VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES HÀ THỊ THỌ ANH IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS OF PLACES IN BRITISH ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE AS SEEN FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE ( CÁCH DIỄN ĐẠT THÀNH NGỮ VỀ NƠI CHỐN TRONG TIẾNG ANH ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT NHÌN TỪ GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HÓA) MA MINOR THESIS Major: English Linguistics Code : 60 22 15 Hanoi – 2011 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES HÀ THỊ THỌ ANH IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS OF PLACES IN BRITISH ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE AS SEEN FROM CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE ( CÁCH DIỄN ĐẠT THÀNH NGỮ VỀ NƠI CHỐN TRONG TIẾNG ANH ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT NHÌN TỪ GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HÓA) MA MINOR THESIS Major: English Linguistics Code : 60 22 15 Supervisor: Đỗ Thị Mai Thanh M.A Hanoi - 2011 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration. iii Table of content. iv PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Aims of the study.
Scope of the study. Methods of the study. Design of the study .3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1.1 Culture and language .1 Culture and cultural values .2 Relation between language and culture .3 Idioms and their roles in communication .2 Idioms in the light of semantics .2 Functions of idioms .3 Classification of idioms .9 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.4 Sources of idioms.5 Features of idioms .3 Distinction of idioms .1 Idioms vs slang .2 Idioms vs proverb .3 Idioms vs collocation .4 Idioms in the light of culture .1 Idioms as seen from social specification .2 Idioms as seen from social psychology. 5 The influence of culture on British English and Vietnamese idiomatic expressions of places .1 Influence of culture on British English idiomatic expressions of places .2 Influence of culture on Vietnamese idiomatic expressions of places .6 Previous studies on idioms .24 CHAPTER 2: DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES BETWEEN IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS OF PLACES IN BRITISH ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE .1 Idiomatic expressions of places in British English .1 Idiomatic expressions containing the geographical names .2 Idiomatic expressions containing the word ‘ house and home” .3 Idiomatic expressions containing the word ‘earth’ .4 Idiomatic expressions containing the word: sea/ ocean/river .2 Idiomatic expressions of places in Vietnamese.31 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.1 Idiomatic expressions containing the geographical names .2 Idiomatic expressions containing the word ‘ house and home” .3 Idiomatic expressions containing the word ‘earth’.
4 Idiomatic expressions containing the word: sea/ ocean/river. Suggestions for further study. I TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale: It is common knowledge that the language of each culture lies in its self similar and different cultural concepts on many fields of life such as human values, attitude to life, behavior standards, religious beliefs, customs and tradition, social conventions etc.
As the special form of language, idioms not only help to enrich the language and culture, but it also reflects the social life. Thus, the ability to understand idioms is important for the successful communication. The difficult comprehension of language in the form of idioms is more likely to lead to communication breakdown for those from different language communities than any other forms of verbal language. Failure to grasp the meanings of idioms can impinge upon an individual‟s understanding of language in social, academic and business settings.
In order to enhance the success of communication, the study of the relationship between the idioms and cultures is significant and promising. In British and Vietnamese culture and language, idioms are of great importance for its common use and its figurative way of expressing the ideas. The idioms benefit people in communication thanks to the provision with the way of expressing concepts linguistically, that is the ability to convey meanings without verboseness. It can be said that idioms bring the color and vitality for the language and the vividness and depth for the speaker‟s speech.
Knowing how to use idioms effectively in the right situation is becoming crucial for all the speakers of English. From the front of cultural view, it becomes easy and interesting to come to know the meaning of the idioms because British English and Vietnamese idioms themselves are crucial and active part of culture. They play a great role of retaining, passing traditional culture down to the next generation, reflecting people‟s typical cultural factors and they will continue their progressive influence on people‟s real life. Traditionally, the study of idiomatic expressions has been associated with the study of literature, the use of idioms is the genius of national language that helps learners know more about the language, custom and culture of the countries all over the world.
In communication, the presence of idiomatic expressions has formed the academic manner of speaking. The idioms of any languages makes a great contribution to the speciality of that language and also indicates the cultural values of the language because idioms often originated from the social life or original literature such as wars, festivals, celebrations, movies and the Bible. 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Among the idioms relating to different aspects of social life, idiomatic expressions of places in British English and Vietnamese specify the typical features of cultural values connected to social life. Idiomatic expressions of places contain much knowledge about mankind and surrounding world.
Each idiom of place is connected to a local specification and cultural background that conveys ideas about the lifestyles and stereotype of the nation and the country. Specifically, the idioms of places refer to the human emotion, behavior, life style and reflect the expectation and wishes of people in their social lives. Hence, studying on the similarities and differences between the idiomatic expressions of places in British English and Vietnamese has been one of the researcher‟s concerns and the study on the topic “Idiomatic expressions of places in British English and Vietnamese as seen from cultural perspective” is carried out. The study will be served as an interesting and helpful material for those who care for cultural patterns in intercultural communication and cross- cultural communication.
Aims of the study: The study aims at - helping the learners establish a background understanding on the relationship between idioms and culture by analysing the features of idiomatic expressions of places in British English and Vietnamese; - indicating influence of British culture and Vietnamese culture on language in general and idiomatic expressions of places in this particular aspect; - showing some similarities and differences between British English and Vietnamese idiomatic expressions in terms of local specification in which meaning of the idioms and human attitude are revealed; - raising people‟s cultural awareness in teaching and learning British English and Vietnamese idioms. Scope of the study: The study will focus on idiomatic expressions of places in British English and Vietnamese which are taken from outstanding sources in English: Oxford Idioms- Dictionary for Learners of English, Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary and Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture and in Vietnamese: Từ Điển Thành Ngữ Tục Ngữ Việt Nam ( Nguyễn Lân), Đi Tìm Điển Tích Thành Ngữ ( Tiêu Hà Minh), Thành Ngữ Anh Việt ( Bùi Phụng), Tuyển Tập Thành Ngữ, Tục Ngữ, Ca dao Anh Việt Thông Dụng 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. The list of British English and Vietnamese idiomatic expressions will be found in the appendix as the illustrations. Methods of the study: This is a comparative and contrastive study.
Therefore, the strategic methods used are qualitative and quantitative ones which are conducted by carefully collecting and referring to materials from various sources to have full-blown information of idioms and its cultural background in general. The good choice of fifty idiomatic expressions in Vietnamese and fifty idiomatic expressions in British English will be carefully analysed and examined to see the similarities and differences between the two cultures and languages. The author‟s own experience in communication and cultural awareness will be referred to as way of categorizing the field. Design of the study: The study is divided into three main parts: Part A gives a general introduction and stated the reasons, aims and ways for carrying out the study.
Part B includes two chapters, Chapter 1 deals with the theoretical background on culture and idioms in British English and Vietnamese. Also, the influence of the two cultures on idiomatic expressions of places will be taken into account. Chapter 2 mainly provides a careful analysis of idiomatic expressions of places in British English and Vietnamese concerning the similarities and differences in the aspect of local specification. The last part, conclusion concerns with the summaries of main points, the implication and some suggestions for further study.
3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 1.1 Culture and language 1.1 Culture and cultural values There have been various notions of culture, but to make it simple to get the ideas of culture, according to Goodenough (1957, 167), the term culture is used in the sense of whatever a person must know in order to function in a particular society. Porter and Samovar (1994; 12) also clarified that culture does not naturally come into the people‟s mind, members of the culture adapt the patterns of behavior, ways of thingking and build their attitude, beliefs etc fully part of their personality by absorbing them through repeated experience or exposure. The power and influence of these perceptions can be seen in the ways in which people acquire culture. Culture is transmitted from generation to generation, people use various forms of communication: spoken words, written words, non verbal actions to pass on the content and patterns of the culture in order to spread culture.
As with communication, culture has been evolving and thus can produce changes in the process of invention. Also, every culture presents a limited choice of behavior patterns from the infinite patterns of human experience. This selection is made according to the basic assumptions and values that are meaningful to each culture. In other words, culture defines the boundaries of different cultural groups.
Every culture owns its cultural values that are global and abstract. The cultural values identify what should be judged as good or evil in order to give rules for behaviors in specific situations. Different cultures reflect different values and cultural values seem to have changed, affecting the beliefs, and attitudes of most members of a culture and society. Cultural values have been characterised in different ways but they often include: historical value, social value, spiritual value, symbolic value and aesthetic value.
Specifically, historical value is a concept resting on particular viewpoints of history and presents a special relationship with the past; social value concerns different places or things that tend to make connections between people and to reinforce a sense of unity and identity; symbolic value is simply understood as the repositories of meaning; aesthetic value is considered a highly problematic area of enquiry involving dispute not only about what is beautiful but also about who has the power and authority to take decisions about what is 4 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com beautiful and spiritual value addresses aspects of the religious, the numinous and the sublime (www.uk) In conclusion, culture and cultural values, in anthropology, are the patterns of behavior, beliefs, languages, rituals, art, religion and attitude etc that people living in social groups have created, shared and experienced. Culture distinguishes one human group from others and also distinguishes humans from other animals. Cultural values are generated and exist in a culture and society as a measure for all social and cultural ativities and thus they are considered an important determinant of a nation and society.2 Relationship between language and culture The relationship between language and culture has been interrelated in the sense that language is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties.