, the language tends to convey a fullintellectual image of the societies “Animals make our language pregnant withsymbols” (Abdessalami) Man tends to draw short-cuts to reach the exact meaning hewants to deliver He knows how to use animals in his metaphors, similes, references toprevious experiences and others to express himself And if those expressions are usedoften and passed through generations, they are proverbs and idioms

Until now, linguistics has not calculated how many English idioms in general andVietnamese idioms referring to animal in particular But it is obvious that the number

of English idioms using names of animals is great and various The effectiveness of anidiom depends on the correct identification of the topic, image and point of similarity.Whenever an idiom is used, listener or reader will have more insightful understandingabout what has been being mentioned to The widespread of these metaphoric idioms

are due to three main reasons: the close relationship between people and animals, thefunctions of idioms and the requirement of language use.

The names of animals in English idioms involve the different aspects of Englishcountry and culture Depending on each case, we can understand these idioms withdifferent meaning, in that each animal has metaphoric meaning Animal- based idiomsare used to describe the behaviors, character or action of people For example, ant, bee,bird, cat, rat, dog, duck, wolf, rabbit, butterflies, fish, fly, monkey, mouse, bat,chicken, worm… “Ants” used to refer to someone who is anxious or worried “Bee” isused more often to imply a wonderful person If a person is called a “wolf”, it meansthat he is a real sexually aggressive We can understand more clearly by some thefollowing examples:

“A wolf in sheep’s clothing”: refers to a person who appears friendly or

harmless but is really an enemy or evil

If someone says that she or he has “a bee in one’s bonnet”, they mean that they

have an obsession about something

“The bird and the bees” refers to the basic information about sex and

reproduction

“To put the cat among the pigeons” means that someone or something causes

embarrassing or shy

“Cat in the pan” refers to a person who betrays others

“Dog days of summer” means that the hottest and most humid days of summer,

usually much of July and August

“Dog- eat- dog world”: a way of life marked by fierce competition in which

people complete ruthlessly for survival or success

“Chicken feed” used to mention a very small or insignificant amount of money “Open a can of worms” refers to cause trouble or to set unpleasant events

motion

“Hurt a fly” refers to a person who is very meek or good- natured.

From the example above, we find that the using names of animals in English andVietnamese idioms are very abundant This makes saying and writing more rich andexcited

2.1.2 The Names of Animals in Vietnamese Idioms

Similarly to English idioms, most of idioms use the names of animal to express themetaphoric meaning such as: mèo, chó, ngựa, bò, vịt, kiến, cá, gà, ong, chim, cáo, thỏ,ruồi, khỉ, chuột…

For example:

“Ngu như chó” refers to a person who is very stupid.

“Thẳng như ruột ngựa” means that a person who has direct characteristic.

“Chữ như gà bới” implies that one’s writing is too ugly and not easy to read.

However, some idioms use other names of animals which are different fromEnglish idioms such as: trâu, ve, sên, hủi, đĩa, mắm, vạc, trạch, etc

- “Chậm như sên”: means that a person who does anything slowly.

- “Lẩn như trạch”: refers to a person who always avoids to doing anything 2.2 The Meaning of English Idioms Using Names of Animals and Their Equivalents in Vietnamese

2.2.1 The Similarities

Almost people in the world experienced development stages of society from theoriginal commune, slavery possess to feudal system Thus, wherever people are theyhave the same thought of nature and society But each people who has its ownlanguage, geographic environment, natural condition, level of developing society arenot the same, so people express them differently However, rejecting language coverand peculiarity of each country, it is easy for us to find the similarity of thought andcognition of different people in an idiom English and Vietnamese people haveequality about thought in idioms use names of animals like the following comparisons:

2.2.1.1 Comparison with Adjectives [as + adjective(s) + as+ (a/ the) noun]

To imply someone who is very timid or scare, English people use the idiom “as scared as a rabbit”

“Người yêu của Hoa tên là Kính… bốn năm ra vào chung một ngõ, Hoa chỉ còn

giữ lại có những câu hỏi bâng quơ, người đâu, nhát như thỏ đế.”

<Nguyễn Lực, Lương Văn Đang (1993, 239)>

In English, when describing someone wet, they use the idiom “as wet as a drowned cat” as the following example:

She was as wet as a drowned c at so I told her to put my coat on and asked where her house was.

<Nguyễn Lực, Lương Văn Đang (1993, 340)>

2.2.1.2 Comparison with Verb [verb+ like+ (a/the) +noun]

In English culture, to argue and fight with someone (usually used for people who

know each other), people often use the idiom “fight like cat and dog” in the

“Dân làng ai cũng biết, nhiều người nói: bố con nhà nó ăn ở như chó với mèo.”

<Nguyễn Lực, Lương Văn Đang (1993, 43)>

2.2.1.3 Miscellaneous Comparison