VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VI HUYỀN MINH A comparative study of idiomatic expressions
containing the word ‘eye’ in English and
Vietnamese equivalents

So sánh đối chiếu những thành ngữ có chứa từ ‘Mắt’ trong
tiếng Anh với những thành ngữ tương đương trong tiếng Việt

M.A. MINOR THESIS
FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTIC
CODE: 60 22 15 HA NOI - 2010
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TABLE OF CONTENT ………………………………………………………………

INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………
1. Rationale …………………………………………………………………………
2. Aims of the study …………………………………………………………………
3. Scopes of the study …………………………………………………………………
4. Methods of the study ……………………………………………………………….
5. Design of the study …………………………………………………………………

DEVELOPMENT …………………………………………………………………
CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND …………………………………….
1.1. Definition of Idioms ……………………………………………………………
1.2. Some Features of Idioms …………………………………………………………
1.3 Types of idioms ………………………………………………………………………
1.4 The relationship between idioms and culture ……………………………………
1.5 The differences between idioms and proverbs ……………………………………
CHAPTER TWO: “EYE” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE …………………………….
2.1 Literal and figurative meanings of the word “eye” in English and Vietnamese ….
2.2. Idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ ………………………………
CHAPTER THREE: IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING THE WORD „EYE‟ IN ENGLISH
AND VIETNAMESE …………………………………………………………
3.1 Idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in English ……………………
3.1.1 Expressing good points ……………………………………………………
3.1.1.1 Positive looks ………………………………………………………….

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3.1.3.2 Describing people ……………………………………………………
3.1.3.2 Describing views and appearance ……………………………………
3.2 Idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in Vietnamese …………………
3.2.1 Expressing good points ……………………………………………………
3.2.1.1 Positive looks ………………………………………………………….
3.2.1.2 Describing people and their abilities …………………………………
3.2.1.3 Describing appearance ………………………………………………
3.2.2 Expressing bad points ……………………………………………………….
3.2.2.1 Negative looks …………………………………………………………
3.2.2.2 Describing people and their negative actions ………………………….
3.2.2.3 Describing appearance ………………………………………………
3.2.3 Expressing neutral points …………………………………………………….
3.3 A comparative analysis between idiomatic expressions containing the word “eye” in
English and Vietnamese equivalents ……………………………………….
CHAPTER FOUR: IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSLATION AND LANGUAGE TEACHING
4.1 Implications for English language teaching to Vietnamese learners …………….
4.2 Implications for English – Vietnamese translation and vice versa. ………………

CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………………
REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………
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In learning English today, besides the emphasis on four skills: reading, writing, speaking and
listening, vocabulary also plays an important role. More and more translators and
communicators admit that to master English, vocabulary should be paid much attention to.
Words, however, do not just come individually, they also come in expressions - in groups.
Idioms are among the most common of these expressions. There are thousands of them in
English:
I could eat a horse.
His eyes are bigger than his stomach
It's not up to scratch.
I got there in the nick of time.
Idioms are considered an interesting area of English, which make English more attractive and
colourful. And nobody can deny that idioms are really important in communication.
Firstly, idioms are important because they are very common. It is impossible to speak, read, or
listen to English without meeting idiomatic language. This is not something you can leave until
you reach an advanced level.
Secondly, language is literal and metaphorical. In communication, however, the metaphorical
use of a word is more common today than its literal use. For example, we know that catch a
ball is an example of the literal use of catch, nevertheless, catch is more used in a metaphorical
way: you can catch the bus; you can catch my attention; you can also catch the sun; or you can

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catch what I said. If we just learn the literal meaning of the word catch, we cannot use it in a
variety of communicative situations.
Finally, idioms are important because it is fun to learn and to use. Because there is so much to
learn, anything which helps you to remember things is important and if the language you are
learning is more colorful and interesting, there is more chance that you will remember it. You
will also sound more natural if your English contains more idioms.( Wright 1999:9)

Being interested in idioms, I choose idioms as my thesis topic. Due to the limited time and
knowledge, I have conducted the study on a very small part of the huge idiomatic treasure, “A

expressions containing the word „eye‟.

4. Methods of the study
Here are two languages namely English and Vietnamese are compared and contrasted. In the
contrastive analysis, English is treated as the instrumental language and Vietnamese is the
target language. Hence, idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in English collected
will be mentioned and analyzed first and then they will be compared and contrasted with
Vietnamese to find the similarities and differences between the two languages. The steps of the
study are order as follows:
• Collect English and Vietnamese idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ from
several dictionaries and from the Internet, and then sort them out.
• Analyze the cultural features of idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in both
English and Vietnamese.
• Compare and find the differences and similarities between English and Vietnamese
idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟

5. Design of the study
The study consists of three parts. The first part „INTRODUCTION‟ provides the rationale,
aims, scopes, method and design of the study.
Part II is DEVELOPMENT, the body of the thesis, including three chapters.

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Chapter 1 is concerned with the theoretical background for the study. It consists of definitions
of idioms, some features and some types of idioms, the relationship between idioms and
culture, and the differences between idioms and proverbs.
Chapter 2 is designed to present the literal and figurative meanings of the word „eye‟ in
English and Vietnamese and give the general introduction about idiomatic expressions
containing the word „eye‟.
Chapter 3 which is the main focus of the thesis gives us a comparative analysis of idiomatic
expressions containing the word „eye‟ in English and Vietnamese equivalents to find out the


CHAPTER ONE

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1. Definition of Idioms
Knowing a language includes knowing the morphemes, simple words, compound words, and
their meanings. In addition it means knowing fixed phrases, consisting of more than one word,
with meanings that cannot be inferred from the meanings of the individual words. The usual
semantic rules for combining meanings do not apply. Such expressions are called
idioms.(Fromkin & Rodman 1998:189).

According to McCarthy (2002: 6), idioms are expressions which have a meaning that is not
obvious from the individual words. For example, the idiom drive somebody round the
bend means make somebody angry or frustrated, but we cannot know this just by looking at
the words. The best way to understand an idiom is to see it in context. If someone says:
„This tin opener's driving me round the bend!‟ I think I'll throw it away and get a new one
next time I'm in town. Then the context and common sense tells us that drive round the
bend means something different from driving a car round a curve in the road. The context
tells us the tin opener is not working properly and that it's having an effect on the person
using it.
Another definition is taken from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idioms):
“An idiom is a phrase whose meaning cannot be determined by the literal definition of the
phrase itself, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through common

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use.” In linguistics, idioms are widely assumed to be figures of speech that contradict the
principle of compositionality; however, this has shown to be a subject of debate.
John Saeed (2003: 60) defines an idiom as words collocated together happen to become
fossilized, becoming fixed over time.This collocation words commonly used in a group -

idioms.
According to Wright, J (1999), an idiom has the following features:
1. It is fixed and is recognised by native speakers. You cannot make up your own!
2. It uses language in a non-literal - metaphorical way.

Idioms are similar in structure to ordinary phrases except that they tend to be frozen in form
and do not readily enter into other combinations or allow the word order to change. Thus.
(a) She put her foot in her mouth
has the same structure as
(b) She put her bracelet in her drawer
but
The drawer in which she put her bracelet was hers
Her bracelet was put in her drawer
are sentences related to sentence (b).
The mouth in which she put her foot was hers
Her foot was put in her mouth
do not have the idiomatic sense of sentence (a).
On the other hand, the words of some idioms can be moved without affecting the idiomatic
sense:
The FBI kept tabs on radicals.
Tabs were kept on radicals by the FBI.
Radicals were kept tabs on by the FBI.
Idioms can break the rules on combining semantic properties. The object of eat must usually
be something with the semantic property "edible," but in
He ate his hat

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Eat your heart out
this restriction is violated.
Idioms often lead to humor:

+ word)
cool, calm and collected
relaxed, in control, not nervous
whole clause or sentence
to cut a long story short
to tell the main points, but not all
the fine details

In terms of semantics, Fernado, C. (1996: 36) divides idioms into three types: pure idioms,
semi-idioms, and literal idioms.

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A pure idiom is known as 'a type of conventionalized, non-literal multiword expression'. Spill
the beans, for example, has nothing to do with beans. In contrast to its literal counterpart
meaning 'letting fall leguminous seeds', a non-literal meaning is imposed on the idiom as a
whole: 'commit an indiscretion'.
A semi-idiom has one or more literal constituents and at least one with a non-literal subsense,
usually special to that co-occurrence relation and no other: drop has the meaning 'overuse'
only when it co-occurs with names. Other examples are catch one's breath 'check', foot the bill
'pay', etc. Some of these semi-idioms, like their kin, restricted collocations with specialized
subsenses, permit lexical variation, for example, blue 'obscene' film/joke/gag/story/comedian.
Literal idioms (on foot, tall, dark and handsome, waste not, want not, on the contrary, a (very)
happy birthday, a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, etc.) meet the salient criterion for
idioms: invariance or restricted variation. They are, however, less semantically complex then
pure and semi-idioms.

1.4 The relationship between idioms and culture

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.

significant and promising. (http://www.lwck.cn/Article/yingyu/yuyan/200814/2324.Html) 1.5 The differences between idioms and proverbs
It is not easy to distinguish idioms and proverbs since they have some in common and until now
there have been no clear-cut borders between them. However, here we venture to give some
following differences between them.
.

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According to the Free Dictionary (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Proverbs), a proverb is a
short pithy saying in frequent and widespread use that expresses a basic truth or practical
precept.
Xa mặt cách lòng. (Out of sight, out of mind)
Walls have ears
Meanwhile, as we know above, an idiom is a phrase whose meaning cannot be determined by
the literal definition of the phrase itself, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is
known only through common use.( Wikipedia)
Eye for an eye
Rán sành ra mỡ (= be very mean)
Despite of the very clear definitions, it is still confusing. Consequently, basing on the opinion
of Nguyễn Đình Hùng (1999), Tuyển Tập Thành Ngữ. Tục Ngữ Ca Dao Việt – Anh thông dụng,
we mention some of the following features:
 A proverb is a complete sentence with a whole meaning making comments on social
relationships, imparting experience of life, giving lessons in morality or criticizing.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
An idiom is a fixed phrase but not a complete sentence, so it is considered as a word
and that‟s why you can put it in a sentence.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
 Both proverbs and idioms reflect people‟s knowledge about things and natural

shows three meanings of „eye‟. The first meaning shows that „eye‟ is an organ of sight.
She closed her eyes.
He lost an eye in the war.
From the second meaning, „eye‟ is used to denote the power of seeing; observation.
She has sharp eyes. (ie very good eyesight)
„Eye‟ in the third meaning is also described a thing like an eye.
The eye of a needle (ie the hole for the thread) According to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye), Eyes are organs that
detect light, and send electrical impulses along the optic
nerve to the visual and other areas of the brain.

Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (1995:428)

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In the semantic evolution, a number of meanings have been derived from the primary one of
„eye‟. From the primary meaning that denotes an organ of sight of human body, „eye‟ is
used to refer to the corresponding organ of an animal or a certain part of an object
which seems to have an ability of seeing things in the way that an eye does.
The little monkey looked around and winked his eye
The events of the war took place under the eye of a television camera
Also, „eye‟ denotes different smaller parts of the eye such as the eyeball, the iris or the area
around the eye including the eyelids.
She has brown eyes


to the eye-shape spots on the tail of the peacock.
E.g English: Eye of the peacock‟s tail.

Moreover, the word „eye‟ is also used to denote the eye-shape piece of metal used together
with a hook for fastening clothes.
E.g English: Hook and eye of the dress.

There is a very interesting thing when English people use the word „eye‟ metaphorically
basing on its function. When we open our eyes and see, the world around us is bright and
clear. Similarly, when the sun rises and opens on the day, the world is also bright. So English
people calls the sun “the eye of the day” in a figurative meaning. In addition, as our eyes
function as organs of sight used to see or to observe, English people also call the private spy,
who has function of observing others secretly to get information, the private eye. However,
Vietnamese does not share these interesting features with English.

Those are just some of typical differences in meaning between „eye‟ and „mắt‟. Within the
scope limit of the thesis, we cannot list out all of their differences.

2.2. Idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟

There is a very interesting thing that eyes are the basis of a large number of idioms. And they
are widely used in daily communication and written texts.

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I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw her. She was so beautiful, I just couldn't keep my
eyes off her. I tried to catch her eye to say hello.
[couldn't believe my eyes =. couldn‟t believe what I was seeing;
keep my eyes off = couldn‟t stop looking at her;
catch her eye = get her attention; make her look at me]

CHAPTER THREE Idiomatic expressions containing the word ‘eye’
IN English and Vietnamese

First of all, we would like to repeat that the eyes are the basis of a large number of idioms.
Both English and Vietnamese people consider the eyes as an important organ of human body.
They both agree that "The eyes are the windows of the soul". Precisely, the eyes reveal
emotion, mood and characters of people. From that point, people use them in many idiomatic
expressions. However, English and Vietnamese people use them in their own way. In this
chapter, a comparative analysis of idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in English
and Vietnamese equivalents will be given to find out the differences and similarities between
them. But before that, we would like to present some of those in both English and Vietnamese.

3.1 Idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in English
3.1.1 Expressing good points
There are many idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in English expressing good
points.
3.1.1.1 Positive looks
- The English often use the verb phrase „keep an eye ‟ to describe a careful look:
 Keep an eye on
 Idiomatic meaning: Make sure that somebody or something is safe, look after
somebody or something
 E.g: Keep an eye on the stove in case the coffee boils.

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- With the same phrase they sometimes use a kind of eye (jealous eye, sharp eye,…)
to express the degree of that kind of look.
E.g Billy keeps a jealous eye on his toys.

verb phrase have an eye for implies someone who has ability to appreciate distinctions in; is
discerning or perceptive about.
 have an eye for
 Idiomatic meaning: Be sharp-eyed, perceptive about.
 E.g She has an eye for color and style in clothes.
Or He has an eye for good English usage.
- When someone is very observant and notice everything happening around him,
people often use the idiom:
 Have eyes in the back of one‟s head
 Idiomatic meaning: observe everything (without seeming to do so)
 E.g. How did you know I was behind you? You must have eyes in the back of
your head.
- You are difficult to do something with your eyes shut. So to say someone who can do
something easily, there is an English idiom:
 With one‟s eyes shut
 Idiomatic meaning: with great ease, as a result of thorough familiarity.
 E.g He’s cooked that meal so often he can do it with his eyes shut.
Or I could drive home with my eyes shut.
3.1.1.3 Describing appearances
- From the point that views or sights are seen or watched by eyes, the English like to
use the word „eye‟ in idioms to describe good views.
 Eye – filling
 Idiomatic meaning: attractive to the eye; providing an eyeful.
 The mountain in the distance was an eye-filling sight.
- When people want to talk about something that you are glad to see, they often use:
 Sight for sore eyes

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 Idiomatic meaning: a welcome sight, a pleasant surprise
 E.g. After our many days in the desert, the wretched village was a sight for

people often use the noun phrase:
 Bedroom eyes
 Idiomatic meaning: Have a sexy look in their eyes
 E.g. The stripper greeted me with bedroom eyes when I was handing her my
money
- To mention people‟s bad actions, the English also use the word „eye‟ in their idioms.
To talk about an action when someone prevents other people from seeing the truth by
misleading him, the following idiom is used:
 Throw dust in somebody‟s eyes
 Idiomatic meaning: Mislead someone
 E.g. The governor’s press aide threw dust in their eyes, talking about a flight
at the airport when he was heading for the highway.
- Wool is a kind of cloth having holes in it that you can easily see everything through
it. So to say someone who tries to hide his real action or intention from others, who know it
well, people often use the idiom:
 Pull the wool over somebody‟s eye
 E.g. Bob tried to pull the wool over his teacher‟s eyes, but she was too smart to
him.
Or It’s no use to pull the wool over my eyes – I know exactly what’s going on.
3.1.3 Expressing neutral points
3.1.3.1 Neutral looks
There are many idioms containing the word „eye‟ expressing neutral looks. They don‟t
reflect the attitude of the person taking those looks. And that kind of looks are neither good
nor bad.
- To express a very quick, superficial look, there is an English idiom containing the
word „eye‟:
 Cast an eye over

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 Idiomatic meaning: to look at something quickly without looking at the details.