VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ---- VŨ MỸ LINH A STUDY ON IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING WORDS DENOTING HEART, LIVER, GUT AND STOMACH IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ THÀNH NGỮ CÓ CHỨA CÁC TỪ CHỈ TIM, GAN, RUỘT VÀ BỤNG (DẠ) TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT NHÌN TỪ GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HÓA) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 02 01 HANOI – 2017 z VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ---- VŨ MỸ LINH A STUDY ON IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING WORDS DENOTING HEART, LIVER, GUT AND STOMACH IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ THÀNH NGỮ CÓ CHỨA CÁC TỪ CHỈ TIM, GAN, RUỘT VÀ BỤNG (DẠ) TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT NHÌN TỪ GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HÓA) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 02 01 Supervisor: Assoc. Nguyễn Văn Độ HANOI - 2017 z DECLARATION I certify that this thesis is the result of my own research and all the material and sources collected in conducting the thesis have been identified and acknowledged.
the thesis has not been submitted for any other degree or for any other purposes, and, it partly meets requirements for the degree of Master of Education. Hanoi, 2017 V M Linh i z ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Nguyen Văn Do for his enthusiastic guidance and great encouragement at all stages of the thesis. I am also grateful to all the teachers of the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their useful explanations and constant support.
One more thing I have made my best efforts to accomplishing the thesis, however, there are still inadequacies and shortcomings. I am loking forward to receiving all comments of teachers and friends. Thank you so much! ii z ABSTRACT In today‟s global world, the importance of English can not be denied and ignored since English is the most common language spoken everwhere. With the help of developing technology, English has been playing a major role in many sectors.
To follow this trend, mastering English is very important. However, it is quite difficult to master all English aspects, especiall idioms. In order to understand a language, we must know what the idioms in that language mean. Idioms reflect certain cultural traditions and depict the national character.
With a view to exloring English and Vietnamese idioms in the light of culture, this thesis has focused on idiomsatic expressions containing words denoting heart, liver, gut and stomach in English and Vietnamese. iii z TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. iii PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study.
Research aims and research questions. Scope of the research. Methods of the study. Significance of the research.
Design of the research .4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW .5 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Overview of Idioms. Definition of idioms. Typical features of idioms.
Idioms and other similar language units. The relationship of Language and Culture. Concept of Culture. The inseparable Relationship between Language and Culture.
The Relationship between Idioms and Culture .16 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE. Reliability and validity .20 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Syntactic features of idioms containing heart, liver, gut, and stomach in English and Vietnamese. Idioms in the form of phrase structures.
Idioms in the form of sentence structures. Semantic features of idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach in English and Vietnamese. Idioms describing people’s appearance. Idioms expressing people’s wisdom.
Idioms expressing people’s emotions and adttitudes. Similarities and differences in syntactic and semantic features of idioms containing heart, gut, stomach and liver in English and Vietnamese. Cultural characteristics of English and Vietnamese idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach. Implications for teaching and learning idioms containing heart, gut, stomach and liver .34 PART III: CONCLUSION 1.
Limitations of the thesis and further study. Suggestions for further study. Rationale of the study It is undeniable to say that English has become an important international language; therefore, mastering English is full of great importance. In Vietnam, English has become an essential and obligatory communication language since the opening of its doors to the world in 1986.
Many English-speaking foreigners from across Asia, Australia, America and Europe started coming to invest in Vietnam, which has motivated the Vietnamese to learn English to promote English communication effectively among their counterparts. The importance of English was immediately acknowledged by the Vietnamese government and as a result the English language programs were made compulsory beginning with the secondary schools and subsequently the high schools and finally universities. Learning a second language involves learning a second culture to varying degrees. On the other hand, language is influenced and shaped by culture.
It reflects culture. Cultural differences are the most serious areas causing misunderstanding, unpleasantness and even conflict in cross-cultural communication. Therefore, learning English can not be seperated from learning its culture. According to gaining the knowledge of culture, learners can have better understanding of the language and use it in communication as native speakers do.
The English language being very flexible constantly enriches its vocabulary with words invented by language speakers, making it more colourful with idiomatic expressions. In a language system, idioms share cultural and historical information and broaden people‟s understanding and manipulation of a language. Idioms are special language units in which the cultural value of a nation is crystallized and the view of world, the view of life of people can be showed the most truthfully, obviously and copiously, the author considers that studying idioms in the connection between language and culture is a good and effective way for a comparative study of idioms in two or more languages. 1 z Thus, having a good knowledge of idioms plays a key role in helping learners have information in their mind about every language to avoid its culture shocks in communication as well as comprehend the similarities and differences of two languages and cultures.
However, due to the limited time and knowledge, I would like to focus on a very small part of the huge idiomatic treasure: “ A study on idiomatic expressions containing words denoting heart, liver, gut and stomach in English and Vietnamese from cutural perspective”. Research aims and research questions The purpose of the study: To find out the English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting heart, liver, gut and stomach by using cutural elements. To explore syntactic and semantic features of the English and Vietnamese idioms relating to heart, liver, gut and stomach. To point out the the similarities and differences in the cutural values of two countries through the idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach.
To help leaners reinforce their knowledge of both English and Vietnamese idioms in general and on heart, liver, gut and stomach in particular, which assists them to know how to use these idioms exactly in communication. To achieve the above aims, the following research questions are put forward: i. What syntactic and semantic features are reflected in the heart, liver, gut and stomach idioms in both English and Vietnamese? ii. What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnameses cultures through idioms related to heart, liver, gut and stomach from cultural perspective? What factors lead to such diffferences? 3.
Scope of the research - Idioms are large parts in both English and Vietnamese; thus it is impossible for the author to carry out a comprehensive study on them; thus, the study just focuses on some idioms relating to heart, liver, gut and stomach. 2 z - In this study, similarities and differences in syntactic and semantic features of idioms containing heart, gut, stomach and liver in English and Vietnamese are discussed; English idioms denoting human feelings or emotions through the internal organs are compared with Vietnamese ones. - All English and Vietnamese idioms are collected from dictionaries, books, websites; hence, this research may not cover all idioms relating to heart, liver, gut and stomach, just those of common use 4. Methods of the study Due to the scientific missions, the study uses several reseach methods to meet the research aims.
- The statistic method: The purpose of this method is to collect idioms contaning words denoting heart, liver, gut and stomach in both English and Vietnamese from various reliable sources (referent books, stories, novels, dictionaries and Internet websites) and then categorize them. - The analysis method: the method is used to analyze the syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach as well as the cultural features of English and Vietnamese hidden behind those idioms. - The comparative - contrastive method: It is the important method to compare and find the differences and similarities between English and Vietnamese idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach from cultural perspective. Significance of the research (i) Theoretical significance: The study supplies Vietnamese teachers and learners with a deeper awareness understanding of idioms in general and idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach in particular in terms of their syntactic, semantic, and cultural features.
(ii) Practical significance: The study provides Vietnamese learners with suggestions to improve their language skills when using idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach, particularly communicative skill and avoid culture shock. Design of the research This research consists of three main parts Part one is the Introduction, which consists of the rationale, the aims and research questions, the objectives, the scope, the methods, the significance and the design of the study. Part two is the Development, which is the main part of the study dealing with English idioms containing heart, liver, gut and stomach and their equivalents in Vietnamese. This part is divided into four chapters: Chapter I: Literature Review Chapter II: Theoretical background including Overview of idioms, The Relationship of Language and Culture, Idioms and Culture.
Chapter III: Methodology and procedure Chapter IV: Findings and discussion as well as some implications for teaching and learning The last part is the Conclusion of the study and suggestions for further studies. The References and Appendixes are at the end of the thesis. 4 z PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW In the recent years, linguists are interested in doing research cutural implications through language. And, there are a lot of studies which are related idioms.
Especially, studying idioms expressing human emotion are one of common topics that researchers are keen on. In the journal of Language “ Đặc trưng tư duy của người Việt qua ẩn dụ tri nhận trong thành ngữ”, Nguyễn Đức Tồn (2009) has summarized that the psychological world of the Russian has no correlation with the body parts, and, the heart is the only to show the love. In the book “Ngôn ngữ và văn hóa: Tri thức nền và việc giảng dạy tiếng nước ngoài”, Trịnh Thị Kim Ngọc (1999) has the same opinion as Nguyễn Đức Tồn, she claimed that “heart” is the key word in the Russian language in common and in the Russian idioms in particular. In the Oriental ideology, both Japanese and China people uses “heart”idioms for conceptualizing different emotions.
The Southern thinking in the agricultural traditional culture shows the concrete and practical characteristics. Vietnamese country not only experienced many challenges from living environment (storm, flood), but also being invaded by other ones in the history, so, just to survive, food and drink are attached much importance to everyone to live through the day. Vietnamese thought, herefore, and, is directly related to the digestion organs such as gut (lòng, ruột), stomach (bụng, dạ)…The below picture in the “Dictionnaire franco-tonkinois illustré” of P.