MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ THANH MAI A STUDY ON ENGLISH IDIOMS DENOTING "FEAR” WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC BIỂU ĐẠT MANG TÍNH THÀNH NGỮ VỀ NỖI SỢ HÃI TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT) M.A THESIS Field: English Language Code: 60220201 Hanoi, 2015 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ THANH MAI A STUDY ON ENGLISH IDIOMS DENOTING “FEAR” WITH REFERENCE TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC BIỂU ĐẠT MANG TÍNH THÀNH NGỮ VỀ NỖI SỢ HÃI TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG VỚI TIẾNG VIỆT) M.A THESIS Field: English Language Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Dr Trần Thị Thu Hiền Hanoi, 2015 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled A study on English idioms denoting “FEAR” with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2015 Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date:…………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to complete this thesis First of all, I am deeply indebted to my beloved supervisor, Dr Trần Thị Thu Hiền for the invaluable support, enthusiastic guidance, and encouragement he gave me throughout my research I am truly grateful to her for his advice and suggestions right from the beginning when this study was only in its formative stage Without her untiring patience in reading the manuscript and clarifying my ideas, the thesis would have never been in the current shape Secondly, I would like to give our thanks to all lectures of Postgraduate Faculty at Hanoi Open University for their valuable teaching and tremendous assistance that have enlightened my study path Thirdly, I am also indebted to the field workers who were kind enough to tolerate the painstaking task of collecting the data Then my thanks also sent to my classmates at the Master Course Class who have taken time and trouble to alert me to errors in my thesis and provided me with useful data on which this thesis is based Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to family members whose support and encouragements have greatly contributed to the completion of my study For my little experience and knowledge, I would like to receive more useful comments from lectures and others ii ABSTRACT Idioms are used regularly and naturally in everyday communication, however, the inner meaning of the concept of idioms is still unclear to a lot of people Therefore, The author thinks a study on the subject of idioms in Vietnamese and English is helpful for improving the knowledge of language learners, as well as the students learning English in general In the study the author finds out that : first, a semantic and culture analysis of English idioms denoting fear has shown that English idioms denoting fear mentions death, a number of others mention life/ live/living in expressing fear Besides that the use of white colour in English idioms can be explained by their climate with cold weather and white snow Clearly, the climate not only helps build English people personality but also affect their language, particularly idioms denoting fear While in Vietnamese, fear appears more colourful with colours related to our daily life and planting agriculture Second, the comparison between English and Vietnamese idioms in terms of semantics has proposed that English idioms use coldness as the main domain to denote fear while Vietnamese ones use soul and spirit as the key domain together with agricultural country so daily images are used in idioms And the author also think s that the idiom is not only a particular semantic item - an important part of the language but also reflects the cultural characteristics of each ethnic group Idioms are classified in different groups in which the author chooses idioms of English idiomatic expressions denoting “FEAR” to be my subjects as they occupy a significant role and have special structure, is an appropriate subject for a study contrastive iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 2.1 A Selection of Lists of “Basic” Emotion Table 4.1: Brief description of the semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms denoting fear of human feelings iv TABLE CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES iv Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the research 1.2 Aims of the research 1.3 Objectives of research 1.4 Scope of the research 1.5 Significance of the research 1.6 Structural organization of the thesis Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Review of previous studies 2.2 Review of theoretical background 2.2.1 Theoretical framework 2.1.2 Theoretical background 2.1.2.1 Idioms 2.1.2.2 Idioms and other languages units 18 2.2.2.2 Human Emotions 22 2.3 Summary 26 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 27 3.1 Research-governing orientations 27 3.1.1 Research questions 27 3.1.2 Research setting 27 3.1.3 Research approaches 28 3.1.4 Criteria for intended data collection and data analysis 28 3.2 Research methods 29 3.2.1 Major methods versus supporting methods 29 3.2.2 Data collection techniques 29 3.2.3 Data analysis techniques 30 3.3 Summary 31 Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 33 4.1 Semantic features of English idioms denoting Fear with reference to Vietnamese equivalents 33 Table 4.1: Brief description of the semantic features of English and Vietnamese idioms denoting fear of human feelings 34 4.1.1 Similarities 35 4.1.1.1 Fear in the nature of coldness 36 4.1.1.2 Fear in using parts of body 37 4.1.2 Differences 38 4.1.2.1 Fear is soul and spirit leaving the body 39 4.1.2.2 Fear is a part of body 40 4.1.2.3 Fear in the feature of country 40 4.1.2.4 Fear is facing the death 41 4.1.2.5 Fear is mind-absence 41 4.2 Cultural features of English idioms denoting fear with reference to Vietnamese equivalents 42 4.2.1 Similarities 42 4.2.1.1 The reflection of religion 42 4.2.1.2 The reflection of social background 43 4.2.2 Differences 45 4.2.2.1 The point of view 45 4.1.1.2 The use of colour 45 4.3 Implications 47 4.3.1 General suggestions on teaching idioms 47 4.3.1.1 Cultural differences 48 4.3.1.2 Word order in idioms 49 4.3.1.3 Idioms and sound patterns 49 4.3.2 A model lesson 50 4.3.2.1 Activity 1: Find someone who is afraid 50 4.3.2.2 Activity 2: Combining language and living skills 52 4.3.2.3 Longer lessons: Integrated skills 54 4.3 Summary 65 Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS 66 5.1 Recapitulation 66 5.2 Concluding remarks 66 5.3 Limitations of the current research 67 5.4 Recommendations and suggestions for a further research 68 5.4.1 Recommendations 68 5.4.2 Suggestions for a further research 68 REFERENCES 69 BIBLIOGRAPHY 72 APPENDIX 73 APPENDIX 79 Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the research Idioms have always attracted attention of linguists, although they were not given enough recognition in the past The new trends in English syntactic and semantic studies, however, have thrown a completely different light on these multi-word units with more or less unpredictable meanings Being regarded as something inherently linked with a successful acquisition of a foreign language, idioms are of great importance in any language system With different levels of figurativeness they represent indispensable semantic elements that help any foreign language speaker sound more native and proficient It is obvious that different languages will have different idioms, both in structure and meaning Also the repertoire of idioms will vary from one person to another, depending on their social or intellectual background Human feelings are very complicated as Fernando (1997; 12) said “Emotions are internal and formless, language, in this case primarily idioms signifying internal states through images, gives emotions from and so empowers the language users to concretize the amorphous by bringing two different experiential gestalts into analogical correspondence” People use various means of language to express their different feelings such as joy, grief, sorrow, fear, anger … The idiom is one of the most popular means used to express these human feelings in daily communication especially fear such as “hết hồn hết vía, sợ sái thần tài, gai ốc” There have been some studies of fear by Nguyễn Thị Thủy (2010), of human feelings by Võ Thanh Quyên (2006) and the thesis entitled “Đối chiếu thành ngữ trạng thái tâm lý tiếng Anh tiếng Việt” by Lâm Thị ENGLISH Anthony.K (1996) A Comparative Idiom Retrieved from http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kroch/omev2-html/node15.html Cacciari C., Tabossi P., (1993), Idioms: Processing, Structure, and Interpretation, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Collins H (2000), Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms, Harper Collins Publishers, London Cowie A P., Mackin R., McCaig I R, (1975), Oxford dictionary of current idiomatic English, Oxford University Press, London Di Sciullo A M., Williams E (1987), On the definition of word, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA Ekman P., Friesen W V., Ellsworth P (1982), Emotion in the human face (pp 39-55), Cambridge University Press, New York Encyclopædia Britannica (2010) Emotion, Retrieved from Britannica.com Evans V., Green M (2006), Cognitive linguistics: an introduction Retrieved from Books.google.com Fernando C (1997), Idioms and Idiomaticity, Oxford University Press, Oxford Izard C E (1977), Human Emotions, Plenum Press, New York Jackson H., Amvela E Z (2000), Words, Meanings and Vocabulary, London Cassell, London Kovecses Z (2003), Metaphor and emotion: language, culture, and body in human feeling, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Ortony A., Turner T J (1990), What's basic about basic emotions? Psychological Review Retrieved from En.wikipedia.org Oxford University Press (2006), Oxford Idioms, London Plutchik R (1980), The Nature of Emotions, Retrieved from En.wikipedia.org Seidl J., Mordie W Mc (1978), English idioms and how to use them, Oxford University Press, Oxford Watson J B (1936), A History of Psychology in Autobiography,Vol III, Clark University Press, MA BIBLIOGRAPHY Oxford Dictionary of Idioms(2010), Từ Điển Thành Ngữ Anh-Anh-Việt (2004), Thành Ngữ Tiếng Việt (2009), Từ Điển Thành Ngữ Tục Ngữ Việt Nam (2008), Từ Điển Thành Ngữ Tục Ngữ Việt Nam (2006); En.wikipedia.org, News.google.com Books.google.com www.learn-english-today.com 10 M.A Thesis “ A study of syntactic and semantic features of idioms expressing anger in English and Vietnamese”, Nguyen Th Thu Hien (2013) 11 M.A thesis “ A constrastive analysis of idioms denoting Fear in English and Vietnamese”, Nguyen Thi Thuy (2010) APPENDIX ENGLISH IDIOMS OF FEAR A bag of nerves A bundle of nerves A chill runs/goes down sb’s spine A fraidy/scaredy cat A millstone around/round sb’s neck A/the sword of Damocles A yellow streak Be at your wits‟ end Be caught/freeze like a deer/rabbit in headlights 10 Be climbing the walls 11 Be frightened/nervous/scared of your own shadow 12 Be frightened/scared/worried to death 13 Be in a (cold) sweat 14 Be in/get into a flap 15 Be/stand in awe of sb 16 Be/go in fear of your life 17 Be in/get into a state 18 Be in/get into a stew 19 Be in a tizzy/tizz 20 Be/feel like jelly 21 Be looking over your shoulder 22 Be on tenterhooks 23 Be/go out of your mind with worry/fear/horror 24 Be quaking/shaking in your boots/shoes 25 Be riveted/rooted/glued to the spot/ground 26 Be scared witless 27 Be sick with worry 28 Be struck dumb 29 Be the death of sb 30 Be worried sick 31 Bite your (finger) nails 32 Break out in a cold sweat 33.Catch your breath 34 Chill sb to the bone/marrow 35 Do your nut 36 Frighten/scare the (living) life out of sb 37 Frighten/scare sb out their wits 38 Frighten/scare the shit out of sb 39 fools rush in where angels fear to tread 40 fear the worst 41 Get/have cold feet 42 Get on top of sb 43 Get/have the jitters 44 Get/have the shivers/willies 45 Get/have the wind up 46 Give sb a turn 47 Give sb the shivers 48 Give sb the willies/heebie-jeebies/creeps 49 Go got and cold 50 Go to pieces 51 Hang over sb/sb‟s head 52 Have (got) ants in your pants 53 I shudder/dread to think 54 Have/get butterflies in your stomach 55 Have (got) sth on your mind 56 Hold your breath 57 Hot and bothered 58 In a (flat) spin 59 In fear and trembling 60 Jump out of your skin 61 Lead sb a (merry) dance 62 Like a cat on hot bricks 63 Make a song and dance about sth 64 Make your blood run cold/freeze 65 Make your flesh creep/crawl 66 Make your skin crawl 67 On edge 68 On pins and needles 69 On the rack 70 on tenterhooks 71 Panic station 72 Prey on your mind 73 Put the fear of God into sb 74 Put the screws on sb 75 Put the wind up 76 Raise the spectre of sth 77 Run a mile 78 Scare sb shitless 79 Scare the hell out of sb 80 Scare the (living) daylights out of sb 81 Scare the pants off sb 82 Send a chill/chills up/down your spine 83 Send a shiver/shivers down/up your back/spine 84 Shake like a jelly/leaf 85 Sth is on your mind 86 Stop/halt/freeze in your tracks 87 Stop/halt sb in their tracks 88 Strike/fear/terror into sb/sb‟s heart 89 Sweat blood 90 Take fright (at sth) 91 Tear your hair (out) 92 The fright of your life 93 Throw up your hands/arms in horror 94 Tongue-tied 95 Too close for comfort 96 Turn to jelly 97 Weigh on your mind 98 Whistle in the dark 99 White as a sheet/ghost 100 With a heavy/sinking heart 101 With bated breath 102 Wring your hands 103 You had me worried 104 Your hair stands on end 105 Your heart is in your mouth 106 Your heart misses a beat 107 Your knees are knocking APPENDIX VIETNAMESE IDIOMS OF FEAR Ba chân bốn cẳng Bán sống bán chết Bạt hồn bạt vía Bạt phong long địa Bạt vía kinh hồn Bước thấp bước cao Bụng nát Bò thấy nhà táng Bàng hoàng rùng rợn 10 Chạy long tóc gáy 11 Chạy chó phải lói 12 Chân tay rụng rời 13 Chó chui gầm chạn 14 Chưa lại hồn 15 Có tật giật 16 Dựng tóc gáy 17 Đánh trống ngực 18 Héo ruột héo gan 19 Hết hồn vía 20 Hết hồn hết vía 21 Hồn vía lên mây 22 Hồn xiêu phách lạc 23 Hú hồn hú vía 24 Khiếp đảm kinh hồn 25 Không động đến lông chân 26 Không xanh tựa màu chàm 27 Không dám rĩ 28 Kinh hồn bạt vía 29 Kinh tâm táng đởm 30 Kinh siêu phách lạc 31 Lang lảng chó phải dùi đục 32 Lấm la lấm lét 33 Lăng xăng thằng khố 34 Lạnh xương sống 35 Lao tâm khổ tứ/trí 36 Lấp ló chó tháng bảy 37 Lẩy bẩy Cao Biền dậy non 38 Len chuột ngày 39 Len lét rắn mùng năm 40 Lo đái máu 41 Lo đứng lo ngồi 42 Lo hết hồn 43 Lo ngáy 44 Lo cá nằm thớt 45 Lo sốt vó 46 Lo thắt ruột 47 Long tóc gáy 48 Lúng ba lúng búng 49 Mặt cắt chẳng/không hột máu 50 Mắt la mày lét 51 Mắt tròn mắt dẹt 52 Mắt trước mắt sau 53 Mặt tái gà cắt tiết 54 Mặt tái xanh tái xám 55 Mặt trắng tờ giấy 56 Mặt mày tái dại 57 Mặt xám mày xanh 58 Mặt xanh chàm đổ 59 Mất hồn lẫn vía 60 Nằm không mộng 61 Nao lòng rối trí 62 Nao ruột nao gan 63 Náo động nhân tâm 64 Não gan não ruột 65 Não ruột rầu gan 66 Nát đảm kinh hồn 67 Nát ruột nát gan 68 Nem nép rắn mồng năm 69 Nháo nhác gà lạc mẹ 70 Nháo nhác gà phải cáo 71 Như gà phải cáo 72 Nói lúng búng húp cháo nóng 73 Nóng lòng nóng ruột 74 Nơm nớp cá nằm thớt 75 Phách lạc hồn bay 76 Quáng quàng chó nhà táng 77 Quỉ khiếp thần kinh 78 Ra ngẩn vào ngơ 79 Rởn tóc gáy 80 Rợn tóc gáy 81 Ru rú gián ngày 82 Run cầy sấy 83 Run dẽ 84 Run gà bị cắt tiết 85 Run thằn lằn đứt đuôi 86 Run chó phải bả 87 Rùng sởn gáy 88 Ruột gan lửa đốt 89 Ruột nóng cào 90 Sét đánh ngang tai 91 Sợ bóng sợ vía 92 Sợ bóng sợ gió 93 Sợ hết hồn 94 Sợ vía 95 Sợ chó thấy nhà táng 96 Sợ đĩ thấy cha 97 Sợ tái xanh tái xám 98 Sợ xanh mắt 99 Sợ xanh mắt mèo 100 Sởn gai ốc 101 Tái xanh tái xám 102 Tái xanh mặt 103 Tam hồn thất phách 104 Táng đởm kinh hồn 105 Thần hồn nát thần tính 106 Thần kinh quỉ khốc 107 Xo ro chó tiền rưỡi [...]... relating to the research area and theoretical background that is employed for conducting the whole graduation thesis Regarding the theoretical framework, the theory relating to semantic and culture has been used as a foundation for analyzing semantic and culture features of English idioms denoting fear with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents In terms of theoretical background, all aspects relating... reference to the Vietnamese equivalents The features are accompanied by statistical results and the analysis of the data shown in the tables The later part of chapter 4 works with some implications for teaching and learning English idioms denoting fear Chapter 5 - Conclusions: summarizes the thesis with concluding remarks Also, the limitations of the study are presented with suggestions for further studies... non-native speaker receives that vision “It is clear that there is a difference between the native and the non-native speakers’ focus when they evaluate an oral discourse The former focuses on the vocabulary related to the cultural and social factors On the other hand, the latter lacks the ability to consider such factors This is one of the major problems of the non-native speakers both at production and comprehension... English idioms denoting fear with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents? - What are the implications for teaching and learning English idioms denoting fear? 3.1.2 Research setting English idioms can be made anytime or any situations not only in direct conversation, but also indirect ones The feeling and emotion are that they can represent anything It is a stand-in for what we make when dealing with English. .. semantic features of English idioms denoting fear with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents - To find out similarities and differences in cultural features of English idioms denoting fear with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents - To propose some implications for teaching and learning English idioms denoting fear 1.4 Scope of the research There are a variety of English idiomatic expressions denoting. .. cognition and learning Thus fear is judged as rational or appropriate and irrational or inappropriate An irrational fear is called a phobia Psychologists such as John B Watson, Robert Plutchik, and Paul Ekman (1982) have suggested that there is only a small set of basic or innate emotions and that fear is one of them This hypothesized set includes such emotions as joy, sadness, fright, dread, horror, panic,... syntactic features of English idioms denoting FEAR with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents It was designed in an attempt to seek answers to the following questions: - What are the similarities and differences in terms of semantic aspects of English idioms denoting fear with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents? - What are the similarities and differences in terms of cultural aspects of English. .. syntax and semantic, and indicate the distinction between idioms meanings by native speakers of English and Vietnamese Syntactically, the classification of the data is mainly based on the different structural categories, namely: noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, prepositional phrases and adverbial phrases… The study focuses on the basis of typical semantic and syntactic features of idioms expressing... syntactic and semantic features with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents, thus making a certain contribution to help Vietnamese EFL learners to overcome difficulty in dealing with idioms denoting fear in particular and idioms in general 1.6 Structural organization of the thesis The study is organized into five chapters: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Findings and Discussion, and Conclusion... any communication is that a speaker and a listener should have a mutual knowledge of realities or the background knowledge as a basis of a language interaction to understand each other A “Language world picture” gives a non-native speaker the opportunity to realize the implicit meaning of the vocabulary through explicit meaning, to understand cumulated unconscious cultural information via background