A study on marriage- related English and
Vietnamese proverbs (From linguistic- cultural
perspective) Trịnh Thị Hương Giang Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15
Người hướng dẫn: M.A. Văn Thị Thanh Bình
Năm bảo vệ: 2013 Abstract. English and Vietnamese have their own valuable treasures of proverbs. Proverbs
constitute a storehouse of their people’s common experiences and moral teachings. As a result,
they seem to be indispensable in daily speeches as well as in books and newspapers. This
thesis is an attempt to investigate a comprehensive account of the outstanding linguistic
features of English and Vietnamese proverbs. Especially, with the ambition to help teachers
and learners have a clear understanding about the relations between proverbs and culture, the
author has managed to figure out the features of proverbs about marriage in both English and
Vietnamese and then, point out some cultural similarities and differences in this particular
aspect. The result of the study may make contributions to the translation of proverbs in general
and proverbs about marriage in particular. In addition, it may also provide helpful suggestions
for teachers and learners in teaching and learning proverbs.

Keywords. Ngôn ngữ; Tiếng Anh; Tục ngữ; Hôn nhân gia đình

Content
1. Rationale
Nowadays, in this globalization and integration era, communication and cross- cultural communication

similarities and differences between two languages and cultures, which therefore, help learners of
English understand and have a better use of English and Vietnamese proverbs. This can also help
learners have better communication in the cross- cultural communication.
Brutus (1995: 23) stated the practical effect of learning proverbs: “Through proverbs I know your
points of view, the attitudes of your ancestors. Each time I know a new Vietnamese proverb, I become
Vietnamese a little. I believe when we know all proverbs of each other, we are brothers”.
Having been interested in proverbs for a long time, I decided to choose marriage- related proverbs as
my thesis topic. Thanks to these proverbs, I can draw very good lessons and know how to treat others
and behave myself accordingly.
Hopefully, the study may be an interesting and helpful material for learners, teachers of English and for
people who are interested in cultural patterns in communication and cross- cultural communication.

2. Aims of the study
The study aims to:
- Investigate the general syntactic, semantic and cultural features of
English and Vietnamese proverbs about marriage.
- Explore the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese
proverbs about marriage
- Provide some suggestions for the teaching, learning and translation of the
English proverbs about marriage.

3. Scope of the study
Proverbs are plentiful in both English and Vietnamese. Therefore it is impossible for the author to carry
out an all- rounded study on them. Only marriage- related proverbs are selected and a comparison and
contrast between English and Vietnamese is made to distinguish one from another.
In this study, both English and Vietnamese proverbs about marriage are discussed in terms of
syntactics, semantics and cultures.
All English and Vietnamese proverbs are collected from dictionaries and books. Hence, this research
may not cover all marriage- related proverbs, just those of common use.
4. Methodology

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In Vietnamese
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