MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ LAN PHƯƠNG

A STUDY ON STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC
FEATURES OF ENGLISH IDIOMS DENOTING
“ANGER” WITH REFERENCE TO THE
VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC ĐIỂM CẤU TRÚC VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA
THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH NÓI VỀ “GIẬN” TRONG SỰ LIÊN
HỆ VỚI TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A. THESIS
Field: English Language
Code: 60220201
Supervisor: Nguyễn Thị Thanh Hương, Ph.D

Hanoi, 2015


NGUYEN THI LAN PHUONG

Front hard paper cover
Back hard paper cover

FIELD: ENGLISH LANGUAGE

2013-2015

27

as an academic researcher.
My special word of thanks goes to all the lecturers at the Faculty of Post
Graduate Studies - Ha Noi Open University for their interesting lectures and useful
advice. I would also like to thank my colleagues and friends for idea sharing and

encouragement. It would never have been possible for me to have this thesis
accomplished without all of these valuable supports.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for the sacrifice
they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work.

ii


ABSTRACT
Idioms play an important role in all natural languages including English and
Vietnamese. They enrich the language. They help speakers and writers to
emphasise their ideas and make our observations, judgments, and explanations
more lively and interesting. They are also very useful tools for communicating
a great deal of meaning in a few words. Effective communication cannot be
achieved successfully without idioms.
Idioms are considered not only to be able to enrich the language, by helping
speakers and writers to emphasise their ideas, make their judgments, and
explanations more lively and interesting, but also to be very useful tools for
communicating meaningful ideas in a condensed expressions. Effective
communication cannot be achieved successfully without idioms; therefore, they are
worth studying
Idioms, a very important aspect of language, add colour to the
language, helping us to emphasise meaning and to make our observations,
judgments, and explanations lively and interesting. They are also very useful
tools for communicating a great deal of meaning in just a few words.


: Noun Phrase

VP

: Verb Phrase

Adj.P

: Adjective phrase

Adv.P

: Adverbial Phrase

PP

: Prepositional Phrase

iv


LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: English and Vietnamese idioms denoting “anger” in terms of
structural features

32

Table 2.Comparison of English and Vietnamese idioms denoting
“anger” in terms of semantic features


1.1.

Rationale for the research

1

1.2.

Aims of the research

2

1.3.

Objectives of the research

2

1.4.

Scope of the research

2

1.5.

Significance of the research

3


2.2.2. Theoretical background

9

2.2.2.1. Definitions of idioms

10

2.2.2. 2. Idioms versus proverbs, sayings, conventional phrases and

11

phrase verbs
2.2.2.3. Features of English Idioms

12

vi


2.2.2.4. Classification of English idioms

15

2.2.2.5. Idioms of anger

18

2.2.2.6. Summary

Research methods

3.2.1. Major methods versus supporting methods

25

3.2.2. Data collection techniques

25

3.2.3. Data analysis techniques

26

3.3. Summary

26

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

28

4.1.

Structures features of English idioms denoting “anger” with

28

reference to the Vietnamese equivalents
4.1.1.


39

reference to the Vietnamese equivalents
4.2.1.

Similarities

39

vii


4.2.1.1. Lexical variability

39

4.2.1.2. Metaphors and metonymies

40

4.2.2.

51

Differences

4.2.2.1. Metaphors and metonymies

51

Using games

59

4.4.

Summary

60

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION

61

5.1.

Recapitulation

61

5.2. Concluding remarks

61

5.3. Limitations of the research and suggestions for further studies

62

REFERENCES


reality, English language is full of idiomatic expressions and once a native
English speaker gets talking, he never stops to think about idioms; they have
become a natural part of his conversation skills. However, English idioms are
relatively neglected in those education systems whose English is thought as
the second language because it’s very challenging to learners while many
second –language teachers are not completely immersed in the language so
they do not know the true conversational idioms. As a result, there is a lack of
understanding and knowledge about English idioms by a majority of learners,
herein Vietnamese learners.
1


1.2.

Aims of the research
The graduation thesis is conducted with a view to help Vietnamese

learners to acquire a better understanding of structural and semantic features
of English Idioms denoting anger with reference to the Vietnamese
equivalents, as well as to improve their ability of using them to avoid
communication breakdown.
1.3.

Objectives of the research
This thesis is carried out to pursue these following specific objectives:
- Investigating the structural features of English idioms denoting ANGER

with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents.
-Investigating the semantic features of English idioms denoting ANGER
with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents.

and lecturers have proved to be very useful. Some of my personal knowledge
and experience in teaching and learning also contribute to the completion of
the thesis.
1.6.

Structural organization of the thesis
This thesis consists of five chapters: Introduction, Literature,

Methodology, Findings and Discussion, and Conclusion.
Chapter 1 - “Introduction” - presents a brief account of relevant
information for carrying out the study such as the rationale for selecting the
topic, the aims, the objectives, the scope, the significance and the structure of
the thesis.
Chapter 2 - “Literature Review” - presents the overview of the
previous researches related to the thesis topic and covers a series of idiomrelated concepts such as: definitions of idioms, features of English idioms,
types of English idioms, idioms in comparison with proverbs, the
relationship between idioms and culture, classification of idioms.
Chapter 3 - “Methodology” - provides a full description of the specific
methods and techniques which are applied to conduct the thesis research.
3


Chapter 4 - “Findings and discussion” - describes and analyses the
structural and semantic features of English idioms denoting “anger” with
reference to the Vietnamese equivalents.
Chapter 5 - “Conclusions and implications” - summaries the major
findings resulted from the investigation and data analysis, presents the
limitations of the study, proposes possible implications for teaching and
learning English idioms denoting “anger” effectively, and provides some
recommendations for further research on this important subject.

Idioms in English: A Corpus-based Approach” (1998) is that fixed
expressions can only be fully understood if they are considered together with
the texts in which they occur. She provides an overview of this area of lexis
5


in current English. Writing from a lexicological rather than a computational
point of view, she gives a detailed, descriptivist account of the findings of
research into several thousand fixed expressions and idioms, as evidenced in
the corpus text, including information about frequencies, syntax, lexical
forms and variations and metaphoricality. She also argues that examination
of corpus text raises questions about many received ideas on fixed
expressions and idioms, and suggests that new or revised use-centered
models are required. Later chapters of the book demonstrate the ideological
and discoursal significance of idioms, paying particular attention to the ways
in which they convey evaluations and have roles with respect to the
information structure and cohesion of texts.
“Idioms and Idiomaticity” by Chitra Fernando (1996) provides a
comprehensive treatment of idioms and idiomaticity from a functional
perspective. It examines the use of idioms in discourse to combine the novel
and the conventional, to convey representations of the world, evaluate people
and situations, signal conviviality or conflict, and create coherent, cohesive
texts. This book goes on to consider implications for language learning and
development.
“Idioms: Description, Comprehension, Acquisition, and Pedagogy” by
Dilin Liu (2008) supplies comprehensive, up-to-date, and accessible text on
idiom use and suggests learning and teaching approaches.
2.1.2 Previous studies in Vietnam
In Vietnam, Nguyễn Lực, Lương Văn Đang [53] are two authors who
made a significant contribution in the field of Vietnamese idioms. They

when studying idioms; most of the idioms are metaphorical rather than
literal. For example, in order to understand the idiom “(to feel) like fish out
of water”, we have to consider its meaning metaphorically as “to feel
7


uncomfortable because of unfamiliar surroundings”. Consequently, the
first notice of English idioms is their semantic opacity or their figurative
sense and non-literalness by another term. Semantic opacity means that
idioms are often non-literal. Hence, the individual words which make up
the idiom do not carry any meaning of their own. There is usually very
little, if any, connection between the literal meanings of the individual
words and the idiomatic meaning of the whole phrase (Fernando 1996:
61). Makkai (1972: 118) states that the meaning of an idiom is not
predictable from its component parts, because they are used in a
figurative, non-literal sense. Non-literalness is also in central place in
Strässler’s (1982: 79) idea of an idiom.

According to Strässler, the

meaning of an idiom cannot be concluded by adding up the meanings of
its constituents. The meaning of an idiom is therefore hardly ever the sum
of its individual parts. Semantic opacity seems rather crucial for idioms,
seeing as the scholars quoted here are only some of the many who
recognize semantic opacity or non-literalness as an essential feature of
idioms. However, some idioms whose literal meaning and figurative one is
almost identical so that readers or listeners can guess the meaning. For
example, the idiom ‘as bald as an egg’ seems to make no difficulty for
readers or listeners to deduce its meaning.
Semantic unity can perhaps be considered as the second most

Collocability refers to the tendency of words to co-occur. In fact, idioms
have come to existence precisely because of this tendency. Fernando
(1996: 31) points out that collocability very often gives rise to idiomatic
expressions, but obviously not all of these expressions become idioms.
According to Weinreich (1969, as cited by Fernando 1996: 7), the cooccurrence of words is a feature which is present in both collocations and
idioms, but in an idiom this co-occurrence of words results in “a special
semantic relationship”, which separates them from collocations.
2.2.2. Theoretical background
2.2.2.1. Definitions of idioms
9


Fernando

(1996:3)

defines

idioms

as

being

a

type

of


2.2.2.2. Idioms versus proverbs, sayings, conventional phrases and
phrasal verbs
An idiom is an expression that contains more than one word, and
whose meaning is different from the sum of the literal meanings of its
components. Excluded, however, are proverbs, sayings and conventional
phrases. Although they are all multi-word expressions that often mean
something different from the words in them, they each form a category of
their own depending on the function they have. Proverbs are short wellknown statements that give advice or express something that is generally
true (Longman Exams Dictionary). They often carry some additional
meanings, or their purpose is to teach a lesson, and they are somehow more
tightly connected with cultural discourse. For example ‘The early bird
catches the worm’ means arriving early gives one an advantage or ‘money
doesn’t grow on trees’ - money is not easy to get and you must work hard. A
saying, which is a well-known short statement that expresses an idea most
people believe is true and wise, can be considered to be closed to idioms,
but it is usually not figurative, e.g. You can’t judge a book by its cover, as
the old saying goes. Thirdly, conversational phrases have a special
interactional function, and they are often literal rather than metaphorical, for
example ‘God be with you’. Finally, a phrasal verb is a verb which is a
combination of a verb and a particle (hand in), a verb and a preposition
(congratulate on, refer to), and a verb with a particle and a preposition (run
away with, send out to). It can have a literal meaning that is easy to
understand because the meaning is clear from the words that are used in the
phrasal verb itself. It can also have an idiomatic meaning which cannot
11


easily

be

single words
collocations

FIGURE 1:

phrases

The rough field of vocabulary

2.2.2.3 Features of English Idioms
a) Structural features
Jennifer Seidl and W. McMordie (1978:5) give some special features of
English idioms as follows:


Idioms take many different forms or structures. They can be very

short or rather long. A large number of idioms consist of some combination
of a noun and an adjective, e.g. cold war, a dark horse, French leave, forty
winks, a snake in the grass. Some idioms are much longer: to fish in
troubled waters, to take the bull by the horns, to cut one’s coat according to
one’s cloth.


An idiom can have a regular, an irregular or even a grammatically

incorrect structure. The idiom “I am good friends with him” is irregular or
logical in its grammatical structure. A native speaker is not consciously
aware of this insistency because the form is irregular but the meaning is
clear. A second kind has a regular form but a meaning is not clear, for

 Verb + Direct Object + Complement: paint the town red…
 Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object: do somebody credit...
 Verb + Direct Object + Adjunct: take something amiss…
An important grouping of clause idioms is identified by the
grammatical code ‘possessive’. These idioms make full use of the verbs get,

13


give and have as ordinary non-idiomatic sentences concerned with
ownership or change of ownership. There are two most common patterns
 Verb + Direct Object: get a fair share of the cake, get a bad name…
 Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object: give someone a taste of their own
medicine; give someone a quick shot in the arm…


Phrase idioms



Noun phrase: a crashing bore…



Adjective phrase: free with one’s money…



Prepositional phrase: in the nick of time…


(check), ‘foot the bill (pay).The last one is compositional after the meaning
is known (Nunberg et al., 1994), for example ‘on foot’, ‘on the contrary’.


Institutionalization: It refers to the degree of recognition a particular

phrase meets in a speech community. The conventionality of this expression
has resulted in its currency and acceptance among the wider discourse
community rather than by a small sub- community. Some institutionalized
utterances are lexicalized and serve as conversational routines or social
formulae such as greetings, ending a telephone conversation, saying
goodbye, etc., e.g. nice to meet you, so long, have a nice weekend, take care
now, come off it. Idioms are thus widely recognized and familiar to speakers
of a particular culture (Fernando & Flavell, 1981; Moon, 1998a).


Figuration: some idioms typically involve metaphors (a drop in the

bucket), metonymies (lend a hand), hyperboles (eat one’s head off), or other
kinds of figuration. Native speakers usually take no effort to figure out their
figurative meanings from their literal senses.
It is believed that non-compositionality, institutionalization and
figuration are related. It is also argued that something which is noncompositional cannot be produced simply as a sequence of words but must
be held in memory. In other words, it becomes institutionalized and is held
in

memory

to