Semantic features of weather proverbs in
English and Vietnamese Vũ Thị Yến Hồng Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15
Người hướng dẫn: M.A. Đào Thị Thu Trang
Năm bảo vệ: 2012 Abstract. Everyone understands the importance that proverbs have in every language.
In the form of short, easily memorable phrases, the proverbs contain a great treasure of
folk wisdom, and through use of a short proverb, it is often easier to express an idea
better and more convincingly, than with a long speech. Knowledge of proverbs is
necessary for perfect knowledge of a language. Yet, proverbs in general and weather
proverbs in particular are units of language full of problems especially to second
language learners. Therefore, the thesis makes an effort to deal with a small part of
proverbs: semantic features of English and Vietnamese weather proverbs. Along with
the investigation is the qualitative and quantitative analysis in English and Vietnamese
proverbs collected from reliable books, dictionaries and websites. The key target the
investigation wants to reach is to discover the similarities and differences between
English and Vietnamese weather proverbs in terms of semantics by means of contrastive
analysis. A long with this discovery, the researcher reveals some weather proverbs in
both English and Vietnamese that are not reliable in specific contexts. Last, the study
also puts forward some suggestions for teaching and learning proverbs in general and
weather proverbs in particular.

Keywords. Tiếng Anh; Tiếng Việt; Ngữ nghĩa; Tục ngữ

relied on weather proverbs to predict weather changes. Nowadays, even with our access to
sophisticated weather prediction techniques (such as satellites, weather balloons, super
computers, Doppler radar, and a complex communications network) for production of reasonably
accurate daily weather forecasts, many people still utilize common knowledge of the weather
through weather proverbs because it is a simple way for them to predict the weather conditions
by themselves.
The reason for the researcher’s choosing weather proverbs is that more than any other kind of
proverbs, they illustrate the process human beings explore the natural world and form their
world-view as well as gain experience in dealing with nature, serving their need of economic
development. If you know many proverbs, and have a little understanding of how weather
systems work, you may conclude that proverbs tell you much about the weather. Even if the
proverbs are not ideally accurate, they will remind us about a weather system and help us learn
and remember how weather system works. More importantly, weather proverbs make us much
more aware of our environment so we can observe and appreciate the many wonderful and
intricate things going on in our natural surroundings. Proverbs can help us understand and table
out various weather situations. In addition, studying English weather proverbs (EWP) and
Vietnamese weather proverbs (VWP) plays an important role in interpreting and using this type
of proverbs.
All the points mentioned above are fundamental impetuses that stimulate the researcher to
conduct this study.
2. Research aims and research questions
2.1. Research aims
First of all, through the investigation into the semantic features of weather proverbs, the
researcher aims at discovering linguistic values underlying the literal words.
Secondly, the study is to compare and contrast semantic features of weather proverbs in English
and in Vietnamese.
Thirdly, the study is to equip learners with rich knowledge on Vietnamese proverbs and English
proverbs in general and on weather proverbs in particular. In addition, some suggestions for
teaching and learning English proverbs are also mentioned.
2.2. Research questions

for implementing the thesis are mentioned.
Chapter 3, Major Findings and Discussions, is the main part of the research, which includes a
generalization about the semantic features of weather proverbs in both languages - English and
Vietnamese - and in what ways they are similar to or different from each other. The latter
discusses some weather proverbs that are not reliable in both languages.
Part C, Conclusions, summarizes the main content of the research and draws out conclusions.
This part also gives implications for teaching and learning PDW. Moreover, a statement of
limitations and suggestions for further research are also indicated in this chapter. Apart from that,
references and appendices are enclosed for those who are interested in studying the same issues. References
ENGLISH
1. Abbas Lutfi (2008), Weather Proverbs: Outstanding Socio-cultural Traits, Alustath, retrieved
August 12, 2012 from
2. Adrienne Lehrer (1985), Semantic fields and lexical structure, Amsterdam, North Holland.
3. Barley, N. (1972), "A Structural Approach to the Proverb and Maxim with Special Reference
to the Anglo-Saxon Corpus", Proverbium, (20), 737-750.
4. Brinton, Laurel J. (2000), The structure of modern English: a linguistic introduction,
Illustrated edition, John Benjamins Publishing Company.
5. Cambridge Dictionaries (2008), Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Cambridge
University Press.
6. Dunwoody, H.H.C. (2001), Weather Proverbs, University Press of the Pacific.
7. Đỗ Thị Minh Ngọc (2010), A Cross –Cultural Study on Weather Proverbs in English and
Vietnamese, Graduation paper, National University, Hanoi.
8. Freier. G. D. (1992), Weather Proverbs: How 600 proverbs, sayings and poems accurately
explain our weather, Fisher Books.
9. Geddes and Grosset (2001), Webster’s New Century Dictionary, Random HouseValue
Publishing, Inc.
10. Guralnik D.B. and S. Solomon, S. (eds.) (1980), Webster’s New World Dictionary, 2

concerning the weather. E. Stock in London. Retrieved July 19, 2012 from

25. Simpson, J., Speake, J. (1998), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, Oxford
University Press.
VIETNAMESE
26. Lê Gia (1994), Tâm Hồn Mẹ Việt Nam. NXB Văn Nghệ.
27. Ngọc Quang (2007), Tục ngữ Việt Nam, NXB Văn Hoá Thông Tin, Hà Nội.
28. Nguyễn Lân (2010), Từ điển thành ngữ và tục ngữ Việt Nam, NXB Văn học, Hà Nội
29. Nguyễn Đình Hùng (2003), Tuyển tập Thành ngữ - Tục ngữ - Ca dao Anh-Việt, NXB Đại
học Quốc Gia, Hà Nội.
30. Thu Phương (2004), Ca dao tục ngữ Việt Nam, NXB Thanh niên, Hà Nội.
31. Thùy Linh (2006), Thành ngữ-tục ngữ Việt Nam, NXB Lao động-Xã hội, Hà Nội.
32. Trần Ngọc Ngải (1997), Tục Ngữ, Thành Ngữ Ca Dao và Dân Ca Việt Nam. Chicago,
Illinois, USA.
33. Trung tâm Khoa học xã hội và nhân văn quốc gia (2002), Tổng tập Văn học dân gian người
Việt tập 1: Tục Ngữ, NXB Khoa học xã hội, Hà Nội.
34. Vũ Dung, Vũ Thuý Anh, Vũ Quang Hào (2003), Từ điển thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam, NXB
Văn Hoá Thông Tin, Hà Nội.
THE INTERNET
35. retrieved May 12, 2012.
36. retrieved July 20, 2012.
37. , retrieved May 12, 2012.
38. retrieved May
12, 2012.
39. retrieved May 12, 2012.
40. retrieved May 12, 2012