MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS

AN INVESTIGATION INTO SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC
FEATURES OF ENGLISH “GO” IDIOMS WITH REFERENCE
TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC ĐẶC TRƢNG CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA CÁC
THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH CÓ ĐỘNG TỪ ‗GO‘ TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ VỚI
TƢƠNG ĐƢƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT

NGUYEN THI THUY LINH

Hanoi, 2016


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS

AN INVESTIGATION INTO SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC
FEATURES OF ENGLISH “GO” IDIOMS WITH REFERENCE
TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC ĐẶC TRƢNG CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA CÁC
THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH CÓ ĐỘNG TỪ ‗GO‘ TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ VỚI
TƢƠNG ĐƢƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT

NGUYEN THI THUY LINH
Field: English Language

First of all, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my
supervisor, Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong, Ph.D, who has patiently supported me
through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and
suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic
researcher.
A special word of thanks goes to many other lecturers, without whose
support and encouragement, it would have never been possible for me to have
this thesis accomplished.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my husband and
my children for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this
academic work.

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ABSTRACT
Among the most popular English words being used currently
worldwide, the verb ―GO‖ has been, without a doubt, of great concern by
linguists so far. Therefore, an initial investigation into syntactic and semantic
features of ―GO‖idioms with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents would
provide valuable experience to further studies of linguistics in general and
help Vietnamese students as learners of foreign language in translation.
Numerous examples have been analyzed cautiously by applying qualitative
approach and some other ones so as to achieve the set objectives.

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Table 1: Syntactic structures of ―GO‖ combinations ................................................16

Chapter 2 .....................................................................................................................7
LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................7
2.1. Review of previous studies ...............................................................................7
2.2. Review of theoretical background ....................................................................8
2.2.1. Definition of idioms ...................................................................................8
2.2.2. Aspects of idioms. ......................................................................................9
2.2.3. Features of idioms ....................................................................................10
2.2.4. Source of idioms .......................................................................................11
2.2.5. Types of idioms ........................................................................................11
2.2.6. Verbal idioms ...........................................................................................13
2.2.7. Collocations and idioms ...........................................................................14
2.2.8. Application of idioms ...............................................................................15
2.2.9. Overview of the verb ―GO‖......................................................................15
2.3.

Summary ......................................................................................................17

Chapter 3 ...................................................................................................................18
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..............................................................................18
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3.1. Research orientations ......................................................................................18
3.1.1. Research questions ...................................................................................18
3.1.2. Research setting ........................................................................................18
3.1.3. Research approaches ................................................................................19
3.1.4. Criteria for intended data collection and data analysis ............................19
3.2. Research methods ...........................................................................................20
3.2.1. Major methods and supporting methods ..................................................20
3.2.2. Data collection techniques........................................................................21


Group 8: Phrasal verb + preposition + pronoun / noun phrase .............35

4.1.9.

Group 9: Comparison............................................................................36

4.1.10. Group 10: Others ..................................................................................39
4.2.

Semantic features of ―GO‖ idioms ..............................................................40

4.2.1. Go + NP indicating fruit ...........................................................................42
4.2.2. Go + NP indicating a work of art .............................................................44
4.2.3. Go + NP indicating a kind of weapon ......................................................45
4.2.4. Go + NP indicating distance .....................................................................46
4.2.5. Go + NP indicating a kind of animals. .....................................................47
4.2.6. Go + NP indicating kinds of material .....................................................49
4.2.7. Go + NP indicating an object ...................................................................51

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4.2.8. Go + NP indicating a part of the house ....................................................56
4.2.9. Go + NP indicating sport equipment. .......................................................58
4.2.10. Go + NP indicating body parts ...............................................................60
4.2.11. Go + NP indicating living things and natural phenomena. ....................62
4. 3. Summary ........................................................................................................75
Chapter 5 ...................................................................................................................77
CONCLUSION .........................................................................................................77

like idiomatic expressions, metonymies and metaphors. Some of them are
conventional while some of them may be created as we speak (Caillies &
Declercq, 2011:207). Accordingly, the comprehension of the former, usually
idiomatic expressions, depends on retrieval of a figurative meaning stored in
memory, whereas the comprehension of the latter, usually metaphors, depends
on an online sense creation process (Caillies & Declercq, 2011: 219).
According to Glucksberg (2001), ―metaphors and idioms reflect both
universal and culture-specific ways of thinking‖ as well as being ―the traps in
the language‖. Those who learn English desires to master English as the
native speakers. However, we usually face the difficulties that prevent us
from gaining natural conversations. One of the reasons for these problems lies
in the way we perceive and use idioms. The structural and semantic problems
posed by idioms puzzle us because most idioms do not mean what they
appear to mean. The sense of the whole idiom is usually different from the
meanings of the combination of its component parts. The study is carried out
with the hope of minimizing the problems of understanding idioms.
It can be said that studying idioms is not new, but it has never been old.

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There exist various approaches in studying idioms, not only in Vietnam, but
also in the world. Here, I would merely like to choose a verb in English and
make an investigation into idioms using it - the verb ―GO‖.
Through the history of the development of English there has been a list
of around 1,000 most commonly used words of all parts of speech (that can be
used on a daily basis for learners of English to comprehend.) In addition,
Oxford Dictionary and some other academic sources have also managed to
conduct a study of 100 most used English words out of a billion words found
worldwide. And GO is one of the most common verbs in English, which is

To achieve the above-mentioned aims, the following objectives can be
put forwards:
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(i) Pointing out syntactic features of ―GO‖ idioms with reference to the
Vietnamese equivalents.
(ii) Figuring out semantic features of ―GO‖idioms with reference to the
Vietnamese equivalents.
(iii) Suggesting possible implications for Vietnamese students in
learning, teaching and translating ―GO‖ idioms.
1.4. Scope of the research
(i) Academic scope
The study focuses on studying syntactic and semantic features of ―GO‖
idioms and the equivalents in Vietnamese so as to make crucial contributions
to the field of linguistics and improve the efficiency of teaching English
idioms with the verb ―GO‖ for Vietnamese students who learn English as a
foreign language, especially for those specialize in the field of translation.
The findings hopefully would bring out various suggestions for teachers and
researchers to conduct further studies related to English idioms with the verb
―GO‖ and those of other verbs as well as advance teaching effectiveness of
idioms. Such approach definitely helps students efficiently expand their
lexical items as students are exposed to a new look at how words are
frequently used in reality, not purely the definitions of words without notes
for practical ways of using them. It is better if English idioms with more verbs
are analyzed and totalized, contributing considerably to English learning and
teaching in Vietnam.
(ii) Social scope
The applications of this work will, hopefully, contribute greatly to out
appropriate methods

lexical terms, the author expects to change how students learn English words
as well as how teachers change their traditional methods of teaching
vocabulary. If words are separated from their specific contexts and are
exposed to students only through their meanings in dictionaries, it is not easy
for these 2nd language users to obtain the real meanings of the words in
different cases.
(ii) Practical significance
The author hopes that this study‘s findings and conclusions would make
great contributions to raising awareness of the importance of studying English
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idioms in general and ―GO‖ idioms specifically with reference to the
Vietnamese equivalents. First of all, normally, when Vietnamese students
study idioms, they might learn them by heart; however, the main problem will
lie in applications of these idioms in appropriate contexts. Therefore, learning
about idioms is the beginning of the whole process. The main step is to
understand comprehensively how they are applied in diverse situations and
students can only do this by analyzing examples made by native speakers.
Secondly, regarding translation, students will have problems with
understanding the meanings if they learn the words‘ definitions separately
with its idioms and meanings. This study‘s implication is to deal with these
issues in the hope that it will help Vietnamese students overcome their
troubles.
1.6. Structural organization of the thesis
The study will consist of the 5 following parts.
Chapter 1 – Introduction: gives a brief overview of the research with
the rationale for choosing the topic of the research, aims, objectives, scope of
the research, and the structural organization of the thesis.
Chapter 2 – Literature Review: reviews the previous studies related to

English idioms with the verb ―GO‖ to students in Vietnam.
2.1. Review of previous studies
There have been a number of writers making investigations into idioms
with different points of view and objectives. In English, some famous ones
were collected and written by researchers such as ―The American Heritage
Dictionary of Idioms‖ by Ammer, C. In ―NTC‘s American Idioms
Dictionary‖, Spears, R. and Kirkpatrick, B. focus on the meaning, usage
and appropriate contexts for each idiomatic phrase. Nguyễn Lực, Lƣơng Văn
Đang are two authors who made a significant contribution in the field of
Vietnamese idioms. They wrote ―Thành ngữ Tiếng Việt‖ which is a collection
of Vietnamese idioms arranged in alphabetical order with clear explanations
and examples extracted from Vietnamese novels, newspapers and magazines.
Moreover, Nguyễn Trần Trụ who wrote ―Thành ngữ tục ngữ lược
giải‖ explains meanings of the most common idioms and proverbs in such
simple, clear ways that learners can use this book for consulting and reference
purposes.
In addition, ―Từ điển thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam‖ by Đặng Hồng
Chƣơng, ―1575 Thành ngữ - Tục ngữ cần bàn thêm‖ by Lê Gia and a number
of contrastive studies on the various aspects of idioms have been carried out
in Danang University by Vietnamese researchers.
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Some studies of Vietnamese researchers that the author has found so far
tend to make comparisons between ways of using some popular structures
with the verbs they chose. They also listed grammatical structures and
provided a wide range of examples and Vietnamese translated versions in
order to help other linguists to obtain the examples‘ meanings more broadly.
Thanks to this, when these authors presented their conclusions, their findings
can be viewed on a more comprehensive scale.

2) Idioms whose form is irregular but the meaning is not clear, e.g. to
have a bee in one‗s bonnet.
3) Idioms whose forms and meanings are both irregular, e.g. to be at large.
It has been found out by Seidl and McMordie (1978) that most idioms belong
to the group of idioms whose form is irregular and the meaning is not clear.
There is also a difference among idioms in this group because some of them
are clearer than others. Meaning of idioms that are easy to understand can be
guessed from the context. On the contrary, it is very difficult to size up the
meaning of idioms that have nothing in common with the original meaning of
the individual words. Now it is clear that the meaning of idioms is the most
important but different authors who delay with idioms have different
opinions. V.H. Collins (1958) claims that meaning of the idioms is not the
main problem. Its origin can also cause inconvenience because there is a
difference between using idioms in the past and nowadays.
Seidl and McMordie (1978) divided idioms into these groups:
• Idioms combining adjectives and nouns
• Idioms with verbs and nouns
• Idioms with prepositions and adverbs
• Adjectives with prepositions
• Verbs with prepositions and adverbial particles
• Idioms with the verb TO BE
• Idioms with common verbs
• Idioms based on special situations and categories
• Idioms of comparison

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2.2.6. Verbal idioms
Idioms can be centered around certain common verbs such as break,

et al., 1985)
1) Non-idiomatic constructions
In these constructions the meaning of components is not constant in possible
substitutions, e.g. the verb ―bring‖ can be used with more than one
component such as ―in‖, ―out‖, etc.
2) Semi-idiomatic constructions
Semi-idiomatic constructions are changeable but this changeability is limited.
Verb keeps its meaning while the meaning of its particle is less easy to
separate.
3) Highly idiomatic constructions
There is no possibility of contrastive substitution, e.g. bring up, come by.
2.2.7. Collocations and idioms
Collocations and idioms have common features and that is a reason
why they are very difficult to differentiate. Many linguists approached the
problems of collocations and idioms in their work and for illustration the
definitions by Bolinger and Sears and McCarthy and Sampson are provided
below. Bolinger and Sears (1981: 55) say that: "the range and variety of
collocations is enormous." And they also add that words are not only
elements that have a more or less fixed correlation with meaning, it is very
significant to make a difference between idioms and collocations.
In their opinion, if a part of a collocation is known, its meaning can be
deduced and thus a collocation is not quite an idiom but it is in some way
specialized. On the other hand, McCarthy and Sampson (2005) claim that
when learning collocations, the attention should be paid to how words are
used rather than to individual words by themselves.
"Collocational knowledge indicates which words co-occur frequently with
other words and how they combine within the sentence." (McCarthy and
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Table 1: Syntactic structures of “GO” combinations
Structures

Examples

(1) V (Go) + adverb

Go right/ go wrong

(2) V (Go) + PP

Go out

(3) Go + infinitive / gerund

Go shopping

(4) Go + preposition

Go in there

(5) Go + adjective

Go fast/ Go home

Table 2: The semantic senses encoded by the verb “GO”
Meanings

Examples


Let go.

(9) Specified motion (at specific Go like this with your foot; The
location)

tape‘s going round and round.

(10) State / outcome

It‘s gone wrong; It‘s going cold.

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