A Contrastive analysis of Idioms containing the parts of animals in English and Vietnamese

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

VÕ THỊ NGỌC LIÊN

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF IDIOMS

CONTAINING THE PARTS OF ANIMALS

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 8220201

Supervisor: TRUONG VAN DINH, Ph.D

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

VÕ THỊ NGỌC LIÊN

PHÂN TÍCH ĐỐI CHIẾU CÁC THÀNH NGỮ CHỨA CÁC BỘ

PHẬN CỦA ĐỘNG VẬT TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh

Mã số: 8220201

Người hướng dẫn: TS. TRƯƠNG VĂN ĐỊNH

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify that all work in this thesis is my original work and the

substance of this thesis has not been submitted to any other university or

institution. Therefore, I am fully responsible for the contents of the thesis.

The research reported in this thesis was approved by The Department

of Foreign Languages, Quy Nhon University.

Binh Dinh, August 30th, 2021

VO THI NGOC LIEN

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My minor thesis has been successfully completed thanks to the

assistance and guidance of my teachers, classmates and relatives.

Firstly, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to my

supervisor, Mr Trương Văn Định, Ph.D for his enthusiastic assistance,

academic guidance, good suggestions and critical comments on my study.

Secondly, I would also like to show my gratitude to all the teachers of

the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, Department of foreign languages, Quy

Nhon University, whose lectures and guidance have helped me so much while

carrying out this study.

Thirdly, my deepest thanks are for my lovely colleagues and my

friends have helped and encouraged me during my preparation until I

complete my study.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the considerate support and

indispensable assistance of my parents, my husband and my children while

the work was being done.

One more thing I would like to say is that despite all the efforts, I have

made and the advice and assistance I have received, I am sure my minor

thesis is far from perfect. Therefore, there are a lot of inadequacies and

shortcomings that are unavoidable in my minor thesis, which is my

responsibility.

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ABSTRACT

One of the most important elements in implication of culture and

language is the use of idioms. In daily communication, both English and

Vietnamese people often utilize a large number of idioms. However, learners

in both languages have a lot of difficulties in using them. Therefore, English

teachers have to teach the students not only the knowledge of language but

also that of culture, which enable them to communicate languages

proficiently.

Animals plays an integrate role in both English and Vietnamese culture.

There are a huge number of idioms relating to animals in both languages.

However, the number of idioms containing the parts of animals is quite small

and the study of them is rare. Therefore, the study of idioms relating to the

parts of animals will contribute to the full collection of works on animal

idioms. Moreover, this study clarifies the syntactic and semantic features in

both languages, which help learners to use them more easily and effectively.

Finally, the findings analyzed in the study reveal that there are some

similarities and differences about structural and semantic peculiarities of

idioms containing the parts of animals in English and Vietnamese. In respect

of syntactic features, both languages have idioms under a variety of phrase

and sentence structures. Semantically, there are more idioms containing the

parts of animals implicating human than non - human in both languages.

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TABLES OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ................................................................... i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................ii

ABSTRACT.................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS.............................Error! Bookmark not defined.iv

ABBREVIATIONS....................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.v

LIST OF TABLES .......................................Error! Bookmark not defined.vi

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1

1.1. Rationale ................................................................................................. 1

1.2. Significance of the study......................................................................... 2

1.3. Aim and objectives of the study.............................................................. 2

1.3.1. Aim of the study ............................................................................... 2

1.3.2. Objectives of the study ..................................................................... 3

1.4. Research questions.................................................................................. 3

1.5. Scope of the study................................................................................... 3

1.6. Organization of study.............................................................................. 4

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................... 5

2.1. PREVIOUS STUDIES............................................................................... 5

2.2. Theoretical background .......................................................................... 6

2.2.1. Definitions of idioms........................................................................ 6

2.2.2. Idioms and Other Language Units.................................................... 8

2.2.3. Idiom relation to Language and Culture........................................... 9

2.2.4. Characteristics of idioms ................................................................ 11

2.2.5. Overview of Phrase and Sentence Structures................................. 18

3.1. Research Methods................................................................................. 23

3.2. Data collection ...................................................................................... 23

3.3. Data analysis......................................................................................... 23

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3.4. Procedures............................................................................................. 24

3.5. Validity and Reliability......................................................................... 24

CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................ 26

4.1. SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF IDIOMS CONTAINING THE

PARTS OF ANIMALS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE.................... 26

4.1.1. Phrase Structures............................................................................. 26

4.1.2. English and Vietnamese idioms containing the parts of animals

of Sentence and clause Patterns................................................................ 34

4.2. Overview of general semantic mechanisms of idioms containing the

parts of animals in English and IN Vietnamese........................................... 36

4.2.1. Overview of general semantic mechanisms of idioms containing

the parts of animals in English.................................................................. 38

4.2.2. Overview of general semantic mechanisms of idioms containing

the parts of animals in Vietnamese........................................................... 39

4.3. SEMANTIC FEATURES OF IDIOMS CONTAINING THE

PARTS OF ANIMALS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE.................... 41

4.3.1. Idioms having Human Implication ................................................. 41

4.3.2. Idioms having non-human implications......................................... 53

4.4. SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN SYNTACTIC AND

SEMANTIC FEATURES OF IDIOMS CONTAINING TpsOAs IN

ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE ................................................................ 57

4.4.1. Similarities...................................................................................... 57

4.4.2. Differences...................................................................................... 59

CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS................................. 63

5.1. Conclusion ............................................................................................ 63

5.2. Implications........................................................................................... 64

5.2.1. Implication for learning idioms contaning TpsOAs....................... 64

5.2.2. Implication for teaching idioms contaning TpsOAs....................... 65

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5.2.3. Implication for translating idioms contaning TpsOAs……………61

5.3. Limitations and suggestions for further studies.................................... 67

5.3.1. Limitations of the study……………………..…………………. ...67

5.3.2. Suggestions for Further Research................................................... 67

REFERENCES................................................................................................ 69

APPENDIX

TOPIC ASSIGNING CERTIFICATE