Vietnam national university - Hanoi university of languages and InTERNATIONAL STUDIES Department of Post-graduate studies TRẦN THẾ KHOA A Study on Family-Related English and Vietnamese Proverbs (From a Lingual-Cultural Perspective) NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC TỤC NGỮ LIÊN QUAN ĐẾN MỐI QUAN HỆ GIA ĐÌNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT (NHÌN TỪ GĨC ĐỘ NGƠN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HỐ) M.A MINOR THESIS Major: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 HÀ NỘI, 8/2009 Vietnam national university - Hanoi university of languages and InTERNATIONAL STUDIES Department of Post-graduate studies TRẦN THẾ KHOA A Study on Family-Related English and Vietnamese Proverbs (From a Lingual-Cultural Perspective) NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC TỤC NGỮ LIÊN QUAN ĐẾN MỐI QUAN HỆ GIA ĐÌNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT (NHÌN TỪ GĨC ĐỘ NGƠN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HỐ) M.A MINOR THESIS Major: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Văn Độ HÀ NỘI, 8/2009 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION……………………………………………………………………….i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………….ii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………iii INTRODUCTION Rationale…………………………………………………………………………….1 Aims of the Study……………………………………………… ………………….2 Scopes of the Study…………………………………………… ……………… Methods of the Study…………………………………………….…………………3 Design of the Study……………………………………… ……………………… DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 The Relationship between Language and Culture 1.1.1 Culture……………………………………………………………………………4 1.1.2 Language…………………………………………………………………………4 1.1.3 The Relationship between Language and Culture…………….……………… 1.2 Comparison between Two Cultures……………………………………….……….6 1.2.1 Same Form, Different Meaning 1.2.2 Same Meaning, Different Form 1.2.3 Same Form, Same Meaning, Different Distribution 1.3 Definitions of Proverbs and Family Proverbs 1.3.1 Definitions of Proverbs………………………………………………………… 1.3.2 Family Proverbs………………………………………………………………….9 1.4 Definitions of Idioms……………………….…………………………………… 10 1.5 Proverbs versus Idioms, Sayings, Conventional Phrases and Phrasal Verbs…… 11 1.6 Main Features of Proverbs from a Language-Cultural Perspective 1.6.1 National Features……………………………………………………………… 12 1.6.2 Meanings of Proverbs………………………………………………….……… 13 1.6.2.1 Synecdoche 1.6.2.2 Metaphor 1.6.3 Rhyming Words in Proverbs……………………………………………………13 v 1.6.4 Contrary Proverbs…………………………………………………………… 13 1.7 Summary……………………………………………………………… ……… 13 CHAPTER 2: TENTATIVE CLASSIFICATION AND COMPARISON OF FAMILYRELATED ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE PROVERBS 2.1 Tentative Classification of Family-Related English and Vietnamese Proverbs 14 2.2 Comparison of Family-Related English and Vietnamese Proverbs 2.2.1 Attitudes towards Women………………………………………… …….15 2.2.1.1 Attitudes towards Women in Family-Related Vietnamese Proverbs 2.2.1.2 Attitudes towards Women in Family-Related English Proverbs 2.2.2 Love ……………………………………………………………………….18 2.2.2.1 Love in Family-Related Vietnamese Proverbs……………………… 18 2.2.2.2 Love in Family-Related English Proverbs………………… ……….19 2.2.3 Marriage 2.2.3.1 Marriage in Family-Related Vietnamese Proverbs…………… ……19 2.2.3.2 Marriage in Family-Related English Proverbs……………………… 21 2.2.4 Choosing Mates 2.2.4.1 Choosing Mates in Family-Related Vietnamese Proverbs……………22 2.2.4.2 Choosing Mates in Family-Related English Proverbs……………… 23 2.2.5 Husband-Wife Relationship……………………………………………….24 2.2.5.1 Husband-Wife Relationship in Family-Related Vietnamese Proverbs 2.2.5.2 Husband-Wife Relationship in Family-Related English Proverbs 2.2.6 Divorce, Remarriage and Polygamy……………………………… …….26 2.2.6.1 Divorce, Remarriage and Polygamy in Family-Related Vietnamese Proverbs 2.2.6.2 Divorce, Remarriage and Polygamy in Family-Related English Proverbs 2.2.7 Parentage……………………………………………………….………….28 2.2.7.1 Parents-Offspring Relationship in Family-Related Vietnamese Proverbs 2.2.7.2 Parents-Offspring Relationship in Family-Related English Proverbs 2.2.7.3 Parents’ Attitudes towards Offspring 2.2.7.4 Offspring’s Duties towards Parents vi 2.2.8 Brotherhood and Sisterhood, and the Relationship between Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law……………………………………………………….31 2.2.8.1 Brotherhood and Sisterhood 2.2.8.2 Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law Relationship 2.2.9 General Rules on Behaviours in British and Vietnamese Societies……… 33 2.3 Summary………………………………………………………………………….35 CONCLUSION Recapitulation……………………………………………………………………….37 Implication of English and Vietnamese Proverbs for English Language Teaching and Learning………………………………………………………………………….…….38 Suggestions for Further Studies…………………………………………… …… 39 REFERENCES………………………………………………………… ……………40 APPENDIX .I Introduction Rationale We are living in an era of globalization and integration English, an international language has become a very necessary means of communication and cross-communication has become a pivotal demand for people the world over English may be considered to be the language of dancing since dancing is a language and you can speak with anyone Through language, people can express their opinions and exchange their ideas Moreover, they can exchange their material and spiritual values making the cultural knowledge of one another richer and more diversified Nevertheless, in each language there exist similar and different cultural concepts on many aspects of life such as customs, traditions, social conventions, human values, attitudes, behaviours, etc How can a foreign language learner communicate successfully with native speakers if they have poor understanding of the language itself and the language related to culture Through proverbs, each person knows the other’s point of view and ways of thinking Moreover, we understand one another via customs, traditions, lifestyles, etc We become friendly as a result Dr Denis Brutus, a Literature professor at the University of Pittsburgh, the USA, specified and extended the reality of the research of proverbs He said, “Through proverbs, I know your points of view, the attitudes of your ancestors Each time I know a new Vietnamese proverb, I become Vietnamese a little I believe when we know all proverbs of each other, we are brothers.” Somalian people said, “Proverbs put spice into speech.” Yobura people in South Africa consider the proverb to be an animal which nods its head when climbing uphill They said, “The proverb is the horse of conversation, when the conversation drops, the proverb picks it up” Vietnamese people regard the proverb as a pearl of academic thinking or a twinkling mist in literature In Vietnam, more and more people are eager to learn English and the need for learning English is becoming very urgent Most of the learners complain about the difficulties that prevent them from succeeding in conversations One of the main reasons is that they are not good enough at perceiving and using idioms, especially proverbs The usage of proverbs is to express ideas in a figurative way, draw good lessons via them and bring vividness and richness to the speaker’s conversation If a speaker uses proverbs skillfully, he/she can establish a good communicative relationship In terms of teaching English, lessons will be more interesting and effective if the teacher knows how to apply proverbs to designing different activities in an English class: quizzes, games, roleplay, etc Moreover, family-related English and Vietnamese proverbs interest me most because via these proverbs, I can draw very good lessons and know how to behave and treat others Each family is a social cell We will have a fair society if all the families are valuesoriented Moreover, family relationships play a very important role in educating children, the future generation For the above-mentioned reasons, I have decided to choose this theme for my minor thesis Aims of the Study - To find out the cultural features in family relationships in British and Vietnamese societies via English and Vietnamese proverbs (norms and values of culture, attitudes, behaviours and ways of denotation or emotional expression, etc.) - To find out the interesting things and the core, elegance, vividness and meaningfulness of family-related English and Vietnamese proverbs via which significant educational lessons will be highlighted and we can absorb the beautiful elegance and keep continuing the cultural lines - To apply family-related English and Vietnamese proverbs to teaching and learning both English and Vietnamese for Vietnamese people and foreigners, to create interesting and effective lessons and to form moral norms so as to educate students to become good citizens - To contrast the beauty, essence and elegance of family-related English and Vietnamese proverbs and their usage Scopes of the Study Proverbs are plentiful in both English and Vietnamese Therefore, it is impossible for the author to carry out an all-rounded study on them Only family-related proverbs are selected and a comparison between English and Vietnamese is made to distinguish one from the other In this study, only semantic features of family-related English and Vietnamese proverbs are discussed; cultural features are analyzed, not syntactic ones All English and Vietnamese proverbs are collected from dictionaries, books and the Internet Hence, this research does not cover all family-related English and Vietnamese proverbs, just those of common use (more than 200 Vietnamese proverbs and about 200 English proverbs) Methods of the Study Contrastive Analysis is the main research approach used in my M.A minor thesis Quantitative and qualitative methods are used By virtue of the quantitative method, data have been collected for the study including both English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting family relationships The qualitative method is applied to describe and analyze the data of the study Using statistics and deduction can help the author of this minor thesis to improve his teaching This can be applied to English teaching and learning at Quang Ninh Center for Continuing Education and Cadre Training Design of the Study This minor thesis consists of three main parts In addition to the Introduction and Conclusion, the study is organized around two chapters The Introduction raises the issue of English and Vietnamese proverbs in family setting Chapter deals with the relationship between language and culture, the comparison between two cultures, several definitions of proverbs, main features of proverbs, the differences among proverbs, idioms, sayings, conventional phrases and phrasal verbs Chapter is concerned with the classification and comparison between English and Vietnamese proverbs within family setting The Conclusion sums up the main issues discussed in the thesis The author also raises his own opinion on the topic and suggests several ideas for further studies Development Chapter 1: Theoretical background 1.1 The Relationship between Language and Culture 1.1.1 Culture In Goodenough’s definition (1957:167), the term “culture” is used in the sense that a person must know whatever so as to function in a particular society Culture may be described by some people as opera, fine art, and so on, as in the definition of Oxford Advanced learner’s Dictionary (1992), culture is “refined understanding and appreciation of art, literature.” Culture, however, in our sense in relation to language is the way we act, the context in which we exist, think, feel and relate to others According to Kottak, C.P (1979: 40), culture, taken in its widest sense, is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” In this definition, culture is taken as socially acquired knowledge in a community and anything like habits However, this definition is a rather large one to consider the relationship between language and culture Therefore, culture is the know-how that a person must possess to get through the task of daily living; only for a few does it require a knowledge of some, or much, music, literature, and the arts 1.1.2 Language The linguistic concept of language is the central focus, not the metaphorical uses of the language concept that one meets in other cultural and societal studies, not least those with a semiotic or formal orientation, and in everyday language Stuart Hall described language like this: How does language construct meanings? How does it sustain the dialogue between participants which enables them to build up a culture of shared understanding and so interpret the world in roughly the same ways? Language is able to this because it operates as a representational system In language, we use signs and symbols – whether they are sounds, written words, electronically produced images, musical notes, even objects – to stand for or represent to other people our concepts, ideas and feelings (Stuart Hall, 1997: 1) 1.1.3 The Relationship between Language and Culture According to Kramsch (2000: 3), language is the principle means whereby we conduct our social lives When it is used in communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways Kramsch, one of the most important recent researchers within the field of language, culture and learning, says in her book Language and Culture (1998a: 30 that: + language expresses cultural reality; + language embodies cultural reality; + language symbolises cultural reality Kramsch’s presentation moves the view of the relationship between language and culture in a post-structuralist direction, even though she herself does not use this term in her 1998 book The first point: “language expresses cultural reality” Kramsch explains in the following way: The words people utter refer to common experience They express facts, ideas or events that are communicable because they refer to a stock of knowledge about the world that other people share Words also reflect their author’s attitudes and beliefs, their point of view, as well as those of others In both cases, language expresses cultural reality (Kramsch, 1998a: 3) The second point: “language embodies cultural reality” she explains as follows: But members of a community or social group … also create experience through language They give meaning to it through the medium they choose to communicate with one another, for example, speaking in the telephone or face to face, writing a letter or sending an e-mail message, reading the newspaper or interpreting a graph or a chart The way in which people use the spoken, written, or visual medium itself creates meanings that are understandable to the group they belong to, for example, through a speaker’s tone of voice, accent, conversational style, gestures and facial expressions Through all its verbal and non-verbal aspects, language embodies cultural reality (Kramsch, 1998a: 3) The third point: “language symbolises cultural reality” is described as follows: … language is a system of signs that is seen as having itself a cultural value Speakers identify themselves and others through their use of language (Kramsch, 1998a: 3) J.A Fishman is probably the sociolinguist who has dealt most and for the longest time with the relationship between language and culture, especially in connection with the ... (From a Lingual-Cultural Perspective) NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC TỤC NGỮ LIÊN QUAN ĐẾN MỐI QUAN HỆ GIA ĐÌNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT (NHÌN TỪ GĨC ĐỘ NGƠN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HỐ) M .A MINOR THESIS Major: English. ..Vietnam national university - Hanoi university of languages and InTERNATIONAL STUDIES Department of Post-graduate studies TRẦN THẾ KHOA A Study on Family-Related English and Vietnamese Proverbs (From. .. contrary proverbs add spice to the elegance of proverbs chapter tentative Classification and comparison of family-related English and Vietnamese proverbs 2.1 Tentative Classification of Family-Related