VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
 HÀ THỊ THỌ ANH IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS OF PLACES IN BRITISH
ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE AS SEEN FROM
CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

( CÁCH DIỄN ĐẠT THÀNH NGỮ VỀ NƠI CHỐN TRONG TIẾNG
ANH ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT NHÌN TỪ GÓC ĐỘ VĂN HÓA) MA MINOR THESIS
Major: English Linguistics
Code : 60 22 15 Hanoi – 2011
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES



1. Rationale 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Scope of the study 2
4. Methods of the study 3
5. Design of the study 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1.1 Culture and language 4
1.1.1 Culture and cultural values .4
1.1.2 Relation between language and culture 5
1. 1.3 Idioms and their roles in communication 6
1.2 Idioms in the light of semantics 7
1.2.1 Definition 7
1.2.2 Functions of idioms 8
1.2.3 Classification of idioms 9
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1.2.4 Sources of idioms 10
1.2.5 Features of idioms 11
1.3 Distinction of idioms 11
1.3.1 Idioms vs slang 11
1.3.2 Idioms vs proverb 12
1.3.3 Idioms vs collocation 13
1.4 Idioms in the light of culture 13
1.4.1 Idioms as seen from social specification 13
1.4.2 Idioms as seen from social psychology 17
1. 5 The influence of culture on British English and Vietnamese idiomatic expressions
of places 18
1.5.1 Influence of culture on British English idiomatic expressions of places 18
1.5.2 Influence of culture on Vietnamese idiomatic expressions of places 20

behavior standards, religious beliefs, customs and tradition, social conventions etc.
As the special form of language, idioms not only help to enrich the language and
culture, but it also reflects the social life. Thus, the ability to understand idioms is
important for the successful communication. The difficult comprehension of language in
the form of idioms is more likely to lead to communication breakdown for those from
different language communities than any other forms of verbal language. Failure to grasp
the meanings of idioms can impinge upon an individual‟s understanding of language in
social, academic and business settings. In order to enhance the success of communication,
the study of the relationship between the idioms and cultures is significant and promising.
In British and Vietnamese culture and language, idioms are of great importance for its
common use and its figurative way of expressing the ideas. The idioms benefit people in
communication thanks to the provision with the way of expressing concepts linguistically,
that is the ability to convey meanings without verboseness. It can be said that idioms bring
the color and vitality for the language and the vividness and depth for the speaker‟s speech.
Knowing how to use idioms effectively in the right situation is becoming crucial for all the
speakers of English. From the front of cultural view, it becomes easy and interesting to
come to know the meaning of the idioms because British English and Vietnamese idioms
themselves are crucial and active part of culture. They play a great role of retaining,
passing traditional culture down to the next generation, reflecting people‟s typical cultural
factors and they will continue their progressive influence on people‟s real life.
Traditionally, the study of idiomatic expressions has been associated with the study of
literature, the use of idioms is the genius of national language that helps learners know
more about the language, custom and culture of the countries all over the world. In
communication, the presence of idiomatic expressions has formed the academic manner of
speaking. The idioms of any languages makes a great contribution to the speciality of that
language and also indicates the cultural values of the language because idioms often
originated from the social life or original literature such as wars, festivals, celebrations,
movies and the Bible.
2


Ngữ Việt Nam ( Nguyễn Lân), Đi Tìm Điển Tích Thành Ngữ ( Tiêu Hà Minh), Thành Ngữ
Anh Việt ( Bùi Phụng), Tuyển Tập Thành Ngữ, Tục Ngữ, Ca dao Anh Việt Thông Dụng
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(Nguyễn Đình Hùng). The list of British English and Vietnamese idiomatic expressions
will be found in the appendix as the illustrations.
4. Methods of the study:
This is a comparative and contrastive study. Therefore, the strategic methods used
are qualitative and quantitative ones which are conducted by carefully collecting and
referring to materials from various sources to have full-blown information of idioms and
its cultural background in general. The good choice of fifty idiomatic expressions in
Vietnamese and fifty idiomatic expressions in British English will be carefully analysed
and examined to see the similarities and differences between the two cultures and
languages. The author‟s own experience in communication and cultural awareness will be
referred to as way of categorizing the field.
5. Design of the study:
The study is divided into three main parts: Part A gives a general introduction and
stated the reasons, aims and ways for carrying out the study. Part B includes two chapters,
Chapter 1 deals with the theoretical background on culture and idioms in British English
and Vietnamese. Also, the influence of the two cultures on idiomatic expressions of places
will be taken into account. Chapter 2 mainly provides a careful analysis of idiomatic
expressions of places in British English and Vietnamese concerning the similarities and
differences in the aspect of local specification. The last part, conclusion concerns with the
summaries of main points, the implication and some suggestions for further study.
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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
1.1 Culture and language
1.1.1 Culture and cultural values

sublime (www.demos.co.uk)
In conclusion, culture and cultural values, in anthropology, are the patterns of
behavior, beliefs, languages, rituals, art, religion and attitude etc that people living in social
groups have created, shared and experienced. Culture distinguishes one human group from
others and also distinguishes humans from other animals. Cultural values are generated and
exist in a culture and society as a measure for all social and cultural ativities and thus they
are considered an important determinant of a nation and society.
1.1.2 Relationship between language and culture
The relationship between language and culture has been interrelated in the sense
that language is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties. In the book
“Language and Culture” Kramsch (1998; 3) states “language is the principle means
whereby we conduct our social lives. When it is used in contexts of communication, it is
bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways.” According to the author, the
language people use in communication express facts, ideas or events and reflect the
people‟s attitude and beliefs, their point of view, which share the same cultural and social
features. Also, through language, the experience of a social community is variously created
and presented. The members of a social community make a great contribution to the
language through the medium they choose to communicate. The way in which people use
different forms of communication: written or verbal and non-verbal medium creates
meanings for the language of the community. Consequently, thanks to all the verbal and
nonverbal aspects of the language, it is found that language embodies and represents
cultural reality. In addition, language possesses cultural values and consists of a complex
system of sign through which people use language as a symbol of the social community
and culture to identify themselves in the communication. Thus, it can be said that language
expresses the cultural identity.
In general, language and culture have always been in existence together and
reinforced each other. The relationship between them is so closely linked that separation is
impossible, in other words, it is difficult to master the language without the knowledge of
the culture.
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idioms in communication help to express the speaker‟s ideas in a tactful way and have a
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great effect on the listeners who not only absorb the meaning of the words but also picture
Rome wasn‟t built in a day to themselves.
However, the frequent use of idioms in a communication may bring the feeling of
less comprehensibility because communication is the activity of conveying meaningful
information and it requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative
commonality. The communication process is complete once the listener has understood the
speaker. Naturally, when speaking the speaker always bears in mind that the message he
wants to convey to the listeners must be comprehensible and subjected to the language and
cultural community, thus all aspects must be considered and arranged properly.
To sum up, idioms are used widely in everyday conversation has shown its
popularity and influence on social life. In the communicative message, the truth value, the
request or advice are conveyed to the listeners and make the language use more flexible
and figurative. Apparently, the shared knowledge background on idioms, language and
culture between the speakers and listeners can help to maintain and enhance the
communication.
1.2 Idioms in the light of semantics
1.2.1 Definition
English and Vietnamese are both rich in literature and idiomatic expressions reflect
the cultural values brought about by the real life varieties. Idioms are not only emphasized
by the colloquial expressions but also confirm its presence in the various forms of
literature: text book, press, Bible, poetry and report etc. The following are of the most
common ones that carry the nature and typical features of idioms.
According to Seidle and Mac Mordie (1988), “an idiom is a number of words
which, taken together, meaning something different from the individual words of the idioms
when they stand alone. The way in which the words are put together is often odd, illogical or
even grammatically incorrect.” Palmer (1990) argued that idioms as consequences of words
whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meaning of the words themselves. Semantically,

message specifically: Greetings and Farewell (e.g bye for now), Directives (e.g never
mind), Agreement (e.g say no more), Rejections (e.g I wasn‟t born yesterday) etc
- Relational idioms: ensure cohesion and aid the coherence of discourse such as:
adversative (e.g on the contrary), Comparison (e.g On the one hand), Causal (so that
when), Concessive (At the same time), Addition (What is more) etc.
Other categorization of functions drawn from Moon‟s theory (1998) is:
- Informational: conveying information of different kind; e.g in the red, rub the
shoulders with
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- Evaluative: giving the speaker‟s attitude: e.g works wonders, wash one‟s hands off
something
- Situational: expressing conventions, clauses, exclamation, relating to extralingual
context; wall have ears,
- Modalizing: expressing modality, truth values, advice, request: more or less, at all,
in effect
- Organizational: organizing the text, signaling discourse structure: by the way, all in all
In general, idioms are often exploited to name objects, action or describe situations.
Idioms are fully made use of to express certain generalizations, advice, make evaluation
and emphasize. Identifying the specific uses of idioms also reveals their more general role
as conventional, familiar ways of saying: idioms are not one-offs as their recurrence in the
same type of context show.
1.2.3 Classification of idioms
Classification of idioms based on meaning:
According to Chitra Fernando (1996; 35), “idioms yield three sub-classes”: pure
idioms, semi-idioms and literal idioms.
+ Pure idioms is a type of conventionalized, non-literal multiword expression e.g;
Rome wasn‟t built in a day, Get on like a house on fires etc, have nothing to do with Rome
built or house and fire. In contrast to its literal counterpart meaning, a non- literal meaning
are imposed on the idioms as a whole “it takes time and patience and hard work to do a

social and cultural life such as farming, means of transport, science, Bible, literature,
history, leisure activities etc.
In reality, a large of idioms comes from a time when far more people worked on the
land than they do now. Many idioms related to farm work such as hay making “till the hay
comes home” or harvesting crop: You reap what you so. In the past, travelling by ship was
often the fastest means of transport and there are many idioms connected to the sea and
sailing: A drop in the ocean. As our ancestors‟ lives were dominated by the land and the
seasons, these days our lives are shaped by science and technology e.g He‟s on live wire.
Besides, leisure activities have always been a rich source of idioms, from sports: (boxing)
Out for the count or from games to entertainment such as the theatre: Behind the scenes,
Take centre stage and from cinema: It‟s a wrap. It has been admitted that many idioms
have entered English from literature and history. From the rich sources of fables and tales
The streets are paved with gold (from Alice in Wonderland- an English fairy tale). Not
only the idioms come from the English history, many come from ancient legends of Greek
and Roman: An Achilles‟ heel, Cross the Rubicon (from the life of Julius Caesar and
Alexander The Great). The famous historical figures also left their mark on the language
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for example: Napoleon with the idiom: Meet his Waterloo (the idiom originated from
Napoleon‟s battle in Waterloo in 1815). Almost all of the idioms come from the daily life
activities and a large part come from the Bible: Salt of the earth
In general, the great importance of an idiom is about its meaning, knowing the sources
relating to the idioms are a good way to work out the meaning of an idiom and its use.
1.2.5 Features of idioms
As suggested in the theory about idioms given by Chitra Fenando (1996; 3), idioms
are commonly accepted as a type of multiword expression or single words. It can have a
literal meaning in one situation and a different idiomatic meaning in another situation. It
doesn‟t always follow the rules of meaning and grammar. The most frequently mentioned
features of idioms are:
- Compositeness: idioms are commonly accepted as a type of multiword

Flavell (1992) said that proverbs exist in all languages and written collections of them
date back to the earliest times. Proverbs can be defined as memorable short sayings of the people,
containing words of advice or wisdom and often appear in the form of whole sentences - to be
adapted into proverbial form. Meanwhile, idioms are normally phrases where the whole phrase
means something different from the meaning of the separate words.
Another distinction that proverbs differ from idioms is stated by Hornby (1995) that
a proverb is a short well- known sentence or phrase that states a general truth about life or
gives advice, e.g If the mountain doesn‟t come to Mahomet, Mahomet must go to the
mountain. Vu Ngoc Phan (2000; 39) shared the same view and considered a proverb as a
complete saying expressing one idea of comment, experience, morality, justice or
criticism.” For example: Trời không chịu đất, đất phải chịu trời.
In general, idioms and proverbs share some same features that they are set-
expressions with stable components and used in a metaphorical way, their meanings cannot
be deduced from the individual words but must be understood as a whole. As they are
products of human‟s thought, cultures and processes of labour and daily activities, both
idioms and proverbs are orally handed down from generation to generation and naturally
accepted in life.
However, proverbs possess its own characteristics: they must have the clause or
sentence (not word) to express justice or an event implying the justice. Besides, proverbs
have a meaning beyond or other than the sum of the meaning of the individual words e.g: A
man is master in his own house. Also, proverbs can stand independently with a complete
meaning e.g: East or West, home is best. The way that proverbs show their contents and
meanings is logical and expressive and directly indicate the idea of justice and the idea of
comment, experience, morality justice or criticism basing on an action or an event.
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1.3.3 Idioms vs collocation
Collocation as defined in the Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary (1995) is the
regular combination of words. Or “collocation is an arrangement of words which sounds
natural e.g strong coffee not powerful coffee (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary

traceable to literal meanings of their radicals are closely connected to the following
specific features :
+ Idioms attached with locality
An idiom is generally a colloquial term requiring some foundational knowledge,
information, or experience, to use only within a social culture, where conversational parties
must possess common cultural references and social values. Therefore, idioms are not only
considered part of the language, but also part of the culture and society. As culture
typically is localized, idioms often are useless beyond their local context, nevertheless,
some idioms can be more universal than others and easily translated because the
metaphoric meaning can be deduced.
According to some linguistists, idioms can be seen as the result of social and
cultural community communication, they possess the local specification. Each idiom
presents the special cultural feature of that community. It can be seen clearly in such an
idiom as Công tử Bạc Liêu, the literal meaning can be The madarin‟s son in BacLieu
Province in the old time, the idiomatic meaning refers to the person who is very generous
and extravagant. Bac Lieu is the place in the south of Vietnam where the mandarin‟s son-
was born and grown up, his generosity and gallantry were first handed down in the local
area then the people in the neighborhood got used to the meaning and the reference. The
idiom came into being among the local community and gradually become the colloquial
expression expanded by the people in Vietnam. Actually, the locality shown in each idiom
is a good source to work out the variety in meaning of an idiom. The expansion and
popularity of idioms in the community and society have proved its great influence in the
cultural and social life and its role in communication.
+ Idioms attached with basic (human) need
As idioms have its root in the daily life of a community, from the process of
production to social and cultural activities, idioms reflect human basic need in life and
from the real life reflection, a lot of idioms are in existence. The desire for a better life, a
happy family or a fair relationship is reflected in harmony with the surrounding
environment in idioms.
Basic needs refer to those fundamental requirements that serve as the foundation

product of cultural evolvement thus they reflect the social development. Consequently,
knowing much about culture and social development through studying idioms and in turn
get better understanding of idioms by learning the social and cultural background behind
them are necessarily concerned about in language learning.
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The following examples can somehow illustrate the social development: Ăn lông ở
lỗ- literally “live in caves and eat raw food”, idiomatically it criticizes the people who live
a wild and dirty, untidy life as the primitive people. This idiom reflects a way of life of
people from ancient time, primitive and backward. They lived like the animals in groups in
caves and ate flesh without fire. Another idiom Trời sinh voi, trời sinh cỏ ( literally “If the
God gives birth to elephants, he will also give them grass for food”) mentions the old
attitude to the human existence in the world that the things existing in the world have
interaction and support each other to survive. Sell somebody down the river- means to act
very unfairly to somebody who trust you, betray somebody you have promised to help.
This idiom comes from the days of slavery in the US. A slave who was sold to an owner
further down the Mississippi river would experience worse conditions than in the states
further north. Thus, the social development illustrated in the idioms obviously tells about
the crucial roles of idioms in language and social culture.
+ Idioms attached with cultural transmission
The notion of cultural transmission refers to the possibility that the acquisitions of a
culture can be transmitted to descendents and form the basis of cultural development. The
process of language and culture development can be traced back thanks to the presentation
of idioms. The presence and illustration of idioms in communication can somehow show
the cultural transmission in this or that way. As stated above, all the idioms originate in life
and in inventive product of culture and religion, the idioms with the deep root in culture
and religion can be seen such as: Achilles‟ heel (a hidden weakness or fault in somebody
which may be used to harm them. This expression is named after the Greek hero Achilles.
When he was a child, his mother dipped him into the river Styx, which meant that he
couldn‟t be injured. She held him by his heel, which therefore was not touched by the

forever truth;“Easy come, easy go”. The values of life and human attitude have an
interaction and certain impact on each other and on the way of life of people.
In British English and Vietnamese languages, idioms carry the most valuable
features of emotional, attitudinal and spiritual representation. Thanks to the short phrases
and rhyme, idioms are easy to remember and orally handed down and applied in the
communication from generation to generation. Gradually, idioms are refined and show the
meaning though the form can be varied in different regions.
+ Idiomatic expressions referring to emotions and behaviors
It is confirmed that idioms make up a large part of people‟s knowledge of language
and are a persistent feature of language. They can therefore convey all human feelings,
emotions via the flexible and vivid use of language.
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There are a lot of idioms that people use to describe feelings and emotions. The
emotions and behaviors shown in idioms may be grouped by the following themes:
annoyance, confusion, happiness, love, attraction, pride, confidence, shame, sadness, scare,
surprise, anxiety etc. For instance, to indicate when someone is happy: On top of the world,
to show love such as: Fall head over heels in love, or to show the pride or confidence Walk
tall, stand tall etc- to express confusion: Completely at sea etc.
The human emotions and behaviors of social and cultural life are expressed and
reappeared in the idioms- the special feature of language, the part of culture. With the
meaning of idioms and the background attached, each idioms is a story itself through
which the human emotions and behaviors are described and vividly applied in real life
communication.
1.5 Influences of British English and Vietnamese cultures on idiomatic expressions of places
1.5.1 Influence of British English culture on idiomatic expressions of places
It has been confirmed that language and culture interact with each other and shape
each other. Language is the carrier of the culture which in turn is the content of language.
Idioms as a special form of language carry a large amount of cultural information such as
geographical conditions, historical development, customs, religious beliefs and literature of

formed through a long history and firmly rooted in social and cultural life, it is closely
related to national psychology and acts as one important influence on idioms. Due to that, a
lot of idioms are in existence, take the example of the idioms originated in Haloween, one
of the very famous traditional festival of British people: The devil to pay (a lot of trouble)
or the idioms that reflect the traditional view of paying much attention to the shelter
Charity begins at home, English‟s home is his castle. In the idioms, the view point on life
originated in everyday life activities and spiritual and material life of British people is
obviously noted. Indeed, customs and traditional attitude has formed the new assertion of
idioms in communication and culture.
+ The influence of religion- Christianity
Religion exists in every country and nation and affects people‟s belief and life
especially before the modern civilization. The origin of religion can be dated back to
primitive society when religion was considered a kind of super- nature that could interfere
in people‟s life and get most of people‟s belief. There is a lot of religion in existence such
as: Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam, etc. Among them, Christianity which was brought
by the Roman, has been the main religion in Britain. The majorities of the British people
believe in Christianity and regard the Bible as one of the most important classical works in
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their life. Thus, Bible has a large circulation in Britain and concerns nearly all the matters
in life so that it acts not only a classic in religion but also an important supporter of British
culture. The words such as God, heaven, devils, church are often used in Christianity and
in people‟s communication. Numerous figures with religious allusions in the idioms
originated from the Bible are often found e.g As poor as church mouse, one is so poor that
he has not a penny to call his own. The salt of the earth-the very good and honest person
that you can always depend on, An act of God- an event caused by natural forces which
people can not control or prevent for example a hurricane etc. Numerous idioms are
generated from the fountain of religion to show that Christianity with its Bible has
confirmed its great influence on English language, especially on idioms.
+ The influence of literature: