Khóa luận A study on english and vietnamese idioms which contain words denoting time - Phạm Thị Tươi

Nội dung text: Khóa luận A study on english and vietnamese idioms which contain words denoting time - Phạm Thị Tươi

1. BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG ISO 9001 : 2008 KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP NGÀNH NGOẠI NGỮ HẢI PHÒNG – 2012
2. HAIPHONG PRIVATE UNIVESITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT GRADUATION PAFER A STUDY ON ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS WHICH CONTAIN WORDS DENOTING TIME By: PHAM THI TUOI Class: NA1202 Supervisor: PHAM THI THU HANG, M.A HAI PHONG - 2012
3. BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG Nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp Sinh viên: Mã số: Lớp: Ngành: Tên đề tài:
4. Nhiệm vụ đề tài 1. Nội dung và các yêu cầu cần giải quyết trong nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp ( về lý luận, thực tiễn, các số liệu cần tính toán và các bản vẽ). 2. Các số liệu cần thiết để thiết kế, tính toán. 3. Địa điểm thực tập tốt nghiệp.
5. CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪNĐỀ TÀI Người hướng dẫn thứ nhất: Họ và tên: Học hàm, học vị: Cơ quan công tác: Nội dung hướng dẫn: Người hướng dẫn thứ hai: Họ và tên: Học hàm, học vị: Cơ quan công tác: Nội dung hướng dẫn: Đề tài tốt nghiệp được giao ngày tháng năm 2012 Yêu cầu phải hoàn thành xong trước ngày tháng năm 2012 Đã nhận nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Đã giao nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Sinh viên Người hướng dẫn Hải Phòng, ngày tháng năm 2012 HIỆU TRƯỞNG GS.TS.NGƯT.Trần Hữu Nghị
6. PHẦN NHẬN XÉT TÓM TẮT CỦA CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN 1. Tinh thần thái độ của sinh viên trong quá trình làm đề tài tốt nghiệp: 2. Đánh giá chất lượng của khóa luận (so với nội dung yêu cầu đã đề ra trong nhiệm vụ Đ.T. T.N trên các mặt lý luận, thực tiễn, tính toán số liệu ): 3. Cho điểm của cán bộ hướng dẫn (ghi bằng cả số và chữ): Hải Phòng, ngày tháng năm 2012 Cán bộ hướng dẫn (họ tên và chữ ký)
7. NHẬN XÉT ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA NGƯỜI CHẤM PHẢN BIỆN ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP 1.Đánh giá chất lượng đề tài tốt nghiệp về các mặt thu thập và phân tích tài liệu, số liệu ban đầu, giá trị lí luận và thực tiễn của đề tài. 2. Cho điểm của người chấm phản biện : (Điểm ghi bằng số và chữ) Ngày tháng năm 2012 Người chấm phản biện
8. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT It would not have been possible for me to finish this graduation thesis without help and support from the kind people around me, to only some of whom I can give particular mention here. First and foremost, I am indebted to my supervisor, Ms. Pham Thi Thu Hang for the continuous support of my thesis, for her patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge. Throughout my thesis-writing period, she provided encouragement, sound advice, good teaching, good company, and lots of good ideas. I would have been lost without her. It is difficult to overstate my gratitude to teachers in Foreign Languages Department. They build the initial foundation of my knowledge and offer me the opportunity to complete my graduation thesis. In my work, I have been blessed with a stimulating and fun environment in which to learn and grow provided by my many friends. My sincere thanks go to them for helping me get through the difficult times, and for all the emotional support, entertainment, and caring they provided. Last but not least, to my family, I bid them hearty thanks. They have been a solid anchor on which I rely again and again. Words cannot express how grateful I am to be in their support and how much this work was enhanced and made easier by them being in mine. There are many others I should mention here, people who helped me along the way and provided me support. Listing all of them would fill a book itself, so I merely will have to limit myself to a few words: I thank you ALL! Hai Phong, November 2012 Pham Thi Tuoi
9. TABLE OF CONTENT PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale 1 2. Aims of the study 2 3. Scope of the study 2 4. Design of the study 2 PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT 4 Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4 1. Some Related Theoretical definitions 4 1.1. Idioms 4 1.2. Time 5 1.3. Idioms which contain Words Denoting Time (IT) 5 2. Principal features of idioms 6 2.1. Structural Stability 6 2.2. Semantic Opacity 7 2.3. Cultural Features 8 3. Overview of Phrase, Clause and Sentence Structures 9 3.1. Phrase 9 3.2. Clause 9 3.3. Sentence 10 Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES 12 1. Research Design 12 2. Research Methods 12 3. Research Procedures 12 4. Description of the Sample 12 5. Data Collection 13 6. Reliability and Validity 13 Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 15 1. Syntactic Features 15 1.1. IT with Noun Phrase Structure (42) 15 1.2. IT with Verb Phrase Structure (70) 16 1.3. IT with Adjective Phrase Structure (21) (7E + 14V) 17 1.4. IT with Prepositional Phrase Structure (12) 18
10. 1.5. IT with Adverb Phrase Structure (15) 19 1.6. IT with Sentence Structure (27) 19 1.7. IT with Parallel Structure (16) (3E + 13V) 20 1.8. Similarities and Differences of Syntactic Features of English and Vietnamese Idioms which contain Words Denoting Time 21 a. Similarities 21 b. Differences 22 2. Semantic Features 22 2.1. Advice (3E + 13V) 23 2.2. Characteristics (15E + 12V) 23 2.3. Frequency (6E + 3V) 24 2.4. Activities (23E + 25V) 24 2.5. Mood (15E + 5V) 24 2.6. Objects (10E + 4V) 25 2.7. Opinion (9E + 15V) 25 2.8. Physical state (9E + 2V) 25 2.9. Time (20E + 10V) 25 2.10. Weather (3E + 1V) 26 2.11. Similarities and Differences of Semantic Features of English and Vietnamese Idioms which contain Words Denoting Time 27 a. Similarities 27 b. Differences 28 3. Difficulties students encounter when learning idioms 29 3.1. Idioms are not literal 29 3.2. It‟s difficult to use idioms correctively 29 3.3. Teaching materials are not much available 29 4. Some suggested solutions 30 4.1. Learn idioms in context, never in isolation 30 4.2. Create conversations using idioms 30 4.3. Keep an „Idioms‟ diary 30 4.4. Amount: Not Too Many At Once 30
11. 4.5. A lot of idioms can be found in songs 30 4.6. Themes: Related To Your Topic 30 4.7. Try to see the idiom in your mind 31 PART III: CONCLUSION 32 1. Summary of the study 32 2. Limitation of the study 34 3. Suggestions for further studies 34 APPENDIX 1: LIST OF ENGLISH IT 36 APPENDIX 2: LIST OF VIETNAMESE IT 50 REFERENCES 55
12. PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Nowadays, together with growth of global connection, English language has become more and more important. Especially in Vietnam, learning English seems to be one of main tasks of students. In this process, they encounter a large number of difficulties. One of them is understanding idioms. Every country or nation has got their own idioms that are specific to their own culture, while many idioms have synonyms in several countries, what refers to the equal shared human nature in many cultures. Learning the specific idioms related to a certain culture helps you learn more about the history, customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of it. Idioms make a language more interesting and vibrant. Mastering idioms means you are using and understanding the language more like a native speaker would. As for English learners, effectively communicating with others especially native speakers is the ultimate goal. And we cannot reach that goal if we pay little or even no attention to the idioms. So grasping the use of idioms is an essential part of English study. Idioms are everywhere. You will find them in newspapers, books, magazines, on the radio, on the television, in everyday conversation and at work. Understanding the meaning of idioms in general and idioms which contain words denoting time (IT) in particular is the first difficulty of learners and the second one is the way of using idioms in each specific context. Moreover studying idioms which contain words denoting time is a part of language learning and it can help learners use language more naturally and effectively. I am interested in the way English and Vietnamese people use idioms to satisfy their own need in daily communication. Here and there, there are several studies on idioms with certain linguistic units. However, in range of Hai Phong Private University, there is no study of idioms containing words indicating time. Thus, the topic “A study on English and Vietnamese idioms which contain words denoting time” is chosen for my thesis. Hopefully, the result of the study will be useful for learners of English and contribute a small 1
13. part into the teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam, especially at Hai Phong Private University. 2. Aims of the study This study is carried out with the hope to reach some aims at: - Making a systematic description of English idioms containing words denoting time and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting time. - Identifying the similarities and differences between English IT and Vietnamese IT in terms of the syntactic and semantic features. 3. Scope of the study This research is restricted to idioms containing words denoting time. It is focused on making a contrastive analysis in terms of syntactic and semantic aspects. Syntactically, my study will investigate into IT with noun phrase structure, verb phrase structure, adjective phrase structure, prepositional phrase structure, adverb phrase structure and sentence structure. In aspect of semantic opacity, an investigation into Advice, Characteristics (Human characteristics and characteristics of objects), Frequency, Activities, Mood, Objects, Opinion, Physical state, Time, Weather will be carried out. 4. Design of the study For a clear organization, my graduation paper is divided into three main parts in which the second is the most important part: - Part 1 is entitled the “Introduction” where rationale, aim, scope and design of the thesis are presented. - Part 2 is the “Development” which consists of three chapters: + Chapter 1: Theoretical Background, including four main small parts: * Some Related Theoretical definitions of idioms, time and IDWT. * Principal features of idioms * Overview of Phrase, Clause and Sentence Structures * Overview of Semantic Opacity and Semantic Field + Chapter 2: Methodology and Procedure, dealing with research design, research methods, research procedures, description of the sample, data collection, reliability and validity. + Chapter 3:Finding and discussion, focusing on four main matters: 2
14. * Similarities and differences of syntactic features of English and Vietnamese IT. * Similarities and differences of semantic features of English and Vietnamese IT. * Difficulties students encounter when learning idioms * Some suggested solutions - Part 3 is the “Conclusion”with the aim of performing the following ideas: * Summary of the study: summarizing what have been discussed in previous parts. * Limitation of the study * Suggestions for further studies 3
15. PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1. Some Related Theoretical definitions 1.1. Idioms "If natural language had been designed by a logician, idioms would not exist." (Philip Johnson-Laird, 1993) Idioms exist in probably all languages - the definition of idiom is a construction whose meaning cannot be logically deduced from the words that make it up. Chiefly, their importance is that they are a major area of difficulty for non-native learners; although illogical, idioms have to be learned because they are used a lot in conversational native English speech. According to Wikipedia “An idiom is a word or phrase which means something different from what it says - it is usually a metaphor. Idioms are common phrases or terms whose meaning are not real, but can be understood by their popular use.” Makkai, in his work(Idiom structure in English (1972 - page 121), defines an idiom as “any polylexonic lexeme made up of more than one minimal free form of word (as defined by morphotactic criteria), each lexeme of which can occur in other environments as the realization of a monoloxonic lexeme”. It can be seen that idioms can mean something different from what the words mean. Generally speaking, most of the authors showed that idiom is a group of words whose meaning cannot be understood from the meanings of individual words in it. Hoang Van Hanh defines in “Ke Chuyen Thanh Ngu, Tuc Ngu” (2002) that idioms are set expressions which are stable in theirmorpho – structure, complete and figurative in their meaning, usedwidely in daily communication, especially in speech. All things considered, idioms are sayings that reflect accumulated human experiences and are built on frequently occurring situations, which demonstrate human behavior, social traits, certain habits or tradition in a country. They almost represent life lessons and are a heritage of those 4
16. accumulated events that make up the conscious of a nation or humankind in general. 1.2. Time Time is what clocks measure. The three key features of time are that it orders events in the sense of placing events in sequence one after the other; it specifies how long any event lasts; and it specifies when events occur. The concept of time is self-evident. An hour consists of a certain number of minutes, a day of hours and a year of days. But we rarely think about the fundamental nature of time. In accordance with Wikipedia(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time),time is a dimension in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future, and also the measure of durations of events and the intervals between them. Time has long been a major subject of study in religion, philosophy, and science, but defining it in a manner applicable to all fields without circularity has consistently eluded scholars. Nevertheless, diverse fields such as business, industry, sports, the sciences, music, dance, and the live theater all incorporate some notion of time into their respective measuring systems. Some simple, relatively uncontroversial definitions of time include "time is what clocks measure" and "time is what keeps everything from happening at once”. It can be pointed out that time is an observed phenomenon, by means of which human beings sense and record changes in the environment and in the universe. A literal definition is elusive. Time has been called an illusion, a dimension, a smooth-flowing continuum, and an expression of separation among events that occur in the same physical location. 1.3. Idioms which contain Words Denoting Time (IT) The followings classifications and definitions are the basic background of my graduation thesis: English idioms were classified into several special groups including numbers, time, body parts, animals and briefly listed by Seidl & Mordie in “Pocket English Idioms” (1993). According to them, IT is a special kind of idioms in which time terms with special meanings are considered key words. In other words, IT are one specific group of idioms that demonstrate the way 5
17. each person time using terms in set expressions and how they associate these terms with other things in the world. Pham Vu Lua Ha in “Mastering English Idioms” (1996) mention idioms with key words from special categories such as idioms involving animals, colors, numbers, size, body parts, time, He defines IT as idioms which contain time words or terms as key words or main components. 2. Principal features of idioms 2.1. Structural Stability Idioms present a great variety of structures and combinations that are mostly unchangeable and often not logical and may not follow basic rules of grammar. Idioms can be quite clear (Đi đêm về hôm, Daylight robbery, Day by day, Be on time) or pretty unclear (A dog's life, Be pressed for time, Make a day of it). Some idioms have proper names in them (The New York minute); Some idioms have the comparison (Ủ rũ như diều hâu tháng chạp). The components in idioms can neither be added nor substituted. They cannot be changed or varied in the way literal expressions are normally varied both in speech and writing. 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 between the meaning of each component and that of the whole unit, for example It‟s just not my day (Nothing is going right for me today). Therefore, you cannot guess the meaning of the idioms without learning them before.The second group takes into account ones which have unconventional forms but their meaning can be worked out through the meaning of individual words. Take “It‟s early days yet” as a typical illustration; since the idiom is irregular and illogical in terms of grammatical structure. According to the rule of language, “It” is singular and therefore “day” must be singular, too. However, in this case, the idiom does not need to obey grammatical rule to make sense. “It‟s early days yet”can still be understood that “It too soon to say/ decide”.In the last group, grammatically incorrect, both its form and meaning are irregular. The structure is grammatically inaccurate and the meaning is not precisely 6
18. expressed by gathering the meaning of each member-word, for example “It‟s ages since we met” (singular with a plural noun). In English, normally a structure like this is acknowledged once in a blue moon since adjectives never come after prepositions individually. As an idiom, however, the case is accepted. It is pointless to ask why idioms have such unusual structure or choice of words, or why they don't follow basic grammar rules. We just accept as fact that idioms are a difficult peculiarity of English. Most idioms are unique and fixed in their grammatical structure. However, there are some changes in nouns, pronouns or in the verb tenses that can be made to an idiom. Adjectives and adverbs can also be added to an idiomatic phrase. Or people can change the subject of the idiom, for example: I wasn‟t born yesterday (I am experienced; knowledgeable in the ways of the world), when applying with another girl can be changed into “she wasn‟t born yesterday”. It is for these reasons that it is sometimes difficult to isolate the actual idiomatic expression and then find it in a dictionary of idioms. To sum up, in terms of syntactic feature, firstly, an idiom is a set – expression. We cannot make any changes without losing the idiomatic meaning. Secondly, idioms may take many different forms or structures. Mentioning to structure, an idiom can have a regular structure, an irregularor even a grammatically incorrect structure. 2.2. Semantic Opacity Idioms, as means of non-literal language, have a great extent use in everyday language. They carry a metaphorical sense that makes their comprehension difficult, since their meaning cannot be deduced from the meaning of their constituent parts. Their meanings are more than simply the sum of their individual parts. In terms of opacity, Idioms are categorized in a continuum from transparent to opaque called the spectrum of idiomacity. Therefore, idioms can be divided into: Transparent-Opaque Idioms including: a) Transparent Idioms These idioms have a very close meaning to that of the literal one. Hence, transparent idioms are usually not difficult to understand and translate, 7
19. because their meanings can be easily inferred from the meanings of their constituents, both components have a direct meaning but the combination acquires figurative sense. Phraseological combinations are commonly included in this category. E.g.Time is money b) Semi - Transparent Idioms The idiom usually carries a metaphorical sense that could not be known only through common use. i.e., the meaning of its parts has a little role to play in understanding the entire meaning. E.g.A race against time c) Semi-Opaque Idioms This type refers to those idioms in which the figurative meaning is not joined to that of the constituent words of the idiom. Thus, the expression is separated into two parts; a part with a literal meaning, and another part with a figurative sense. Phraseological unities belong to this category. d) Opaque Idioms Opaque idioms are the most difficult type of idioms, because the meaning of the idiom is never that of the sum of the literal meanings of its parts. So, it would be impossible to infer the actual meaning of the idiom from the meanings of its components, because of the presence of items having cultural references. These culture-specific items have a great influence on the comprehensibility of idiomatic expressions. Generally speaking, an idiom is a kind of lexical unit in which the whole meaning of the expression is not apparent from the meanings of its components. 2.3. Cultural Features Every language has its own vivid and colorful idioms which were created by people when using for a long time and has deep nation history and local color. Maalej (2005) identifies idioms as culture-specific aspect of a particular language, i.e., the non-existence of a direct one to one correspondence between a target language and a source language is the result of culture-specific idioms. Native language idioms can blend ethno-specific concepts pertaining to the world view of it speakers, to their national 8
20. character, as well as their traditional social relations, thus becoming an embodiment of national dispositions and spiritual values. As we all know, language is closely related to culture and can be said as a part of culture. From a dynamic view, language and culture interact with each other and shape each other. Language is the carrier of culture which in turn is the content of language. We can dig out cultural features from language and explain language phenomena with culture. Idioms as a special form of language exist in both of them and carry a large amount of cultural information such as history, geography, religion, custom, nationality psychology, thought pattern , and therefore are closely related to culture. They are the heritage of history and product of cultural evolvement. Consequently, we can know much about culture through studying idioms and in turn get better understanding of idioms by learning the cultural background behind them. 3. Overview of Phrase, Clause and Sentence Structures 3.1. 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. According to dictionary, a group of words, which makes sense, but not complete sense, is called a Phrase. It is a group of related words without a Subject and a Verb. In this study, I focus on verb, noun, adjective, adverb and prepositional phrases. 3.2. Clause A group of words containing a subject and a predicate and forming part of a compound or complex sentence(www.wordnik.com/words/clause). 9
21. In accordance with Wikipedia(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clause), a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. A typical clause in English contains minimally a subject and a predicate. In other languages, the subject is often omitted if it is retrievable from context. A simple sentence usually consists of a single finite clause with a finite verb that is independent. More complex sentences may contain multiple clauses. Main clause (= matrix clauses, independent clauses) are those that could stand as a sentence by themselves. Subordinate clauses (= embedded clauses, dependent clauses) are those that would be awkward or nonsensical if used alone. 3.3. Sentence We put a group of words together to form a sentence. But not all sentences are made up of a group of words. A sentence must have a main clause or more than one main clause. There are as many clauses as there are finite verbs in a sentence. (The finite verb is the verb that changes with the person or number of the subject.) A sentence: Begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (period), a question mark, or an exclamation mark. Has to meet the requirements for a sentence such as being able to stand by itself, and making sense. To ensure it does, the following point is important: The subject-predicate agreement must be observed Expresses a complete idea as a statement or asks a question. May be a word or short sentence used to express a strong feeling such as surprise, excitement or anger. Can also be a combination of two or more clauses. One of the clauses must be an independent clause, and the other clause can either be an independent or a dependent clause. It is important to know about clauses in order to construct complete sentences. Has two parts: a subject (noun or pronoun) and a predicate (a verb or a phrase) as explained below. 10
22. Can be one word or two words, and as long it can stand alone, its meaning is clear, and does make sense, it is accepted as a sentence. Can be joined to another sentence without the use of a conjunction. We do it by using the present participle which is the –ing form of a verb: look – looking. Can be made a negative sentence using –ing form of the verb, we put not in front of it. A sentence is the basic unit of language which expresses a complete thought. It is a group of words that are put together to mean something and does this by following the grammatical rules of syntax. A complete sentence has at least a subject and a main verb to state (declare) a complete thought. Short example: Walker walks. A subject is the noun that is doing the main verb. The main verb is the verb that the subject is doing. In English and many other languages, the first word of a written sentence has a capital letter. At the end of the sentence there is a full stop or full point. 11
23. Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURES 1. Research Design With the aim of reaching the goal of the study, quantitative and qualitative approaches will be carried out. Then, the collected data will be qualitatively analyzed, compared and generalized to highlight their characteristics. 2. Research Methods The meanings of idioms, in accordance with their syntactic and semantic features, are described and interpreted with means of descriptive method and a powerful source of dictionaries and document. What‟s more, the contrastive method is applied to draw out the similarities as well as differences of English and Vietnamese ITaccording to their syntactic and semantic features. Statistical and observational methods are also used to find out essential findings. 3. Research Procedures - Compiling English and Vietnamese idioms which contain words denoting time from the sources of books, dictionaries and internet. At the same time,collecting examples in which they are used. - Analyzing and categorizing English and Vietnamese IT according to their syntactic and semantic features. - Figuring out the similarities and the differences in terms of the syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese IT. - Putting forward some implications for teaching and learning idioms as well as making some suggestions for further research. - Showing study limitations. - Closing the study with Appendices and References. 4. Description of the Sample - Criteria to choose the samples: + Possess characteristics of idioms (As stated in Section 2 of Chapter 1) + Contain words denoting time according to the below table 12
24. ENGLISH VIETNAMESE Second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year, Giây, phút, giờ, ngày, tuần, Words denoting age, life, morning, tháng, năm, đời, sáng, trưa, period of time afternoon, night, tối, nửa đêm midnight Weekend, past, future, Cuối tuần, quá khứ, tương Words denoting time time, before, after, lai, thời gian, trước, sau, point yesterday, today, hôm qua, hôm nay, ngày tomorrow mai Sunday, Monday, Chủ nhật, Thứ Hai, Thứ Words denoting days Tuesday, Wednesday, Ba, Thứ Tư, Thứ Năm, in a week Thursday, Friday, Thứ Sáu, Thứ Bảy Saturday Words denoting Spring, Summer, Mùa xuân, mùa hạ, mùa seasons in a year Autumn (Fall), Winter thu, mùa đông - With such set criteria I collected English and Vietnamese idioms from many books, dictionaries, stories and the internet. Firstly, I start collecting idioms in the book which got more IT than other ones. When getting a list of idioms, I was able to collect a total of 203 English and Vietnamese IT for building up my corpus which consists of 113 English idioms and 90 Vietnamese ones. 5. Data Collection The number of samples being investigated in the research is 113 in English and 90 in Vietnamese based on the criteria in the Section 3.4. The idioms are collected from books, dictionaries, and internet. All the collected idioms will be classified and put together in categories of different features of syntactic and semantic. 6. Reliability and Validity With regard to reliability, the material for this study, as mentioned above, is carefully compiled from a powerful source ofbooks, dictionaries, and popular websites. In addition, all informationis quoted in this thesis 13
25. without any differences or changes from the original materials. Therefore, both the material and the background for the study are surelyworthy of reliance. The results and findings in this thesis areobviously summed up from the material analysis without any prejudices or preconceptions. As regards validity, the whole collected English and Vietnamese idioms meet all required criteria. The samples of the study are made from English and Vietnamese idioms which are taken from books, dictionaries, and in the internet. What‟s more, in order to make sure idioms‟ origin and avoid the translated idioms, after being extracted from bilingual dictionaries, they will be carefully checked up in the monolingual dictionaries. 14
26. Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 1. Syntactic Features 1.1. IT with Noun Phrase Structure (42) English ITare relatively numeral over the Vietnamese ones. The general patterns of English include: (Article) + N/NP, (Article) + N/NP + Prep, (Article) + N + N, (Article) + adj + N/NP, Numeral + N + Numeral + N, One‟s + N. Meanwhile the Vietnamese patterns containing Noun Phrase are (Article) + adj + N/NP, Numeral + N + Numeral + N, N/NP + V, N/NP + V. (Article) + N/NP: (3 E) A dog's life, Daydream, Day-tripper (Article) + N/NP + Prep: (8 E) A race against time, Time to call it a day, Order of the day, A blast from the past (Article) + N + N: (10 E) Twilight years, The New York minute, Sunday driver, Day person (Article) + Adj + N/NP: (9 E & 1V) A black day, A dirty weekend, The Bách niên giai lão big time Numeral + N + Numeral + N: (3V & 1E) Năm thì mười họa, Một sớm một One day chiều One’s + N: (3E) Not one‟s day, Donkey's years, One's sunset years 15
27. N/NP + V, N/NP + V: (4V) Mùa hạ buôn bông, mùa đông buôn quạt, Sông có khúc, người có lúc, Tháng ba đau máu, tháng sáu đau lưng 1.2. IT with Verb Phrase Structure (70) There is a surprisingly big amount of patterns in Verb structure, both in English and Vietnamese idioms. English idioms mainly appear in the patterns: V + (Article) + N/NP (+N), V + Prep, V + N/NP + Prep, V + N/NP + N/NP, V + Prep + N/NP, V + N + Prep + N, Prep + V, Prep + V, (Prep + V). Vietnameseones occupy a large number in this form and they are in the patterns: V + (Article) + N/NP (+N), V + Prep, V + N/NP + Prep, V + Prep + N/NP, Prep + V, Prep + V, (Prep + V). V + (Article) + N/NP (+N): (16E + 13V) Come Monday, Burn the midnight oil, Ăn bữa sáng lo bữa tối, Ăn đời ở Carry the day, Be no spring chicken, kiếp, Đi đêm về hôm, Thua keo Make good time, trước được keo sau Make somebody's day V + Prep: (1E + 9V) Nói trước quên sau, Ăn theo thuở, ở Spring up theo thời V + N/NP + Prep: (9E + 3V) Get/have your day in court, Need something yesterday, Pass the Kiếm củi ba năm thiêu một giờ time of day (with someone), Have time on your hands/time to kill 16
28. V + N/NP + N/NP: (1E) Not give anyone the time of day V + Prep + N/NP: (7E + 3V) Spring into action, Spring Chạy đua với thời gian, Mơ giữa ban to someone's defense ngày V + N + Prep + N: (4E + 1V) Spring something on someone, Put Lấy đêm làm ngày years on somebody, Save (something) for a rainy day Prep + V, Prep + V, (Prep + V): (3V) Sáng rửa cưa, trưa mài đục, tối giục nhau về, Nay gánh mai đội, Nay đợi mai trông 1.3. IT with Adjective Phrase Structure (21) (7E + 14V) The basic patterns in the Adjective phrase structure: (Be) + comparative form + N/NP, Numeral + N + Adj, Adj + Adj, Adj + N/NP, Adj + Prep are found in the verb phrase structure of Vietnamese idioms whereasEnglish ones only appear in two patterns: (Be) + comparative form + N/NP, Adj + Prep + N. (Be) + comparative form + N/NP: (6E + 7V) Ủ rũ như diều hâu tháng chạp, Rõ Be as clear/plain as day, Different as như ban ngày, Tối như đêm ba night and day mươi Adj + Prep + N: (1E) Pressed for time 17
29. Numeral + N + Adj: (1V) Ba ngày béo bảy ngày gầy Adj + Adj: (2V) Chậm mà chắc, Chẳng chóng thì chày Adj + N/NP: (3V) Giàu chiều hôm, khó sớm mai, Sớm một ngày hay một chước, Khôn ba năm dại một giờ Adj + Prep: (1V) Khổ trước sướng sau 1.4. IT with Prepositional Phrase Structure (12) Prep + N/NP + (N/NP), Prep + Prep + N/NP, Prep + Adj + N are the common structures of English idioms adjective phrase. Vietnamese ones only appear in one pattern in this form and it is: Prep + N/NP + (N/NP) Prep + N/NP + (N/NP): (6E + 1V) In the cold light of day, In an age of Giữa ban ngày ban mặt years, In years Prep + Prep + N/NP: (3E) All the livelong day, All in a day's work, Late in the day Prep + Adj + N: (2E) Of mature years, In broad daylight 18
30. 1.5. IT with Adverb Phrase Structure (15) The basic patterns in the verb phrase structure: Adv + Adj, Adv + V, Adv + Nare found in the verb phrase structure of Vietnamese idioms whereasEnglish ones only appear one pattern: Adv + N Adv + Adj: (3V) Trước sau như một, Trước có vụng rồi sau mới khéo, Càng mong lại càng lâu Adv + V: (2V) Ba lần đo, một lần cắt, Buổi tối nghĩ sai, sáng mai nghĩ đúng Adv + N: (7E + 3V) Ahead of time, Abreast the times, Lâu ngày dày kén, Sớm đào tối Behind the times mận 1.6. IT with Sentence Structure (27) Some English idioms in the patterns: Subject + V + Object, Subject + V + Complement (N/Adj), There + be + N, Subject + V + Conjunction, Subject + V + Adv, Subject (+ V) + Adv + V + N. At the same time, Vietnamese idioms appear in some patterns: Subject + V + Object, Subject + V + Conjunction, Subject + V + Adv, Subject (+ V) + Adv + V + N. Subject + V + Object: (1E + 6V) Áo gấm đi đêm, Hoa có thời gái có One swallow doesn't make a summer thì, Áo bào gặp ngày hội Subject + V + Complement (N/Adj): (8E) Every dog has its day, I wasn‟t born yesterday, Time is money, The time is ripe, That'll be the day 19
31. There + be + N: (2E) There‟s one born every minute, There aren't enough hours in the day Subject + V + Conjunction: (1E + 2V) Việc hôm nay chớ để ngày mai, Xuân Time is on your side thu nhị kỳ Subject + V + Adv: (2V) Chó dại có mùa, người dại quanh năm, Ai giàu ba họ, ai khó ba đời Subject (+ V) + Adv + V + N: (4V + 1E) Kiến tha lâu cũng có ngày đầy tổ, Cóc An apple a day keeps the doctor away chết ba năm quay đầu về núi, Lửa gần rơm lâu ngày cũng bén, 1.7. IT with Parallel Structure (16) (3E + 13V) English idioms which are found in this pattern:Day in and day out/day in, day out, Other times, other manner, Year in, year out Vietnamese IToccupy a large number in this form and they are in the patterns: Mỗi thời, mỗi cách, Mùa đông tháng giá, Mưa lâu thấm đất, Năm cùng tháng tận, Năm hết tết đến English IT Vietnamese IT Structure Number Percent Number Percent Noun Phrase Structure 34 30 % 8 9 % Verb Phrase Structure 38 32 % 32 36 % Adjective Phrase 7 6 % 14 15 % Prepositional Phrase 11 10 % 1 1 % Adverb Phrase 7 6 % 8 9 % Sentence Structure 13 11 % 14 16 % Parallel Structure 3 3 % 13 14 % Total 113 100 % 90 100 % Table 1: Statistical analyze of syntactic features of English and Vietnamese IT 20
32. To make the comparison clearer and lively, let us take a look at the following charts. 40 36 35 32 30 30 25 20 English IWDT 16 15 14 Vietnamese IWDT 15 11 10 9 9 10 6 6 5 3 1 0 Noun Verb Adj Prep Adv Sentence Parallel Phrase Phrase Phrase Phrase Phrase Chart 1: Rate of syntactic features of English and Vietnamese IT 1.8. Similarities and Differences of Syntactic Features of English and Vietnamese Idioms which contain Words Denoting Time a. Similarities This section has given out a generalization of the syntactic structures of idioms which contain words denoting time in English and in Vietnamese. The syntactic features of idioms are shown in the table 1 where all the features have been sorted into common patterns. The findings reveal some common characteristics between English and Vietnamese IT. Firstly, according to what we can see from the above chart, the verb phrase plays the most important role in both two languages‟ idioms (32% in English IT and 36% in Vietnamese ones). In detailed, V + (Article) + N/NP (+N) is preferred by both of them when there are the most idioms belonging to it (16 English IT and 13Vietnamese IT). It‟s not difficult to understand the importance of Verb phrase structure in idioms. The two languages find out the 21
33. common convenience in using verb phrase at their basic aim of advising and expressing experience. Thus, for this reason, verb phrase has strong effect on both English and Vietnamese IT. Secondly, among 7 structures, sentence ones account for the relatively equal rate in both English and Vietnamese idioms which contain words denoting time. In terms of sentence structures, English IT rate is 11% and Vietnamese ones‟ is 16%. Sentence structure is also a popular type of idioms in these two languages. The possible reason is that sentence is easy for idioms pointing out the object of verb where there is the appearance of both object and its action. Both in English and Vietnamese, complements following a verb can be realized by an adjective, adjective phrase, a noun, a noun phrase; objects can be a noun or noun phrase, etc. In conclusion, these two nations‟ idioms find their agreement on number of verb phrase and sentence structures. b. Differences Data in the above table shows clearly the differences in same aspects of syntactic features between English and Vietnamese IT. With regards of noun phrase structures, English idioms possess a big number of 30%. At the same time, that number of Vietnamese ones is just 9%. This particular difference may be caused by the difference in using words of two cultures. The English people have a preference in utilizing noun to refer object while Vietnamese people don‟t have that habit. What‟s more, among the samples investigated, we see that there are 3% of English idioms in the parallel structures 14% of Vietnamese IT appear in this section. The considerable reason of this is the frequency of using this type of structure for the desire of alliteration and rhythm in order to make speeches smoother of Vietnamese people. One more difference is that to make speeches smoother and easier to remember, lots of Vietnamese IT use the repetition of sound and rhythm which cannot be found out in English ones. 2. Semantic Features As mentioned in previous chapters, the meaning of idioms cannot be inferred from the meanings of individual words, so it is the semantic opacity 22
34. of idiomsthat makes the learners or translators of English as well as Vietnamese get into a lot of troubles. The degree of the troubles depends on the degree of semantic opacity of idioms. There are many aspects in the semantic field, both in English and Vietnamese idioms but we only investigate some main aspects including: Advice, Characteristics (Human characteristics and characteristics of objects), Frequency, Activities, Mood, Objects, Opinion, Physical state, Time, Weather. 2.1. Advice (3E + 13V) In English:Better late than never, An apple a day keeps the doctor away, Time is money Better late than never: The meaning of this advice is that to do something that is right, profitable, or good a little late is still better than not doing it at all. In Vietnamese: Ăn có chừng, chơi có độ, Ăn theo thuở, ở theo thời, Trâu chậm uống nước đục The idiomĂn có chừng, chơi có độ recommends people to eat at pleasure, drink with measure so that they can have the most comfortable life. 2.2. Characteristics (15E + 12V) + Human characteristics: In English: There‟s one born every minute, Behind the times, I wasn‟t born yesterday, Sunday driver, See the light of day There‟s one born every minute: People use this idiom to say about someone whom they think has been very stupid . In Vietnamese: Nói trước quên sau, Sớm đào tối mận Sớm đào tối mận: “đào” (peach) and“mận” (plum) are two kinds of fruits. When we say someone “Sớm đào tối mận”, we mean that that person is philandering, flirtatious and is not faithful in love. + Characteristics of objects: In English: Different as night and day, Be as clear/plain as day Different as night and day: Night and day are totally different from each other. This idiom is used to express the obvious and total difference of something. In Vietnamese: Rõ như ban ngày, Tối như đêm ba mươi 23
35. Rõ như ban ngày: The day light is always the clearest light. So when something is called “Rõ như ban ngày”, it is really clear and easy to see or understand without a shadow of doubt. 2.3. Frequency (6E + 3V) In English:By day and by night, Day in and day out/day in, day out, In a coon's age/in a month of Sundays If you say that something will not happen in a month of Sundays, you mean that it is not likely to happen “He'll never run the marathon, not in a month of Sundays”. In Vietnamese:Buổi đực buổi cái, Năm thì mười họa If you do something “Buổi đực buổi cái”, you do it irregularly/not often. Just someday do and someday quit. 2.4. Activities (23E + 25V) In English:Burn the midnight oil, Burning daylight, Call time, Seize the day, Name the day, Save (something) for a rainy day When someone is Burning daylight, he/she is wasting his/her time. “Don‟t play computer games. You are burning daylight”. In Vietnamese: Chạy đua với thời gian, Ngủ ngày cày đêm, Đầu năm mua muối, cuối năm mua vôi The idiom “Chạy đua với thời gian” has an equivalent idiom in English which is “a race against time”. If someone is in a race against time, they have to work very quickly in order to do or finish something before a certain time. 2.5. Mood (15E + 5V) In English:Be full of the joys of spring, Have a face like a wet weekend/have a face as long as a wet week, Merry as the day is long, Take your time, There aren't enough hours in the day Be full of the joys of spring: Spring is the most beautiful and nice season in a year. Be full of the joys of spring means that you are having the intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness. In Vietnamese: Buồn như hoa bí buổi chiều, Len lén như chuột ngày The flowers of pumpkin are usually withered in the late afternoon. If you are “Buồn như hoa bí buổi chiều”, you are having the feeling of unhappiness. 24
36. 2.6. Objects (10E + 4V) In English:A blast from the past, Order of the day, Saturday night special, Sunday best Sunday best: One's best and often most formal clothing. Its origin is from the practice among Christians of wearing one's best clothing to attend church on Sundays (indeed, an older idiom is Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes (meeting here meaning "prayer meeting"). In Vietnamese: Xuân thu nhị kỳ Xuân thu nhị kỳ denotes the ordinary thing which happens as usual. 2.7. Opinion (9E + 15V) In English:Every dog has its day, It'll be a cold day in hell /It'll be a long day in January, One swallow doesn't make a summer, The time is ripe, A dog's life When you say that “The time is ripe”, you mean that it‟s a suitable point for a particular activity. “I‟m waiting till the time is ripe before I tell my parents that I failed the exam.” In Vietnamese: Sông có khúc, người có lúc, Ai giàu ba họ, ai khó ba đời Sông có khúc, người có lúc: Everyday is not Saturday, everything can be changed without expectation and prediction. 2.8. Physical state (9E + 2V) In English:Be no spring chicken, Getting on in years, Of mature years In Vietnamese: Ba ngày béo bảy ngày gầy 2.9. Time (20E + 10V) + Time moment: In English:Serve time, A red-letter day, Come Monday, Crunch time “A red-letter” day is a one of good luck, when something special happens to you In Vietnamese: Năm xung tháng hạn The idiom “Năm xung tháng hạn” refers to a period of unlucky time when everything happens bad with you. + Time period: 25
37. In English:Donkey's years, From here till next Tuesday, The New York minute, A split second From here till next Tuesday means a very long period of time. In Vietnamese: Ba năm chín tháng mười ngày + Time point: In English:The other day (Recently), Yesterday wouldn't be too soon (immediately), Ahead of time (before) 2.10. Weather (3E + 1V) In English:An Indian summer, The dead of winter, The dog days of summer “An Indian summer” has two meanings: 1,A period of mild weather occurring in late autumn. 2, A pleasant, tranquil, or flourishing period occurring near the end of something: “the Indian summer of the administration.” In Vietnamese: Mùa đông tháng giá: Months of winter when it is very cold. English IT Vietnamese IT Semantic features Number Percent Number Percent Advice 3 3 % 13 15 % Characteristics 15 13% 12 13 % Frequency 6 5 % 3 3 % Activities 23 20 % 25 28 % Mood 15 13 % 5 6 % Objects 10 9 % 4 4 % Opinion 9 8 % 15 17 % Physical state 9 8 % 2 2 % Time 20 18 % 10 11 % Weather 3 3 % 1 1 % Total 113 100 % 90 100 % Table 2: Statistical analyze of semantic features of English and Vietnamese IT 26
38. 30 28 25 20 20 18 17 15 15 1313 13 11 9 English 10 8 8 IWDT 6 5 4 5 3 3 3 2 Vietnamese 1 IWDT 0 Chart 2: Rate of semantic features of English and Vietnamese IT 2.11. Similarities and Differences of Semantic Features of English and Vietnamese Idioms which contain Words Denoting Time a. Similarities Language is considered as a system of communicating among people who use sounds, symbols and words in expressing a meaning, idea or thought. This language can be used in many forms, primarily through oral and written communications as well as using expressions through body language. Moreover, language is considered as a way to communicate ideas comprehensibly from one person to another in such a way that the other will be able to act exactly accordingly. And idiom is one of the exciting and popular language phenomenons. Therefore, to learn a language, a person needs to learn the words in that language, and how and when to use them. But people also need to learn idioms separately. And idioms reflect accumulated human experiences and are built on frequently occurring situations that demonstrate human behavior, social traits, certain habits or tradition in a country. The use of idioms and phrasal verbs is commonplace and it can be extremely frustrating to find yourself understanding a conversation or a 27
39. business negotiation in English to only find yourself flummoxed when a few idioms are introduced into the conversation. Both English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting time are employed for the same ten topics such as Advice, Characteristics (Human characteristics and characteristics of objects), Frequency, Activities, Mood, Objects, Opinion, Physical state, Time, Weather. However, the classification of all English and Vietnamese IT to semantic fields is not an easy task. From my study, both English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting time use some certain, characters, things, concrete events to reveal or illustrate abstract idea or phenomena by the means of metaphor, hyperbole and simile. As the data in the above table showed, we can refer that English and Vietnamese IT have the same rate of Characteristics fields in which its percentage is 13 %. The IT which has the semantic meaning of showing characteristic of human and objects as well accounts for a medium number in the total of investigated idioms. The second agreement of English and Vietnamese IT is the approximately equal rate of idioms denoting frequency and weather (in detailed: English IT‟s rate is 5 % and 3 % and Vietnamese one‟s is 3 % and 1 % respectively). The possible reason is that the IT does not have a preference in showing the meaning of frequency and weather which need words belonging to other fields to express. b. Differences The above table reveals some differences between English and Vietnamese IT. There are some differences in forming idioms and the way idioms conveying their meanings which closely relate to differences in the customs and habits of two countries. From the above table, the biggest dissimilarity is the rate of Advice topic between English and Vietnamese IT. If there is only 3 % of English idioms which contain words denoting time belong to the topic of Advice, that number of Vietnamese ones is five times much (15 %). This difference is mainly caused by the way of expressing of the two countries‟ culture. If Vietnamese people like to use idioms to transfer some advice and experience 28
40. to the readers, English people don‟t. They are preferred to utilize IT to point out the objects and mood which can be seen from their higher rate over Vietnamese ones in the above table (13 % and 9 %). What‟s more, Vietnamese four - word idioms with flexible parallel structures can help us memorize easily whereas English idioms do not have this structure. For example: Ngày nhớ đêm mong Some idioms may have more than one field, so it is difficult to define which field they tend to belong to. Therefore, we have to put them in the particular contexts where idioms come up. This helps us decide semantic field of which the idioms belong to. 3. Difficulties students encounter when learning idioms 3.1. Idioms are not literal They do not mean what they say. The meaning idioms convey is non- compositional. It implies that you cannot understand the meaning of the whole phrase putting the meanings of each word together. If you look at the individual words, it may not even make sense grammatically. Idiom has the meaning only as a unit. 3.2. It’s difficult to use idioms correctively To use idioms correctly and appropriately takes many years of experience with the language. An inappropriately-used or incorrectly-used idiom will simply draw attention to the fact that the speaker is not a native speaker. This is unfortunate since the ultimate goal of most learners of English to reach a level of language indistinguishable from that of the native speaker. Even when learners do master the meanings of some English idioms, it is still very difficult to learn to use them correctly. Idioms vary in formality from slang and colloquialisms to those which can be used in formal situations. 3.3. Teaching materials are not much available Another reason why second-language learners do not learn idioms is that many second-language teaching materials either ignore idioms entirely or relegate them to the „other expressions‟ section of vocabulary lists, without providing exercises or other aids to learning. Typically, an idiom will appear in the introductory reading or dialogue, a definition, translation or example will be provided in the margin or notes, and the idiom will then appear again 29
41. in the vocabulary list. These are obviously not sufficient aids to learning, unless the teacher provides additional exercises and practice. 4. Some suggested solutions 4.1. Learn idioms in context, never in isolation You must ensure that you not only understand idioms, but also learn to use them, present idiom examples in context, for example, in simple conversations where the meaning of the idiom is clear. If you see an idiom in context i.e., in a magazine, newspaper or a book, try to understand the context and this will help you with the idiom. For example: my boss was really angry: shouting and screaming until he tripped and fell over the table. Everyone laughed and I couldn‟t keep a straight face. 4.2. Create conversations using idioms Remember that the goal is to not only understand idioms, but also learn how to use them effectively. Find a partner to make a pair. Then each of you must write a conversation and use this idiom in it. Use the idioms you have learnt in everyday life. Should you be in a certain situation then don‟t be afraid to use one either in writing or in speaking. 4.3. Keep an ‘Idioms’ diary Every time you hear an idiom or read one, write it down but then make sure that you can look it up at home in a dictionary (English dictionary for learners) and to write it in a sentence otherwise you will forget the meaning. 4.4. Amount: Not Too Many At Once Planning to learn a big amount of idioms at once may not be the best approach to memorize them. Idioms are complex and difficult not only to understand but also to explain so consider introducing only a small number, maybe three to five, at a time. This approach will give you enough time to cover them thoroughly and have sufficient practice time without being overwhelmed. 4.5. A lot of idioms can be found in songs If you can download the lyrics, have a look at the words and find the idioms – remember an idiom does not make sense if you translate every word but more that you see it as a whole expression. 4.6. Themes: Related To Your Topic 30
42. You can include idioms in your studying by learning them thematically. If they are related to the topic you are studying, you will have an easier time remembering them and will be familiar with the vocabulary you are using. When studying about pets, for instance, you can learn idioms such as “work like a dog” and “dog tired” which are related to the topic and will have something to discuss. What makes idioms so interesting is that they are a unique combination of words that have completely different meanings from the individual words themselves. 4.7. Try to see the idiom in your mind Can you see the image? Many idioms are made of images. Try to imagine them and this will help you remember them by seeing the pictures in your mind. Remember, practice makes perfect! Let‟s try your best to learn idioms and you will reach your goal. 31
43. PART III: CONCLUSION 1. Summary of the study As referred in previous parts, according to Jenifer Seidl and W.Mc Mordie in “English Idiom and How to Use” “an idiom is a number of words which, taken together, mean something different from the individual words of the idiom when they stand alone.” (1979: page 20)The Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics regards an idiom as “an expression which function as a single unit and whose meaning cannot be worked out from its separate parts” (1992: page 198). The Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary of Current English (Oxford University Press - 1995) defines idiom as “a phrase or sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit.” (1995: page 67). On reflection, it could be seen that there is no conflict among the mentioned definitions of idiom. Regardless of obvious differences in expressing, they intersect at one point: an idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning cannot be worked out by combining the literal meaning of its individual words. 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. My graduation thesis namely “A study on English and Vietnamese idioms which contain words denoting time”involves the contrastive study of the syntactic and semantic features of idioms containing words denoting time in English and Vietnamese. By doing this, I find out the various meanings as well as the constructions possessed by IT the ways it is used properly in both languages. 32
44. In brief, there are three main parts in my study: Part one is entitled the “Introduction” where rationale, aim, scope and design of the thesis are presented. Part twois the “Development” which consists of three chapters: Chapter one is Theoretical Background, including four main small parts. Chapter two includesmethodology and procedure. Chapter three is composed of finding and discussion. Finally, Part three is the “Conclusion” summarizing what have been discussed in previous parts. In terms of syntactic features, English and Vietnamese IT are divided into seven categories of Noun phrase, Verb phrase, Adj phrase, Prep phrase, Adv phrase, Sentence structure and Parallel structure. From the above chart, what we can see is the obvious domination of Verb phrase in the total rate of syntactic features in English idioms. It has the highest percentage of 32%. Standing at the second place is the approximate number of Noun phrase with 30%. Prep phrase and Sentence structure account for 10% and 11% respectively. Adj and Adv phrase have the same percentage of 6%. And the lowest rate belongs to Parallel structure with only 3%. Nearly in contrast with English IT, Vietnamese idioms show their little attention to Prep phrase with only 1%. Adj, Sentence and Parallel structure account for the proximate rate of 15%, 16% and 14% respectively. 9% is the common percentage of Noun and Adv Phrase. Syntactically, Vietnamese idioms only agree with English ones in case of Verb phrase in which its rate is extremely high at 36%. However, English and Vietnamese languages are obvious different from each other in terms of parallel structure and Noun phrase. The high number of Vietnamese parallel (14%) over English ones (3%) shows the preference of Vietnamese people on utilizing parallel structure with alliteration and rhythm in order to make speeches smoother and easier to remember. Whereas, English people like to use Noun phrase in expressing their idioms, evidence is the considerably high percentage of Noun phrase with 30% when that number of Vietnamese IT is only 9%. In terms of semantic features, all idioms in the corpus are categorized into 10 sub-fields including Advice, Characteristics (Human characteristics 33
45. and characteristics of objects), Frequency, Activities, Mood, Objects, Opinion, Physical state, Time, Weather. The Activities sub-field dominates in Vietnamese with 28%. The first runner-up is Opinion with 17% and the second one is Advice with 15%. Weather, Physical state and Frequency sub-categories are paid little attention with respective percentages of 1%, 2% and 3%. In case of English IT, Activities also gets the highest place with 20%. The proximate number of 18% belongs to Time sub-filed. Advice and Weather are located at the lowest rate of 3%. Among these groups, Activities category is the most popular part for both the Vietnamese and English idioms with 28% in Vietnamese and 20% in English. The possible explanation for this agreement is that idioms containing words denoting time share much care on expressing the activities of both human being and others animals. Via these activities, idioms show the experience and lessons which the senior generations hope to transfer to their off springs. Advice sub-field reveals the most different factor between English and Vietnamese IT. If that category accounts for 15% in Vietnamese language, its percentage in English is only 3%. The idea of Advice should be a preference in showing meaning of Vietnamese idioms. 2. Limitation of the study Despite my considerable efforts, certain limitations could be detected in this study due to time constraint and other unexpected factors. That is the number of IT between English idioms and Vietnamese equivalents in the study remained relatively low in comparison with the enormous number of English and Vietnamese idioms. However, I hope that the serious work had well served the research questions as a contribution to the rich collection of other previous studies on the same area. Due to the limitation of my knowledge as well as time my research stops here but I expect that it will be profoundly analyzed more by following people who are interested in idioms which contain words denoting time. 3. Suggestions for further studies Some suggestions for further studies to people who are interested in topics related to mine: 34
46. - A study on culture features of English and Vietnamese idioms which contain words denoting time. - A study on English and Vietnamese idioms denoting time. 35
47. APPENDIX 1: LIST OF ENGLISH IT No. English IT Meaning Example A day when something A bomb went off early this 1 A black day very unpleasant or sad morning. This is a black happens day for the peace process A memory from A blast from the your past, or something He came to me as a blast 2 past that causes you to from the past remember something A weekend when two At first I thought he was people who are not 3 A dirty weekend asking me to go away for married go away a dirty weekend somewhere to have sex 4 A dog's life A life of misery His life is just a dog‟s life A person who does many different types of A girl/man/person She is a girl Friday who 5 usually not very Friday assists me with office work interesting work in an office Someone who says how It's easy to be a Monday an event or problem morning quarterback A Monday should have been dealt when you see the kids' low 6 morning with, after other people test scores, but there are quarterback have already dealt with no easy answers to it improving education There's a race against A race against Have to do something 7 time to save the time fast within a deadline rainforests A day that is very The day our daughter was 8 A red-letter day important or very born was a real red-letter special day for us In a split second, the cat 9 A split second very short time twisted and landed on its 36
48. feet She always tries to 10 Abreast the times updated, up-to-date keep abreast the times The house was 11 Ahead of time Before completed ahead of time Part of what is I don't particularly like to 12 All in a day's work expected; typical or cook, but it's all in a day's normal work Well, of course you get to All the livelong feeling stiff, sitting in front 13 All day long. day of a computer all the livelong day. My mother always feeds An apple a day Eating an apple every us many apples. She 14 keeps the doctor day will keep you believes that “An apple a away healthy day keeps the doctor away” Warm sunny weather in We are having a nice 15 An Indian summer autumn, when it would weather in this autumn, usually be colder it‟s an Indian summer. If you're having a bad hair day, things are not He didn‟t come as I 16 Bad hair day going the way you expected, it‟s just a bad would like or had hair day planned Be as clear/plain To be obvious or easy She's in love with him - it's 17 as day to see as plain as day You can be as honest as the day is long and still Be as honest as To be completely 18 get into trouble if you fill the day (is long) honest in your tax form incorrectly 19 Be full of the joys To be very happy He bounced into the 37
49. of spring office, full of the joys of spring A cure for all kinds of Be light years To be a very long time 20 cancer is still light years away in the future away He must be ten years older Be no spring To not be young any 21 than Grace, and she's no chicken more spring chicken Someone that is behind the times is old- He is behind the times. He 22 Behind the times fashioned and has ideas even doesn‟t know how to that are regarded as out- use computer dated It implies that a belated The achievement is long Better late than achievement is better 23 overdue, but it‟s better never than not reaching a goal late than never at all. If you stay up very late The exam is approaching Burn the midnight working or studying, 24 and most of us must burn oil you burn the midnight the midnight oil. oil You are really burning 25 Burning daylight Wasting time daylight. During the day; during By day, Mary worked in By day and by the night. (Often used in an office; by night, she 26 night simultaneous clauses for took classes. Dave slept by contrast) day and worked by night If you call time on The day is over. Let call 27 Call time something, you decide it time on our work. is time to end it - To win a war or a fight - At the beginning of the 28 Carry the day - If you carry the day, you American Civil War, persuade people to many southerners 38
50. support your ideas or believed their soldiers opinions, or if a and statesmen would particular idea carries carry the day the day, it is accepted by - The Republicans carried a group of people the day in the dispute over the new jet fighter. Her argument in favor of pay increases eventually carried the day When Monday comes You may think that putting (Can be used with other up storm windows is a expressions for time, as 29 Come Monday bother, but come in come next week, December, you'll be glad come December, come you did it five o'clock.) If someone or I'm trying to think of Come/spring to something springs to someone who might help 30 mind mind, you immediately out with the kids. Yvette think of them comes to mind. ' When people, companies, etc, have to make an important This crunch time will mark 31 Crunch time decision that will have a the new page of our life. considerable effect on their future, it is crunch time A dreamlike musing or Well, when I wake up, I fantasy while awake, get up right away - no 32 Daydream especially of the time to have fulfillment of wishes or daydream anymore! hopes 33 Day in and day On every day; for each She watches soap operas 39
51. out/day in, day out day day in and day out Taking out another loan to A time when something cover your debts will only 34 Day of reckoning must be dealt with postpone the day of reckoning You haven't done anything The very beginning; the 35 Day one right since day one! very first day You're fired! A person who prefers to be active during the 36 Day person I am strictly a day person daytime. (Compare this with a night person.) If you are overcharged or underpaid, it is a This tax rate is so high but 37 Daylight robbery daylight robbery; open, we must obey. This is unfair and hard to exactly a daylight robbery. prevent A tourist who makes Being a day-tripper is 38 Day-tripper excursions lasting just hard on your feet one day sometimes Although Bobby and Billy Different as night 39 Completely different are twins, they are as and day different as night and day I've been doing this job for 40 Donkey's years A very long time donkey's years Something that you say which means that He'll get that promotion Every dog has its 41 everyone is successful eventually. Every dog has day during some period in its day their life - My grandfather has taken First see the light - To be born 42 care of me since I first of day - To come into being saw the light of day 40
52. - Bob's collection of short stories first saw the light of day in a privately printed edition three years ago If you try that again, I'll From here till next For a great distance; for 43 knock you from here till Tuesday a long time next Tuesday To get an opportunity to She was fiercely give your opinion on determined to get her day Get/have your day 44 something or to explain in court and the TV in court your actions after they interview would give it to have been criticized her Getting on in She's getting on in years, 45 Becoming old years but she's healthy (My goodness! (An Great day in the morning! Great day (in the 46 exclamation of I didn't expect to see you morning)! surprise.) here Have a face like a wet weekend/have He's had a face like a wet 47 To look very unhappy a face as long as a weekend all day wet week To experience freedom The boss was gone and we from one's usual work had a field day today. No schedule; to have a very one got anything enjoyable time. (As 48 Have a field day done. The air was fresh with children who are and clear and everyone released from classes to had a field day in the park take part in sports and during the lunch hour athletic contests.) Have all the time You don't need to hurry. 49 in the world Have plenty of time We've got all the time in the world 41
53. You‟re enjoying an Have time of your I cannot forget this unforgettable, 50 life moment, I am really exhilarating experience having time of my life that cannot be recreated We've got a bit of time on Have time on your 51 Too much time our hands. What do you hands/time to kill want to do? Rachel: make it snappy! I haven't got all day. Alice: Please hurry; I‟m in a 52 Haven't got all day just take it easy. There's hurry no rush. Henry: I haven't got all day. I know what's going on. I Experienced; wasn't born I wasn‟t born 53 knowledgeable in the yesterday. Sally knows the yesterday ways of the world score. She wasn't born yesterday In a coon's age/in In a very long time How are you? I haven't 54 a month of (The coon is a raccoon.) seen you in a coon's age Sundays Jane hasn't ridden a horse 55 In an age of years In a long time in an age of years When something occurs Two coyotes brazenly in broad daylight, it 56 In broad daylight walked across the lawn in means the event is broad daylight clearly visible If you see things in the cold light of day, you In the cold light of It was the fact; I saw it in 57 see them as they really day the cold light of day. are, not as you might want them to be In this day and In this day and age you 58 Now age/(in) this day must have computer skills 42
54. and time if you want to get a job The February issue of the 59 In years For a very long time magazine is easily its best in years It'll be a cold day (When something It'll be a cold day in Hell in hell /It'll be a happens). Something when the city council 60 long day in will never happen or is agrees on where to build January highly unlikely that bridge Just another It was just another day of An ordinary or typical 61 day/Just another arguing with my teenage event day's work son Know as much Don't let Jim make dessert about something a To have no knowledge for the picnic. He knows 62 s a hog knows of something as much about pies as a about Sunday hog knows about Sunday Isn't it rather late in the 63 Late in the day Delayed almost too long day to say you're sorry? Following an illness or After Jim was struck by Living on near-death experience, lightning, he felt like he 64 borrowed time many people believe was living on borrowed they have cheated death time We made good time. It Do something faster 65 Make good time only took us an hour to get than you thought here Go on, tell him you like Make somebody's To make someone very 66 his jacket. It'll make his day happy day! Mary is as merry as a cricket whenever she has Merry as the day Very happy and 67 company come to call. The is long carefree little children are as merry as the day is long. 68 Name the day To announce when you Have you and Chris 43
55. plan to do something named the day yet? important, especially get married Need something y To require something in Yes, I'm in a hurry! I need 69 esterday a very big hurry it yesterday! Mary won't speak to Sally. Not give anyone To ignore someone 70 She won't give her the time the time of day (usually out of dislike) of day. I missed my train and A bad day one of those 71 Not one‟s day forgot my glasses - I guess days it's just not my day My employer is a man of mature years. The professor, a woman of 72 Of mature years Old mature years, is planning to retire at the end of the school term Linda and Louis drove to On the Spur of the Denotes a spontaneous 73 the beach on the spur of Moment or sudden undertaking the moment I'd like to go to Mexico 74 One day/some day In the future one day Something that you say which means because Okay, they won their last one good thing has One swallow game but one swallow happened, you cannot 75 doesn't make a doesn't make a summer. therefore be certain that summer They're still bottom of the more good things will league happen and the whole situation will improve Many people in their 76 One's sunset years One's old age sunset years love to travel 77 Order of the day Something necessary or Warm clothes are the 44
56. usual at a certain time order of the day when camping in the winter Amy thought her grandchildren addressed Different generations or Other times, other their friends in startlingly 78 eras have different manner rude terms. "But then," customs she reflected, "other times, other manners." I saw Mr. Brown in town Pass the time of To chat or talk yesterday. I stopped and 79 day (with informally with passed the time of day someone) someone with him I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment. Do you 80 Pressed for time Not have much time mind if we have the meeting tomorrow? Put years To make someone look The breakup of his 81 on somebody or feel much older marriage put years on him There was another killing Saturday night A small, easily 82 last night with a Saturday special obtainable pistol night special To produce a good The team was expected to 83 Save the day result when a bad result lose, but Sally made three was expected points and saved the day To keep an amount of She has a couple of Save (something) money for a time in the thousand pounds kept 84 for a rainy day future when it might be aside which she's saving needed for a rainy day The company agreed the ad was an embarrassment See the light of To be made available or 85 and promised it would day be known about never again see the light of day 45
57. To use an opportunity to Seize the day, young man. do something that you You may never get the 86 Seize the day want and not to worry chance to embark on such about the future an adventure again After the felon served his To spend a certain 87 Serve time time, he was released from amount of time in jail prison To suddenly begin As soon as the boss came 88 Spring into action moving or doing in the door, everyone something sprang into action To move quickly to The recruit sprang to 89 Spring to attention assume the military attention posture of attention He sprang to his feet and Spring to one's 90 To stand up quickly demanded that the chair feet recognize him To go quickly to defend Spring Fred was attacked and someone. (Can be 91 to someone's defe Ralph sprang to his against physical or nse defense. verbal attack.) To appear or develop The dog's ears sprang up 92 Spring up suddenly; to sprout, as when the refrigerator with a seedling opened - I hate to spring this on - To surprise someone you at the last moment, Spring something with something but I will need some 93 on someone - Pull a trick on money to travel on. someone - Let me tell you about the trick I sprang on Sally One's best clothing, We are in our Sunday 94 Sunday best which one would wear best, ready to go to church 95 Sunday driver A slow and leisurely I'm a Sunday driver, and 46
58. driver who appears to I'm sorry. I just can't bear be sightseeing and to go faster. enjoying the view, holding up traffic in the process. Take years To make someone seem My exciting vacation took 96 off (of) someone or look younger years off of me. or something Take your time answering 97 Take your time Not be in any hurry the question A raise in pay? That'll be 98 That'll be the day It will never happen the day! - Johnnie knew he was going to be in big-time - Of extreme severity trouble - It can also mean to 99 The big time - When he landed the reach the top of one‟s position as vice profession president, he knew he had reached the big time Shouldn‟t go out for Middle of winter, when 100 The dead of winter vacation in the dead of it is very cold and dark winter Those hottest, dampest, I hate the dog days of The dog days of 101 worst days of a hot summer, I always go to the summer summer lake then A very short period of Go on a date with Viggo? The New York time which passes so 102 I'd do that in a New York minute quickly that we can‟t minute even notice it Recently She phoned me just the Usage notes: also used 103 The other day other day in the forms the other I saw him the other night night and the other week 47
59. When the time is ripe, it‟s advantageous to Time is ripe, we should 104 The time is ripe undertake plans that start our plan have been waiting for awhile There aren't There are too many I am behind in all my 105 enough hours in things to do and not work. There aren't enough the day enough time hours in the day! 'He left a window open Something that you say and then wondered why There‟s one born about someone who you 106 he'd been burgled!' every minute think has been very 'There's one born every stupid minute, isn't there?' If time is going to Remember, time is money, 107 Time is money waste, money isn‟t shouldn‟t waste it being made You've got time on your Be young and have Time is on your side, so you shouldn't feel 108 plenty of time ahead of side pressured into making a you career decision now Jane: Well, I'm done. Time Time to call it a It's time to quit for the 109 to call it a day. Sue: Yes, day day let's get out of here In his twilight years, he The last years before 110 Twilight years became more mellow and death stopped yelling at people Up in years/advanced in My uncle is up in years 111 Old; elderly years/along in and can't hear too well years/on in years I seem to have hay fever Year after year; for 112 Year in, year out year in, year out. I never years get over it. 48
60. Immediately; Right Mary: Mr. Franklin, when Yesterday away (An answer to the do you want this? Fred: 113 wouldn't be too question "When do you Well, yesterday wouldn't soon want this?") be too soon. 49
61. APPENDIX 2: LIST OF VIETNAMESE IT Meaning/Equivalent expression in No. Vietnamese IT English Every dog has its day/Fortune knocks once 1 Ai giàu ba họ, ai khó ba đời at least at every man's door/One cannot be always fortunate 2 Ăn bữa hôm lo bữa mai Live from hand to mouth 3 Ăn bữa sáng lo bữa tối Make both ends meet Ăn cắp quen tay ngủ ngày Once a thief, always a thief/ Once a liar 4 quen mắt always a liar Eat at pleasure, drink with measure/ 5 Ăn có chừng, chơi có độ diseases are the interest of pleasures. He that comes first to the hill may sit where Ăn cỗ đi trước, lội nước 6 he will/an early riser is sure to be in theo sau luck/the early bird catches the worm Without time off from work, a person becomes both bored and boring/ To 7 Ăn có giờ, làm có buổi everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven Get paid from somebody and work for 8 Ăn cơm chúa múa tối ngày them 9 Ăn đời ở kiếp Spend the rest of one‟s life Manner changes with the time/one must 10 Ăn theo thuở, ở theo thời live according to his means 11 Áo bào gặp ngày hội Meet with a favorable opportunity 12 Áo đơn đợi hè Wait for chance to develop 13 Áo gấm đi đêm Cast pearl before swine 14 Ba lần đo, một lần cắt Measure thrice and cut once Ba năm chín tháng mười 15 For a very long time ngày Something which does not maintain the 16 Ba ngày béo bảy ngày gầy stability/change irregularly 17 Bách niên giai lão Live to be a hundred (together) 50
62. Bảy ngày ba bão biết cây 18 Difficulty helps judge one‟s strength cứng mềm 19 Buổi đực buổi cái Day on and day off/Not often It‟s always easier to think in the Buổi tối nghĩ sai, sáng mai 20 morning/an hour in the morning is worth nghĩ đúng two in the evening 21 Buồn như hoa bí buổi chiều One is bored stiff 22 Càng mong lại càng lâu A watched pot never boils Slow but sure, slow and steady wins the 23 Chậm mà chắc race 24 Chậm như sên Crawl along/creep at a snail‟s pace 25 Chẳng chóng thì chày Sooner or later 26 Chạy đua với thời gian A race against time Chó dại có mùa, người dại An ass will always be an ass/ he who is 27 quanh năm born a fool is never cured 28 Chơi xuân kẻo hết xuân đi You are only young once Có công mài sắt có ngày Nothing is impossible to a willing 29 nên kim heart/where there‟s a will, there‟s a way Cóc chết ba năm quay đầu 30 East or west, home is the best về núi 31 Dăm bữa nửa tháng To spend from five days to a fortnight Đầu năm mua muối, cuối Do things which people believe to bring 32 năm mua vôi about the luck 33 Để quá khứ trôi vào dĩ vãng Let bygones be bygones The problem which is not solved quickly 34 Đêm dài lắm mộng which be much more difficult You can‟t always be lucky/the pot goes too 35 Đi đêm lắm có ngày gặp ma often to the well but is broken at last 36 Đi trước về sau To start earlier but finish later Giàu chiều hôm, khó sớm Everything can be changed quickly without 37 mai expectation 38 Giữa ban ngày ban mặt In broad daylight 39 Hoa có thời gái có thì Everything is good in its season 51
63. 40 Khôn ba năm dại một giờ Penny wise and pound foolish Kiếm củi ba năm thiêu một 41 A year care, a minute ruin giờ Kiến tha lâu cũng có ngày Many a little makes a micelle/little and 42 đầy tổ often fill the purse 43 Lâu ngày dày kén Patience in time, the grass becomes milk With time and patience, the leaf of the 44 Lâu ngày lá dâu thành lụa mulberry becomes satin 45 Lấy đêm làm ngày Turn night into day 46 Len lén như chuột ngày To act in a stealthy manner 47 Len lén như rắn mùng năm To act in a stealthy manner Lửa gần rơm lâu ngày cũng Straw near fire will catch sooner or 48 bén later/first make friend, then make love 49 Mơ giữa ban ngày Daydream 50 Mỗi giây dài tựa thiên thu Every minute seem like a thousand 51 Mỗi thời, mỗi cách Other time, other manners 52 Mong đêm mong ngày Wait for long 53 Một sớm một chiều Short time 54 Mùa đông tháng giá Cold winters Mùa hạ buôn bông, mùa Work ineffectively and surely get the 55 đông buôn quạt failure 56 Mưa lâu thấm đất Small rain lays great dust 57 Năm cùng tháng tận End of the year 58 Năm ngày ba tật Person with many shortcomings 59 Năm thì mười họa Once in a blue moon 60 Năm xung tháng hạn Bad time for everything Always wait and look forward to 61 Nay đợi mai trông something/someone 62 Nay gánh mai đội Work busily and hard 63 Ngày ba tháng tám Some day 64 Ngày rộng tháng dài Have all the time in the world 65 Ngủ ngày cày đêm Sleep by day and work by night 66 Nói trước bước không qua Do not count your chicken before they are 52
64. hatched/do not boast until you see the enemy dead 67 Nói trước quên sau Have a memory/mind like a sieve 68 Rõ như ban ngày As clear as the day Sáng rửa cưa, trưa mài đục, 69 To dawdle in one‟s job tối giục nhau về 70 Sớm đào tối mận Be flirtatious Sớm một ngày hay một 71 Better early than late chước A flow will have an ebb/there is a crook in 72 Sông có khúc, người có lúc the lot of everyone. An old fox not easily snared/ With age 73 Sống lâu lên lão làng comes wisdom 74 Sống nay chết mai One cannot predict the future Tháng ba đau máu, tháng 75 Be unhealthy sáu đau lưng Wait and look forward to 76 Tháng đợi năm chờ someone/something for long time Thời gian chữa lành mọi vết 77 Time is the great healer thương 78 Thời gian có chờ đợi ai Time and tide waits for no man Thua keo trước được keo 79 Better luck next time sau Judge not of man and things at first 80 Thức đêm mới biết đêm dài sight/you never know anyone till you‟ve eaten a peck of salt with him. 81 Thức khuya dậy sớm Work hard 82 Tối như đêm ba mươi It is pitch-dark/As dark as midnight Better early than late/ he who sleeps 83 Trâu chậm uống nước đục catches no fish Trước có vụng rồi sau mới 84 It is the first step that is troublesome khéo 85 Trước sau như một Always the same 53
65. Ủ rũ như diều hâu tháng 86 Be unhappy chạp Việc hôm nay chớ để ngày Never put off till tomorrow what you can 87 mai do today/there is no time like the present 88 Xuân bất tái lai One‟s spring time never returns 89 Xuân thu nhị kỳ The ordinary thing which happens as usual 90 Yên giấc ngàn thu Be dead and buried 54
66. REFERENCES 1. Hoang Van Hanh (2002) - Ke Chuyen Thanh Ngu, Tuc Ngu, Khoa hoc xa hoi Publisher, Hanoi. 2. Jack Richards & Richard W. Schmidt (2011) - Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, Longman Publisher, London. 3. Jenifer Seidl and W.Mc Mordie (1978) - English Idiom and How to Use, Oxford University Press, New York. 4. Le Thi Thanh Tra (2010) - A Study on English Food-Related Idioms and Proverbs and Equivalents in Vietnamese, Hai Phong Private University, Hai Phong 5. Makkai (1972) - Idiom structure in English, Mouton publisher, Berlin 6. Ngo Thi Nho (2012) - An investigation into Idioms containing words denoting kitchen utensils in English and Vietnamese, Da Nang Foreign Language University, Da Nang. 7. Nguyen Lan (1989) –Từ điển thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam, Van Hoa Publisher, Hanoi, 8. Nguyen Luc, Luong Van Dang (1978)- Thành ngữ Tiếng Việt, Khoa hoc xa hoi Publisher, Hanoi. 9. Pham Vu Lua Ha (1996) - Mastering English Idioms - Học anh văn bằng thành ngữ, Tre Publisher, Ho Chi Minh. 10. Seidl & Mordie(1992) - Oxford Pocket English Idioms, Oxford University Press, New York. 11. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time 12. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clause 13. 14. www.wordnik.com/words/clause 55