1

(Phân tích đối chiếu các câu tục ngữ, thành ngữ liên quan đến các động vật
trong tiếng Anh và cách biểu đạt tương đương trong tiếng Việt) M.A. Minor Programme Thesis
Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15 HANOI - 2011

2 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
HÁN VĂN MAI

1. Rationale 1
2. Aims of the study 3
3. Scope of the study 3
4. Methodology 3
5. Design of the study 4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1 : THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1 Relationship between language and culture 5
1.2 Literal meanings and idiomatic meanings 7
1.2.1 Literal meaning 7
1.2.2 Idiomatic meaning 7
1.2.2.1 Definitions of idiom 7
1.2.2.2 Some features of idiom 10
1.2.2.3 Types of Idiom 12
1.3 Proverb in relation to idiom 13
1.3.1 Definitions of proverb 13
1.3.2 Proverb versus Idiom 13
v
CHAPTER 2
SOME FEATURES OF ENGLISH –VIETNAMESE PROVERB AND IDIOM
2.1 Proverb and Idiom relation to Language and Culture 15
2.2 Comparison between English and Vietnamese proverbs and 16
idioms viewed from cultural identities .
2.2.1 Based on principles of cultural types 16

English and Vietnamese are two different languages, that is, each of them embodies in
itself the cultural factors which characterize one culture from the others.
Therefore, it is unquestionable that to learn a foreign language also means to gain
benefits from its great stock of proverbs and idioms in which most cultural values are
reflected. However, most Vietnamese learners are taught English mainly with the knowledge
of language, not culturally appropriate factors embedded in the teaching language. They speak
English without the understanding of English communication manner. They write English
with little knowledge of English cultural background. Consequently, it causes
misunderstanding or even communicative breakdown. Clearly, without cultural
appropriateness, learning English in general and learning English proverbs and idioms in
particular seem to be a challenging process. It is really a risky road for learners to understand
and translate English proverbs and idioms into Vietnamese.
Each nation‟s language has its own similar and different concepts on many fields of
life such as humane values, ways of thinking, behavior standards, religious beliefs, customs
and traditions, social convention, etc. Words and expressions including idioms and proverbs
have formed the vocabulary system of a language. Idioms and proverbs are regarded as
special factors of a language‟s vocabulary system because they reflect cultural specific
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characteristics of each nation, including material and spiritual values. Therefore, many
researchers have long shown their concerns for idioms and proverbs.
Idioms and proverbs are used to express ideas in figurative styles. They bring the
vividness and richness to the speakers‟ speeches. This is the reason why the more skillfully a
person use idioms and proverbs in his conversations, the more effectively he can establish his
communicative relationship. One more important thing is that the general present tendencies
are towards proverbial and idiomatic usage; therefore, knowing how to use idioms and
proverbs effectively in the right situations is becoming essential. Moreover, the most
distinguished advantage of idioms and proverbs is that they do provide users with a whole new
way of expressing concepts linguistically. It can be said that idioms and proverbs are the color
and vitality of a language.
We all know that language is the most important means of communication in the

3. Scope of the study
- Proverbs and idioms are large parts in both English and Vietnamese; thus it is
impossible for the author to carry out a comprehensive study on them; thus, he just focuses on
some proverbs and idioms relating to animals.
- In this study, the cross-cultural differences view from customs, religion are
extensively discussed; English idioms denoting human characteristics through the images of
animals are compared with Vietnamese ones.
- All English and Vietnamese proverbs and idioms are collected from dictionaries;
hence, this research may not cover all proverbs and idioms relating to animals, just those of
common use

4. Methodology
To achieve these aims, the author has discussed with supervisor, teachers, friends and
consulted many dictionaries and books of languages, idioms, proverbs, metaphor , magazines,
newspapers, etc. in both English and Vietnamese in which whatever relating to idiomatic and
proverbial expression containing „animals‟ is taken into consideration. Then a comparative
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analysis is designed to point out the similarities and differences between English proverbs and
idioms relating to animals and Vietnamese ones.

5. Design of the study
The study consists of three parts. The first part “Introduction” outlines the
background of the study. In this part, a brief account of relevant information is
provided such as rationale, aims, scopes, methods, and design of the study.
The main part of the study comprises three chapters. Chapter one, as implied by
the title „ theoretical background‟ for the study. It consists of relationship between
language and culture, the literal meanings and idiomatic meanings,
proverbs in relation to idioms. Chapter two is concerned with “Comparison of
cultural features between English-Vietnamese proverbs and idioms” , whereas
chapter three deals with “A contrastive analysis of Vietnamese proverbs and idioms

It is shown that the word „culture‟ is used frequently in our daily life but „culture‟ is not
easily defined, nor is there a consensus among scholars, philosophers and politicians (nor,
probably, among a rest of us) as to what exactly the concept should include. Despite a century
of efforts to define culture adequately, there was in the early 1990‟s no agreement among
anthropologists regarding its nature.
Another common way of understanding culture is seeing it as consisting of three
elements: values, norms, artifacts. Values comprise ideas about what in life seems important.
They guide the rest of the culture. Norms consist of expectations of how people will behave in
different situations. Each culture has different methods, called sanctions, of enforcing its
norms. Sanctions vary with the importance of the norm; norms that a society enforces formally
have the status of laws. Artifacts-things or material culture-derive from the culture‟s values
and norms.
Culture, in this study, like in Nguyen Quang (1998:3), is not “high culture” (traditionally
the milieu of arts, music or sciences and so on) but “refers to the informal and often hidden
patterns of human interactions, expressions, and viewpoints that people in one culture share”.
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“No culture is good or bad, just different!”. And there is a famous quote of Mahatma
Gandhi “No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive”. Nguyen Quang (1998:3) also
emphasizes “it is best not to overemphasize either culture differences or cultural similarities.
Those who says, “We are all alike; we‟re all human” deny the shape and flavor that cultures
contributes to individual development. Those who say, “We‟re so different that we must stay
separate” create harmful barriers by closing their eyes to what is common to every human
being” .
Culture does not belong to any single person but to all people. Nguyen Quang in
“Intercultural Communication” (1998:3) describes “culture‟ as “ a share background (for
example, national, ethnic, religious) resulting from a common language and communication
style, customs, beliefs, attitudes, and values”.
What we can derive from these points of view is that the language of a community is a part
or a manifestation of its culture as Goodenogh‟s word “ the relationship of language to culture
is that of part to whole”. Language and communication modality (verbal, gesture, written) are

both the literal and idiomatic meanings. In the study, the author does not focus on the literal
meanings of all the idiomatic expressions containing the words relating to „animals‟ but ones
of the words relating to „animals‟, which are, somehow, related to the idiomatic meanings of
the idiomatic expressions containing the words relating to „animals‟.
1.2.2 Idiomatic meaning
1.2.2.1 Definitions of idiom

English idiom
In Cambridge International Dictionary of idioms, idiom is defined as a colorful and
interesting aspect of English. They are used generally in all types of language, informal and
formal, spoken and written.
Idiom regularly has a stronger meaning than non-idiomatic phrases. For instance, “look
daggers at someone” has more highlighting meaning than look angrily at someone, although
they signify the similar thing.
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Idiom may also imply a particular attitude of the person using them, for example,
disapproval, humor, irritation or admiration.
Words do not just come individually; they also come in expressions – in-group. Idioms
are among the most common of these expressions (Wright, 2002).
Idioms itself have grammar. Some idiomatic expressions are fixed and cannot be changed
such as :
Two head are better than one.
(Ba anh thợ gia bằng Gia Cát Lượng)
However, in most cases, we can change the tense and the pronoun such as I am/She is/We
are all at sixes and sevens.
According to Wright, idiom is an expression with following features. Firstly, idiom
is fixed and is recognized by native speakers. We cannot make up our own idioms. The
second feature is that idiom uses language in a non-literal-metaphor-way. Take these idioms
as examples.
Tin is up to his eyes in work now

lesson about ethnics or critics.
Most of idioms are formed from incomplete meaning words; they cannot stand alone
but in a sentence. Vietnamese idioms are often used in proverbs, folk songs, or literature
works. That makes idioms meaningful only when they are in sentences. Take this as an
example, “công dã tràng”, at least, it has to be in sentence: “đúng là công dã tràng” or
“chuyện anh làm chỉ là công dã tràng”. Instead of expressing an idea literally, people tend
to use idiom to make their speech more beautifully or funnier. For example, to express the
idea of a person who sometimes works, sometime does not, we use this idiom “hắn ta đi làm
bữa đực bữa cái”.
Idioms use brief expressions based on stories, folk tales, or classic references,
which happened a long time ago. Now we encounter similar situation, thus by hearing those
idioms, the listener knows exactly what the speaker means. Many Vietnamese idioms are
borrowed from Chinese idioms; however, Vietnamese cleverly transformed those Chinese
idioms into Vietnamese way of talking. For example, “huynh đệ thủ túc”, in Vietnamese,
we have this equivalence “anh em như thể tay chân”.

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1.2.2.2 Some features of idiom
It is asserted that language follows rules. If it did not, its users would not be able to
make sense of the random utterances they read or heard and they would not be able to
communicate meaningfully themselves. Idiom, however, breaks the normal rules. The word
„idiom‟ comes from the Greek „idiot‟, „one‟s own, peculiar, strange‟. Hence, idiom is
considered anomalies of language, mavericks of the linguistic world; and most of the linguists
when studying features of idiom have focused on these animalities of idiom. Idiom may be
characterized by several features; but they may be summarized under two main headings:
semantic and syntactic peculiarities.
In terms of semantic peculiarities, Jackson and Amvela (2000:67) indicate that idiom
has “ambiguity”, it means that idiom may have either a literal or an idiomatic meaning. For
example,
If someone “beats a dead horse”, they may in fact be in the process of striking the

forward to meeting you”, “look” can not be replaced by “see” or “watch”. Hence, “we
see/watch forward to meeting you” is not idiomatic. Similarly, in “wash one‟s dirty linen in
public”, „linen‟ can not be replaced by „socks‟, neither can „thought‟ be replaced by „idea‟ in
„have second thoughts‟ .
 Idiom also resists re-ordering of its parts. We consider “ John kicked the bucket”. In
the literal sense, this expression has a passive variant, “ The bucket was kicked by
John” . But in its idiomatic use, i.e. when “kicked the bucket” means “died”, the
expression does not allow the use of the corresponding passive alternative. Other
changes of the order of the words like in “The short and the long of it” (The long and
the short) or in “What Peter pulled was his sister‟s leg” (What Peter did was pull his
sister‟s leg) are impossible.
 Additions and deletions are also not normally permitted within idiom. Thus, we can‟t
say “To pull someone‟s left leg” and “To kick the large bucket” , they have no normal
idiomatic interpretation because of the addition of „left‟ and „large‟ , whereas „straight
from horse‟s mouth‟ and „turn a new leaf‟ are both unacceptable because „the‟ and
„over‟ have been omitted.
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Such constraints make idiom fixed or invariant and separate them from non-idiom. Cruse
(1986:38) recognizes another feature of idiom which shows its status as phrases in a way that
“if idiom may be inflected, the inflectional affixes are carried by the grammatically
appropriate elements within the idiom, whether or not they are semantic constituents; that is to
say, the elements of idiom retain at least some of their grammatical identity:
“ John has a bee in his bonnet about many things” (John luôn bận tâm về mọi thứ)
(*John has bees-in-his bonnets about many things)”; this expression is wrong because the
grammatical appropriate elements “ have a bee in one‟s about something” is invariant, it
does not permit pluralization.
1.2.2.3 Types of Idiom
Fernando (1996:35-36) states that idiom can be divided into three sub-classes: pure idiom,
semi-idiom, and literal idiom.
A pure idiom is “a type of conventionalized, non-literal multiword expression”; that is

According to Hornby (1995), in his Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary, proverb is
defined as “a short well-known sentence or phrase that states a general truth about life or
giving advice, ex. Better safe than sorry or Don‟t put all your eggs in one basket”. More
particularly, Vu Ngoc Phan (2000:39) considered proverb as “a complete saying expressing
one idea of comment, experience, morality, justice or criticism”.
It is easy to find that idiom and proverb have much in common and it comes as no
surprise that they are traditionally studied together. The first one is that both idiom and
proverb are ready –made. They are products of human‟s thought, cultures and processes of
hard working and learning. They are mainly orally handed down from generation to generation
and naturally accepted in daily life. Secondly, both idiom and proverb are set-expressions with
stable and components are not substituted . Therefore, their meanings can not be deduced from
individual words but must be understood as a whole. It means that any substitutions in any
components of idiom or proverb may result in unacceptable changes in the meaning of whole
group, which make them nonsensical in metaphorical meaning. Apart from this, most idiom
and proverb use language in metaphorical way. We cannot usually discover their meanings by
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looking up the individual words in a dictionary; their meanings must be understood
metaphorically.
Beside those similarities, both of them still own typical features that distinguish one
from the other. The first and most obvious difference lies in their grammatical structures.
Idiom is a phrase which is a part of sentence; thus, it is equivalent to words only.
Proverb is a complete sentence or a phrase expressing the whole idea. Moreover, idiom
and proverb are also different in terms of their functions. Proverb is a short well-known
sentence or phrase that expresses a judgment, state a general truth about life or advice; it is
told to contain three main literature functions which are perceptive function, aesthetic
function, and educational function. For example, the proverb „Money makes the mare go‟
demonstrates a remark as well as a criticism about the negative side of money. Its perceptive
function is to make people aware of the bad effect of money which can become the power
dominating the society, even the most inanimate things. The educational function is to criticize
the negative side of money and urge to be aware of that ill effect. And its aesthetic function is

people in society.
Language reflects thought. Language has obvious effect on thought, as clearly shown
in vocabulary system and structure of language. „Culture is really an integral part of the
interaction between language and thought. Cultural patterns, custom and ways of life are
expressed in language; cultural specific world views are reflected in language‟ (Brown, 1986,
p45).
Language, thought or culture are not all the same thing, but none can survive without
the others. Proverb and idiom not only belong to a language but also reflect much of its
culture. In other words, they are considered to be a mirror reflecting social-cultural traditions
in the most reliable ways. For all these things above, we can conclude that there is a close
relation between language, culture and proverb and idiom. Both proverb and idiom reflect
values, beliefs across culture. 16
2.2 Comparison between English and Vietnamese proverbs and idioms viewed from
cultural identities .
2.2.1 Based on principles of cultural types
Southeast Asia in general and Vietnam in particular are considered some of the earliest
agricultural centers of mankind. Vietnamese people live on land .Vietnam soil has thick strata
and high fertility which provides very favorable conditions for the development of agriculture
and forestry. Vietnamese people‟s lives are closely linked with agriculture, or to be more
exact, with the cultivation of water rice and other plants, not only weather but some cattle are
also familiar with Vietnamese people. Cow and buffalo are the most common animals to
Vietnamese peasants because they bring about meat and milk and, to some extent, means of
transportation. Therefore, these two appear repeatedly in proverb and idiom. Buffalo is
considered as the biggest property of a peasant family:
“Con trâu là đầu cơ nghiệp”
(A buffalo is the most precious property of a peasant).
It is also the symbol of the water rice culture as the sentence:

in Vietnamese idiom as in :
“Làm ruộng phải có trâu, làm giàu phải có vợ”
(buffalo is important to agriculture like women role in one‟s family).
Even the way a man chooses his life-partner is also likened to that of a person when he
choose his buffalo:

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“Mua trâu xem vó, lấy vợ xem nòi”
(Know the breed, know the dog)
(when buying a buffalo, take close look at its legs, when choosing wife, take her family race
into consideration).
In conclusion, cow, buffalo are closely linked with Vietnamese lives, with water rice
culture.
Different from that of Vietnam, with dry and cold climate, England has a greater
proportion grassland than any other countries. And most of which is more suitable for
breeding, especially sheep farming than for rice growing. We can say that England economy
in the past depended much on sheep breeding for getting wool, milk and meat. So sheep can
be considered as the most popular cattle to the English. The image of sheep appears much in
proverb and idiom, however, the English attitudes toward this kind of animal are various.
Lamb is not the animal of high respect.
For English people, lamb is a mild animal as in :
“As mild as a lamb”
(Hiền như một chú cừu non) .
And because lamb is so mild, so naïve and a little fool, it often revokes in people‟s hearts
the feeling of pity as :
“Like a lamb to the slaughter”
(Như cừu non đến lò mổ)
This idiom is used to describe the situation when you go somewhere dangerous without
any protection probably because you do not realize that you are in danger. Its meaning can be
illustrated clearly in following sentence:

Horses are also admired for their strength and big size. If someone is „as strong as a
horse‟, he is really healthy and muscular man. No other animal has such extraordinary
physical power as „wild horses‟ :
“Wild horses could not drag me to that place again”
(As strong as a wild horse could not force me to go there again).
(Khỏe như những con ngựa hoang cũng không thể kéo tôi đến đó lần nữa)
Someone who has a good appetite for meals is also compared to a horse:
“Eat like a horse” .
(Ăn như mỏ khoét)
Someone who could eat as great amount of food as a horse are in a state of extreme
hunger:
“What is for dinner? I could eat a horse!” .
However, horses are seemingly a little bit stubborn:
“You can lead a horse to the water but you can not make it drink.”
(figurative meaning: You can give somebody the opportunity to do something but you can
not force them to do it if they do not want to) .
Their images are also utilized to refer to men as in :
“He is not the right kind of ambassador for Moscow. Johnson would be much better. It is
the questions of horses for courses
(It indicates the fact that people or things should only be used for the purpose for which
they are most suitable)”
or one‟s opinion or stance as in :
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“I do not believe in changing horses in midstream” he said “Give this policy a chance
before you think of changing it”.
(“Change horses in midstream” means If people change horses in midstream, they
change plans or leaders when they are in the middle of something, even though it may be very
risky to do so)
In brief, it is the weather conditions that differentiate English and Vietnamese culture
types, that is, the former is of agricultural origin while the latter belongs to the nomadic one.