MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS
A STUDY OF SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES
OF IDIOMS CONTAINING THE WORDS “EAR”, “EYE”,
“LIP”, “NOSE” “MOUTH” WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR
VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA THÀNH
NGỮ TIẾNG ANH CHỨA CÁC TỪ ― TAI‖, ―MẮT‖, ―MÔI‖, ―MŨI‖ VÀ
―MIỆNG‖ TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ VỚI TƢƠNG ĐƢƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT)

ĐẶNG THÙY LINH

Hanoi, 2016


Front hard cover
Back hard cover

ĐẶNG THÙY LINH

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

2014 - 2016


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS

Phan Văn Quế

Date…………………………..…

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support
from a number of people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Phan Van Que, my supervisor, who has patiently and
constantly 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.
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.

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ABSTRACT
One of the most effective and colourful ways to transfer culture is the use
of idioms which, howerver, cause several troubles for English leaners
because of their confusing meanings.


Verb

Adj

:

Adjective

Adv

:

Adverb

Prep

:

Preposition

NP

:

Noun Phrase

VP

:

LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1: A summary of idioms conatning the words EELM&N in English
and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic………………….....34

Table 4.2: A statistical summary of syntactic features of idioms contaning the
words EELM&N in English and their Vietnamese equivalents……………35
Table 4.3 A summary of for English and Vietnamese containing the words
Ear, Eye, Lip, Mouth and Nose……………………………………………..53

Table 4.4 Frequency of semantic features of idioms containing the word Ear.
Eye, Lip, Mouth and Nose in English and Vietnamese……………………..53

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TABLE CONTENTS
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ............................................................... 1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. 4
ABSTRACT..................................................................................................... 4
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.......................................................................... 4
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................... 5
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 1
1.1. Rationale for the research ....................................................................... 1
1.2. Aims of the research ............................................................................... 3
1.3. Objectives of the research ....................................................................... 3
1.4. Scope of the research .............................................................................. 4
1.4.1. Academic scope .................................................................................. 4
1.4.2. Social scope ........................................................................................ 4

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................ 29
4.1. Syntactic features of idioms containing the words: Ear, Eye, Lip, Mouth,
and Nose in English ....................................................................................... 29
4.1.1. Phrase Structures .............................................................................. 29
4.1.1.1. Noun Phrases ............................................................................. 29
4.1.1.2. Verb Phrases ............................................................................ 30
4.1.1.3. Adjective Phrase ...................................................................... 32
4.1.1.4. Prepositional Phrases ............................................................... 33
4.1.2. Similarities and differences of idioms containing the words
EELM&N in English and their Vietnamese equivalents in terms of
syntactic features ........................................................................................ 36
4.1.2.1. Similarities ................................................................................ 36
4.1.2.2. Differences .............................................................................. 37
4.2. Semantic features of idioms containing the words: Ear, Eye, Lip,
Mouth, and Nose in English .......................................................................... 39
4.2.1. Meanings of Ear, Eye, Lip, Mouth, and Nose in idioms ............... 40
4.2.1.1. Meanings of Ear in idioms ....................................................... 40
4.2.1.2. Meaning of Eye in idioms ....................................................... 41
4.2.1.3. Meanings of Lip in idioms....................................................... 43
4.2.1.4. Meanings of Mouth in idioms ................................................. 44
4.2.1.5. Meaning of Nose in idioms ..................................................... 45

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4.2.2. Idioms containing the words EELM&N in English and their
Vietnamese equivalents in terms of semantics ........................................... 47
4.2.2.1. Idioms containing the word ―ear‖ in English and Vietnamese
equivalents. ............................................................................................. 47
4.2.2.2. Idioms containing the word ―eye‖ in English and Vietnamese

Language is considered as a system of communicating among people
who use sounds, symbols and words in expressing a meaning, idea or
thought. This language can be used in many forms, primarily through oral
and written communications as well as using expressions through body
language.
As we all know, language has changed through various periods of
language development. Each language also conveys a particular aspect of its
culture which prevents people from communicating each other effectively
and clearly. In addition, nowadays in the stage of integration, the more
society develops, the more people have great demands in communication.
Moreover, it is undeniable that acquiring good command in English is
beneficial to one‘s career and self-development. Therefore, English has
become an essential means in many fields such as education, business, and
medicine.
However, in the process of teaching as well as learning English as a
foreign language, native speakers of Vietnamese have faced many
challenging problems of understanding and using idioms properly. Idioms
are considered as a special form of language that carries a large amount of
cultural information, such as history, geography, religion, custom, thinking
pattern and so on. In our daily life, in order to express ourselves more
obiviously, we frequently need to call upon idioms that are defined by
Palmer (1990,p.46) as expressions whole meanings cannot be inferred from
the meaning of its part. Idioms, therefore, have a considerable role in a
foreign language as in the mother tongue. A good understanding of idioms is
the key for learners to know more about the target language as well as and to
avoid culture shocking during communication. Take the following examples:
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(1) ―The government shut its eyes to poverty‖

used by native speakers, idioms sound natural and fit the situation. A nonnative speaker, on the other hand, may know the basic meaning of such
expressions but still not be able to use them appropriately. Thus, mastering
idioms requires a great deal of interaction, practice, and usage.
Here and there, many researchers have analyzed the semantic and
syntactic features of idioms denoting some topics such as fruits, colors,
animals, human feelings, weather, money, clothing etc. However, the
semantic and syntactic features of idioms containing words: Ear, Eye, Lip,
Nose and Mouth have not been investigated so far. There is a need to study
some syntactic and semantic features of idioms containing these words in
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English and Vietnamese in the hope that the result of this study can help
Vietnamese learners of English improve their understanding of idioms and
apply idioms in communication so that their speech is more adequate,
natural, interesting and imaginative. Moreover, the investigation hopes to
provide learners with background knowledge about cultural aspects related
to the idioms they are approaching.
For these reasons above, we would like to choose a study of syntactic
and semantic features of idioms containing the words: “Ear”, “Eye”,
“Lip”, “Nose”, “Mouth” with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents
for our thesis topic with my desire to help language learners achieve correct
comprehension of idioms.
1.2. Aims of the research
The study, as entitled, focuses on syntactic and semantic features of
English idioms containing the words: EELM&N with reference to their
Vietnamese equivalents. Thus, the study is aimed at:
The first is to identify and point out the syntactic and semantic
charateristics of English idioms containing the words: EELM&N with
reference to their Vietnamese equivalents in a comparative analysis so as to

syntactic and semantic features of and idioms containing the words: Ear,
Eye, Lip, Mouth and Nose with inllustration examples are selected from
some reliable dictionaries , reference books and internet. It is hoped that the
outcome of this research thesis, to some extent, would be able to make a
certain contribution to enhance the quality of teaching and learning English.
1.5. Significance of the research
Idioms as a special form of language which makes people feel at a loss in
understanding conversations when they cannot guess the true meaning of
idioms in normal ways. From a dynamic view, learning English through
idioms is one of the effective ways to improve your English because idioms
carry a large amount of cultural features. Therefore, thanks to this research,
language learners can get a lot of advantages.

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First of all, this research could help learners grasp plentiful idioms
containing the words: Ear, Eye, Lip, Mouth and Nose in both English and
Vietnamese equivalents and use them better when learning English and
Vietnamese as a foreign language. Particularly, learners can make their
dream come true - to communicate more naturally, effectively and
successfully in conversations.
What is more, giving a description of semantic and syntactic features of
English idioms containing the words: EELM&N with Vietnamese
equivalents will be beneficial to learners to know how to use these idioms
properly get better results in translation. Besides, learning idioms provides
learners with a good opportunity to acquire information about a language‘s
culture because idioms enable learners to immerse in the way of speakers
expressing their inner thoughts, views, emotions and ideas.
As a whole, it is hoped that along with the understanding of the semantic

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter will provide background knowledge of the terms concerned,
including knowledge of semantic and syntactic features of idioms so as to
lay the foundation in theory for analysis of the points mentioned in the first
chapter. Especially, this chapter also gives theories mentioning the
relationship between idioms and culture. However, before presenting the
theories background related to the research, a brief review of previous
studies related to the study will be introduced as a matter of first priority.
2.1. Review of previous studies
The prosperity of language in form and content not only brings the beauty
of language but also deeply contributes to successful daily communications.
Every language in the world has large numbers of idioms. Idioms make color
for language. Idioms carry a large amount of nationally or culturally specific
information with them. It can be said that idioms are an interesting and
popular phenomenon of every language.
Up to now, there have been several investigations of human body part
and their roles in language. In English, we have Andersen, the author of
―Lexical Universal of Body-Part Terminology‖ published in 1978 [1]. In her
book, she also mentioned to the role of body parts in language acquisition
and child development. Basing on diary studies and children‘s early
vocabulary lists, she found out that children learn terms showing parts of the
head earlier than other parts of the body. It means that their earliest terms
apply to parts of the face. Bc. Martina Němcová (2013) [22] in
―Comparative analysis of English and French body idiom‖ deals with a
comparative study of the selected group of English and French body idioms
that contain the following body organs: hand, head and foot. The theoretical

semantic features of collocations of the words “skin” and “da” in
advertising in English and Vietnamese‖.
In short, all of these books and theses above could, to some extent, serve
as the basis for the theoretical background of this thesis. However, a study
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on idioms containing the words: EELM&N

has not been taken into

consideration. This is a reason why this thesis studies syntactic and semantic
features of English idioms containing the words: Ear, Eye, Lip, Nose and
Mouth with their Vietnamese equivalents. Thus, this study is thought to be
necessary.
2.2. Review of theoretical background
2.2.1. Theoretical framework
2.2.1.1. Theory of syntax
The term syntax is from the Ancient Greek sýntaxis, a verbal noun which
literally means ―arrangement‖ or ―setting out together‖. Traditionally, syntax
was the name of a branch of grammar dealing with the ways in which words,
with or without appropriate inflections, are arranged to show connections of
meanings within the sentence. The term syntax is then developed by Maggie
Tallerman as sentence construction (how words group together to make
phrases and sentences) and as a part of grammar. Maggie also added that
syntax ―is also used

to mean the study of the syntactic properties of

languages; in this sense it's used in the same way as we use "stylistics" to

et al. state, "…is an issue with respect to which theories within this
perspective differ.‖ In terms of structures, syntax focuses on two main sub
objects: clause structures and phrase structures (sentence structures are also
taken into consideration, but not much). Each structure of clause/phrase is
then splitted into different layers with specific constituent(s) and displayed in
a tree-diagram. In both clause and phrase structures, there is always a part
called the head (the nuclear) element which makes the structures different
from each other.
2.2.1.2. Theory of semantics
Whereas syntax is the grammar, structure, or order of the elements in a
language statement, semantics is the meaning of these elements. According
to Robert Dixon, (1991, p.40), “The word semantics derived from the Greek
semaino, meaning, to signify or mean. Semantics is a part of a larger study
of signs, semiotics. It is the part that deals with words as signs (symbol) and
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language as a system of sign (words as symbols)”. Knowing a language is
how to produce and understanding sentences with particular meanings. The
study of linguistic meaning, called semantics, is concerned with the meaning
of words, morphemes, phrases and sentences. The term meaning is, of
course, much more familiar to us all although there are numerous different
definitions of dictionaries. Palmer (1990) suggested that semantics is a part
of linguistics, a scientific study of language. Therefore, learners should
attempt to see what meaning is, or should be, within the framework of an
academic or scientific discipline rather than take the simple looking at the
common or even scholarly uses of the relevant terms. Semantics is a branch
of language study dealing with word meaning. Word meaning consists of
grammatical meaning and lexical meaning. Grammatical meaning unites all
grammatical characteristics of a word and lexical meaning is a realization of

have if you took the meaning of all individual words in the group‖.
Idioms have attracted the interest of Vietnamese linguistic researchers as
well. Mai Ngọc Chừ, Vũ Đức Nghiệu and Hoàng Trọng Phiến in Cơ Sở
Ngôn Ngữ Học Tiếng Việt [35, p.153-165] affirm that ―idioms are groups of
words which are syntactically restricted and have a particular meaning.
Their meaning are often imaginative and figurative”(Thành ngữ là cụm từ
cố định, hoàn chỉnh về cấu trúc và ý nghĩa. Nghĩa của chúng có tính hình
tượng và gợi cảm).
Sharing the same idea with Mai Ngọc Chừ, Vũ Đức Nghiệu and Hoàng
Trọng Phiến, Hoàng Văn Hành [38] states that ―idioms are set expressions
which are stable in morpho-structure, complete and figurative in meaning,
used widely in communication‖. (Thành ngữ là một loại tổ hợp từ cố định,
bền vững về hình thái cấu trúc, hoàn chỉnh, bóng bẩy về ý nghĩa, được sử
dụng rộng rãi trong giao tiếp thường ngày).
Hồ Lê [41] states that ―an idiom is a word combination which has a
stable structure and a figurative meaning, and it is used to describe an
image, a phenomenon, a characteristic or a state.‖

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From the definitions mentioned above, it can be seen that the term
―idiom‖ should be understood as a whole, not word-by-word and idioms are
very various in their structures and forms.
With the aims of syntactic and semantic analysis of idioms in both
English and Vietnamese, I intend to adopt the definition of idioms given out
by Fromkin, Collins and Blair [11, p.231], in which idioms are defined as
―fixed phrases, consisting of more than one word, with meanings that cannot
be inferred from the meanings of the individual words.‖
2.2.2.2. Idioms containing Ear, Eye, Lip, Nose, and Mouth

which make use of parts of the human body are more predictable than other
idioms, simply because as human beings we are completely familiar with our
perceptions of the shape, size, and functions of individual parts of our own
bodies, because we experience them every day. This is why it is easier for us
to interpret the meaning of idiomatic expressions containing parts of the
human body than. We can say that idioms containing the words: EELM&N
are idioms which denote a certain aspect of human being aiming to criticize,
dispraise or express emotion in an indirect way. We can have a look at some
illustrations as follows:
(5) You shouldn‘t say things like that about people all the time. Everyone
will say you have a big mouth.

[53]

(6) Thật đúng với câu “cả vú lấp miệng em”. Phát biểu trên báo chí mà ông
này liên tục đập bàn, bọt sùi ra hai bên mép trắng xóa.

[50]

2.2.2.3. Typical Features of idioms
The English language abounds in idioms like any other highly developed
tongues. They consist of set phrases and short sentences, which are peculiar
to the language in question and loaded with the native cultures and ideas.
Therefore, idioms are colourful, forcible and thought provoking. Strictly
speaking, idioms are expressions that are not readily understandable from
their literal meanings of individual elements, for example, fly off the handle
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