MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS

A STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES
OF IDIOMS DENOTING SADNESS IN ENGLISH WITH
REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA THÀNH
NGỮ TIẾNG ANH BIỂU THỊ CẢM XÚC BUỒN TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ
TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYỄN THỊ VINH

Hanoi, 2016


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS

A STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES
OF IDIOMS DENOTING SADNESS IN ENGLISH WITH
REFERENCES TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(NGHIÊN CỨU ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA THÀNH
NGỮ TIẾNG ANH BIỂU THỊ CẢM XÚC BUỒN TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ
TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT)

NGUYỄN THỊ VINH
Field: English Language

suggestions, encouragement and constructive supervision in writing of this
report. His enlightening suggestions and detailed comments have shaped
this dissertation largely. Without his help, this field study report would have
been impossible.
A special word of thanks goes to all my lecturers at Ha Noi Open
University and many others, without whose support and encouragement it
would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished.
Thanks are also due to all other staff members of English Department
at Hung Yen Medical College who have been of great help.
I am indebted to all those who have kindly advised and helped me
towards the completion of my study report.
Last but not least, my sincere thanks go to my family whose love and
encouragement have been equally important to my educational endeavors,
especially my husband and my children who encouraged and helped me to
carry out the thesis.

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ABSTRACT
This study investigates syntactic and semantic features of idioms
denoting SADNESS

in

English with

reference

to

N: Noun
NP: Noun Phrase of preposition
Num: Number
Prep : Preposition
Prep P: Preposition Phrase
S: Subject
V: Verb
VP: Verb Phrase

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1

Similarities and differences between proverbs and idioms

24

Table 4.1

A summary of idioms denoting SADNESS in English with

55

reference to the Vietnamese in terms of syntactic
features
Table 4.2


1.5. Significance of the study ......................................................................... ..4
1.6. Structural organization of the study............................................................5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................... 6
2.1. Review of previous studies .........................................................................6
2.2. Review of theoretical background ..............................................................8
2.2.1. Theoretical framework.............................................................................8
2.2.1.1. Theory of syntax ...................................................................................8
2.2.1.2. Theory of semantics ..............................................................................9
2.2.2. Overview of English and Vietnamese idioms .........................................10
2.2.2.1. Definition of English idioms ................................................................10
2.2.2.2. Features of English idioms ...................................................................12
2.2.2.3. Features of Vietnamese idioms .............................................................19
2.2.3. Classification of idioms ...........................................................................22
2.2.3.1. Idioms and Proverbs .............................................................................22
2.2.3.2. Idioms and phrases ...............................................................................25
2.2.4. Overview of SADNESS ..........................................................................26
2.2.4.1. Definition of Sadness ............................................................................26


2.2.4.2. Idioms denoting Sadness .....................................................................27
2.5. Summary .....................................................................................................27
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .....................................................................28
3.1. Research-governing orientations ................................................................28
3.1.1. Research questions...................................................................................28
3.1.2. Research setting .......................................................................................29
3.1.3. Research approach ...................................................................................29
3.1.4. Criteria for intended data collection and data analysis ............................30
3.2. Research methods .......................................................................................31
3.2.1. Major methods vs supporting methods ....................................................31
3.2.2. Data collection techniques .......................................................................32



CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale of the research
Language plays an important role in human life because language is
the significant mean in communication. However, language of each country
can not be similar to each other due to its different culture, tradition, belief
and custom. Language and culture are two concepts which always go along
with each other and have close relationship with the development of their
nations.
In different nations, the meanings of the words and utterances are also
dissimilar. A word or a sentence can have plenty of meanings (literal
meaning, figurative meaning, denotative meaning and narrow meaning). For
example: In Vietnamese, “cơm niêu nước lọ”does not only mean “the rice in
the earthenware pot and the water in the jar” but also “the poor". Therefore,
it is easily misunderstood for those who study Vietnamese as a foreign
language.
With regard to the role of language and culture, the usage of idioms in
human life cannot be underrated. Idioms have been created along with the
development of communication in human society. Idioms reflect typical
culture, tradition, custom of each nation. Palmer (19) described that they are
expressions whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meaning of its
parts. The meaning of the idioms cannot be deduced from the individual
words because both the grammar and the order of words in the idiom are
fixed, and if their forms are changed, the idioms will lose their meanings.
The main messages of the idioms are often hidden under surface words, thus
it becomes a challenge for foreign language learners. In many case, idioms
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The third aim is that through this research, I do hope to be able to
give some possible suggestions for Vietnamese EFL learners at Hungyen
medical college to improve the learners’ understanding and using idioms
denoting Sadness.
1.3. Objectives of the research
With the above aims, the first objective of the study is to find main
syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting SADNESS in English
with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents.
The second objective is to discover the similarities and differences of
idioms denoting SADNESS in English with reference to the Vietnamese
equivalents in term of syntactic and semantic features.
The last one is to suggest some implications for teaching and learning
idioms denoting SADNESS in English.
1.4. Scope of the research
1.4.1. Academic scope
The research is expected to contribute an in-depth description of
idioms denoting SADNESS in English when analyzing their syntactic and
semantic features in comparison with their Vietnamese equivalents.
1.4.2. Social scope
To complete the research thesis, all the material collection of idioms
denoting SADNESS in English and their Vietnamese equivalents with
illustration 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
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objective, the scope, the significance and the structural organization.
Chapter II - Literature review- gives the overview of the previous
studies relating to the area of the research and covers some theoretical
backgrounds that could be used as foundation for the process of conducting
the research.
Chapter III - Methodology - presents the research questions and
research approach with various methods and techniques to conduct the
research thesis.
Chapter IV - Findings and discussions - describes and analyzes the
syntactic and semantic features of idioms denoting
English and Vietnamese

equivalents

and

provides

SADNESS in
some

possible

implications for teaching and learning idioms denoting SADNESS in
English and Vietnamese equivalents.
Chapter V – Conclusion - summaries the major findings resulted from
the investigation and data analysis, presents the limitations of the study, and
suggests some further researches.

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get a wide knowledge of idioms as well as understand one easily. Howard
[10] classified idioms in terms of syntax and grammar. The author defined
idioms as being semantically opaque and stated that collocation could
provide a useful framework for revising idioms.
In Vietnamese, idioms have been also an interesting field for
linguists. Hoàng Văn Hành [24] deeply analyzed structural and semantic
features of idioms as well as collected a large amount of Vietnamese idioms.
Additionally, Nguyễn Như Ý, Nguyễn Văn Khang, Mai Xuân Thành [38]
published a dictionary in which they classified Vietnamese idioms in the
alphabetical order with their meaning and examples originally extracted
from novels, newspapers, magazines and so on. In “Thành Ngữ Tiếng Việt"
36], Nguyễn Lực and Lương Văn Đang showed a large number of idioms as
well as their variants which were collected with original examples extracted
from Vietnamese novels, newspapers and magazines. Besides, Nguyễn Lân
[34] has also arranged idioms in the alphabetical order and explained their
meanings. What is more, idioms have been recognized and explained with
particular examples in many books such “Giúp em học Thành Ngữ Tục Ngữ ”
by Đặng Thiêm [23], “Từ Điển Thành Ngữ Anh Việt" by Dương Ngọc DũngNinh Hùng [22], “Thành Ngữ & Tục Ngữ Việt Nam chọn lọc” by Trần Quang
Mân [39] and “Tuyển tập thành ngữ , tục ngữ , ca dao Việt -Anh thông
dụng” by Nguyễn Đình Hưng [27].and so on. Furthermore, there are several
research papers that have some relationship with various aspects of idioms.
For instance

"Semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms of

happiness and sadness: A cognitive linguistic perspective"(2010) by Nguyễn
Thi Lâm."A contrast study of grammatical and semantic features of words
and idioms denoting unhappiness in English and Vietnamese" (2011) by
Nguyễn Thị Tân Bình. "A contrast analysis of idioms denoting human being

literal, contextualized, grammatical meaning. The most commonly agreedupon definition of semantics remains the one given by Bre’al as “the science
of the meanings of words and of the changes in their meaning”. With this

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definition, semantics is included under lexicology, the more general science
of words, being its most important branch.
Semantics (as the study of meaning) is central to the study of
communication and as communication becomes more and more a crucial
factor in social organization, the need to understand it becomes more and
more pressing. Semantics is also at the centre of the study of the human
mind- thought processes, cognition, conceptualization- all these are
intricately bound up with the way in which we classify and convey our
experience of the world through language.
2.2.2. Overview of English and Vietnamese idioms
2.2.2.1. Definition of English idioms
So far, There have seen several definitions of idioms.
According to Wikipedia [42], the word “idiom” comes from the Latin
word “idiom” - it means “special property”. “It’s an expression consisting
of a combination of word that has a figurative meaning. The figurative
meaning is comprehended in regard to a common use of the expression that
is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is
made”.
In the definition of Hornby [11, p.589], an idiom is “a phrase or
sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual
words and which must be learnt as a whole unit”.
Carter [3,p.65] defines “idioms as special combinations with
restricted forms and meanings that cannot deduced from the literal
meanings of the words which make them up.”

From these above definitions, there is no conflict between definitions
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of idioms mentioned-above in spite of some different ways of expressing.
They integrate at one point that an idiom is a fixed expression whose
meaning cannot be worked out by combining the literal meaning of its
individual words . We can also recognize that most authors have the similar
view of idioms. They agree that idioms is “a word, a phrase, a set expression
”or “fixed phrase ”whose meaning does not concern the meaning of the

individual words in the expression.
From the structural point of view, most idioms are stable in structure
and restricted in lexicon. All of words in idioms are fixed. If we make
changes in idioms, their real meaning will not remain. For example, the
meaning of sob your heart out.It does not mean that your heart is sodded out
(sob your heart out means to cry noisily for very long time because you are
very sad ). In Vietnamese, the idiom “Mặt mày ủ dột”cannot be changed into
“mặt ủ mày dột ”or “Mặt nặng như chì ”cannot be understood as “mặt như chì

nặng”.
Semantically, the meaning of an idiom is different from the meaning
of individual words so it is hard to understand its meaning because it is built
by specific images and symbols with simile and metaphor. For example, in
the idiom down to the dump, we know the meaning of each word but it’s
difficult to get the meaning of the whole idiom (it means very unhappy)
In general, all of these above definitions, the one given by Fromkin,
Collins and Blair is the clearest definition of idioms. Therefore, it has been
considered as the main reference for my research.
2.2.2.2. Features of English idioms

which

the

other

constituents

cluster.

The determinative which determines the reference of the noun phrase
in its linguistic or situational context has four types (Articles
Demonstratives, Possessive, and Indefinite).
Pre-modification, which comprises all the modifying or describing
constituents before the head, other than the determiners.

14


Post determiners, those which comprise all the modifying
constituents placed after the head.
The parentheses indicate the elements of the structure that may be
absent.
NOUN PHRASE

(determiner(s))

(pre modifier(s))

noun head