HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH GRADUATION PAPER B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH ENGLISH SPORTS IDIOMS Supervisor: Lê Thị Ánh Tuyết, M.A Student: Bùi Vân Nga Date of birth:14/12/1993 Course: K18A2(2011-2015) Hanoi - 2015 DECLARATION Title: English Sports Idioms I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced by me from any other person’s work without acknowledgement and that the report is originally written by me under very strict guidance of my supervisor Hanoi, April 27th , 2015 Student Supervisor Bùi Vân Nga Lê Thị Ánh Tuyết ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Ms Le Thi Anh Tuyet, my supervisor, for her outstanding support and precious advice that have helped me accomplish this paper I also want to express my thanks to all the teachers at the faculty, especially my supervisor, who gave me great guidance in my first days of seeking the topic In addition, my thanks are also sent to my family and friends who provide me lots of encouragement and assistance during the time of finishing the study Hanoi, April 2015 Bùi Vân Nga CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.Rationale Aims and Objectives of the Study Scope of the Study Methods of the Study Design of the Study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1:LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 IDIOMS 1.1.1.What Is an Idiom? 1.1.2 Idiom and Culture 11 1.1.3 Parlance 12 1.1.4 Classification 12 1.2 SPORTS 17 1.2.1 What Is Sport? 17 1.2.2 Etymology 17 1.2.3 History 17 1.2.4 Classification of Sports 18 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY ABOUT SPORTS IDIOMS 20 2.1 PROCEDURE 20 2.2.DATA COLLECTION 20 2.2.1 In Terms of Frequency 21 2.2.2 In Terms of Structure 22 2.2.3 In Terms of Semantics 22 2.3 SPORTS IDIOMS IN ENGLISH 23 2.3.1 TEAM SPORTS IDIOMS 23 2.3.2 WATER SPORTS IDIOMS 30 2.3.3 TRACK AND FIELD HORSE RACING IDIOMS 34 2.3.4 HUNTING AND SHOOTING IDIOMS 37 2.3.5 COMBAT SPORTS IDIOMS 40 2.3.6 TARGET BALL SPORTS IDIOMS 43 2.3.7 TENNIS AND COURT IDIOMS 45 2.3.8 SKYDIVING AND FLYING IDIOMS 45 2.3.9 GAME AND CARDS IDIOMS 46 CHAPTER 3: APPLICATION OF THE STUDY 49 3.1 APPLICAION IN COMMUNICATION: 49 3.2 APPLICATION IN TEACHING AND LEARNING IDIOMS 49 PART C: CONCLUSION 56 REFERENCES 58 INTRODUCTION Rationale A language is a system of visual, auditory, or tactile symbols of communication and the rules used to manipulate them Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon Language is considered to be an exclusively human mode of communication; although other animals make use of quite sophisticated communicative systems, none of these is known to make use of all of the properties that linguists use to define language English is always described as the first global lingua franca English is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy The influence of the British Empire is the primary reason for the initial spread of the language far beyond the British Isles Since World War II, the growing economic and cultural influence of the United States has significantly accelerated the adoption of English A working knowledge of English is required in certain fields, professions and occupations As a result, over a billion people speak English at least at a basic level English is one of six official languages of the United Nations Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language, as of 2006 English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish However, when combining native and non- native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages, depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as “languages” or “dialects” Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined At present, more and more Vietnamese people have been learning English in hope of being able to communicate well with native speakers However, they often find it hard to have an approach with foreigner because language generally and English particularly is not simply a normal system of sounds, words, and grammatical structures, it has developed its own way English people often tend to use idiomatic expressions that not all English learners know exactly their meaning In fact, idioms have long played an important role in English and Vietnamese language as well, and the use of idiom is definitely widespread, which makes us feel necessary to know and understand English idioms as many as we can In my graduation paper, I would like to study English sports idioms in attempt to help English learners be capable of using English partly as native speakers Aims and Objectives of the Study There is an undeniable fact that idioms make a lot of learners confused in using them effectively and correctly Understanding most of all idioms is quite hard for them Thus, studying the issue basing on colorful topics is actually useful To be honest, the main purpose of this study is to help myself get more knowledge on idioms in general and sports idioms in particular Besides, I hope that those who are keen on idioms will find something new and interesting in my study Scope of the Study Due to the limitation of a graduation paper as well as my knowledge, I not have intention of covering all the matters that are related to idioms Therefore, I just focus on English sports idioms that are the most interesting and popular Apart from that main part, I also mention general views of idioms and the applications of the study Methods of the Study The study is planned to bring readers an introduction and analysis the deprived meaning of English sports idioms used commonly in daily life through their literal meaning almost used in sports Hence, to achieve the above aims, some study methods are used and applied as follows: - Data collection method: to gather English sports idioms from lots of sources such as books, internet… - Statistics, quality, quantity method: to find out what kind of sports that consists of the most idioms and what grammatical structures frequently used in sports idioms -Analysis method: to figure out how amazingly interesting sports idioms figurative meaning is Design of the Study My graduation paper is clearly divided into three parts and three chapters as follows: PART A: INTRODUCTION It consists of the rationale, scope, aims, methods and design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: An overview of idioms and sports is introduced in this chapter Chapter 2: Statistics tables are shown to find out what kind of sports and what grammatical structures are used most in sports idioms The most interesting idioms of each kind of sports are analyzed are explained together with specific examples Chapter 3:The application of the study in communication, teaching and learning PART C: CONCLUSION All the mentioned chapters are summed up and my viewpoint on sports idioms DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 IDIOMS 1.1.1 What Is an Idiom? Idioms, which can easily be found in any languages, are widely used in daily life Therefore, to learn and understand them is really essential for those who desire to master a language Obviously, English is not an exception as it contains a lot of interesting idioms with all kinds In spite of the undeniable popularity of idioms, it will be a rather hard challenge for any linguists to define what idiom is because each linguist has her own viewpoint about the definition of idiom Below are some of the most popular definitions of idioms: It is quoted in Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: “An idiom is a group of words in a fixed order that has a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word understood on its own.” Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines: “An idiom is a phrase or a sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learned as the whole unit.” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary,1991,p 616) Longman Dictionary of Contemporary in English refers: “ An idioms is a group of words whose meaning is different from the meaning of each separate word put together.” (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary in English,1995,p708) Wikipedia cites: “An idiom is an expression, which is a term or phrase whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal definitions and the arrangement of its parts, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through common use.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiom) A definition in Wester’s New World College Dictionary is “ An idiom is a phrase, construction or expression that is recognized as a unit in the usage of given language and either differ from the usual syntactic pattern of its parts taken together.” (Wester’s New World College Dictionary, 1997,p5) In Vietnamese, an idiom is defined as follows: “ Thành ngữ cụm từ cố đinh gồm hai ba từ hiểu nghĩa cách ghép nghĩa riêng từ với nhau.” (Thành Ngữ Tiếng Anh Giàu Hình Ảnh, 1999, p10) “ Thành ngữ tập hợp từ cố định quen dùng mà nghĩa giải thích cách đơn giản nghĩa tử tạo nên nó.” (Từ điển Tiếng Việt, 1988) “ Thành ngữ loại tổ hợp từ cố định, bền vững hình thái, cấu trúc, hoàn chỉnh, bong bẩy nghĩa, sử dụng rộng rãi giao tiếp hàng ngày.” (Thành ngữ học tiếng Việt, 2004, p25) 10 2.3.7 TENNIS AND COURT IDIOMS The ball is in your court If the ball is in your court, it is your turn to hit the ball over the net in an attempt to get the point So if somebody says this to you, they mean that it is up to you to decide or take the next step E.g: “Do you think I should accept the job offer? Do not ask me The ball is on your court now” To get into the full swing It is difficult for English learners to guess the meaning of the phrase It is explained in dictionaries as: “comfortable doing something after some time” E.g: It will probably take a month of working at my new job before I get into the full swing of things I was just getting into the swing of things when they transferred me to another department I had not worked in an office for a few years and took me a while to get back into the swing of it 2.3.8 SKYDIVING AND FLYING IDIOMS Free fall, nose dive, tailspin In skydiving or flying, a free fall, nose dive or tailspin is the period during a jump before the parachute is opened All the three idioms are used in business or economy sector with the derived meaning as : “To drop or fall rapidly” E.g: The U.S.S.R ‘s economy went into a nose dive in 1991 When I lost my job, my budget went into a tailspin 45 2.3.9 GAME AND CARDS IDIOMS In the early days of this country, plantation owners in the Southern colonies brought with them from England the English leisured class love of games They played cards, bet on their horses and indulged in cockfighting competition, as well as other gambling activities Although, restrictions were placed on games during and after the War of Independence they did not disappear and reemerged as new immigrants arrived and the frontier expanded westward beyond the original colonies Games and the gambling, as well as the ability to work hard, went with the settlers Bets were placed on horse and foot races, on shooting contests, wrestling matches and log- rolling, as well as on other competitions As new settlers moved further west towards and beyond the Rocky Mountains, the games and the gambling went with them Every Western town had its saloon Here the miners and cowboys played cards, gambled and drank alcoholic beverages after hard weeks or months in the mines and on the range Today there are numerous casinos for gambling, state organized lotteries and church bingo games, as well as private and individual games As a result of this American indulgence in betting and card playing, American English is permeated with idioms derived from these activities: “You bet I will” and “You can count on it” mean I will definitely the job, that you can bet money on it and not lose your money That is a “good deal” means not only that I got a good hand in cards, but a good transaction in a personal or business matter If something bad happens, it is a “bad deal” Many of the terms have entered the conduct of international relations, so that a Russian government official, the head of a Mediterranean nation, a far Eastern nation will each use the term “lay out your or their cards on the table” when talking about negotiating terms 46 To hold all the aces Everyone knows that an ace is the highest card in each suit To hold all the aces gives you a distinct advantage and you have a great chance to win the game So the idiom alludes to: “To be expected to win or succeed” E.g: The children hold all the aces when it comes to the father-son baseball tournament After the Second World War the United States held all the aces in developing a space program and advanced nuclear technology To put your cards on the table In poker when the bets are final (after three rounds: dealing flop, dealing turn and dealing river), the remaining players put their cards on the table to show them to other players The idiom is understood in other fields as: “ To not hide anything” E.g: Carry on that fucking job or quit? You should put your cards on the table We are putting our cards on the table for you to see; we will pay $250.000 for the building Under the table To keep illegal cards or dice under the table in order to cheat at cards is the literal meaning of the idiom In some business laws, it is defined as “illegally” and that is the meaning that is used most E.g: In order to avoid taxes, they transferred the deed under the table A lot of these people work 80 hours a week, and they are paid under the table To hold cards close to the chest, play it close to the chest To hold cards close to the chest is an extremely popular action when playing cards, so one no can see your cards If you can play cards, you will probably predict the second meaning of the idioms – “To not reveal your strategy” 47 E.g: Let’s play it close to the chest Don’t show the murder weapon to the jury until later He maybe use sweet words to persuade you to reveal our plan, just play it close to the chest Checkmate This term, used in the ancient game of chess, derives from the Arabic, “Shah mat!” (The king is dead), then Spanish, “xaque mate”, then French, “eschec mat”, then early English, “check mate” It literally means the king in chess cannot move or he is captured and the game is won Its figurative meaning is: “To put someone in a position where they must lose” E.g: Kuwait was in a checkmate position when Iraq massed troops on her border Getting fired mau put him in a checkmate position In conclusion, with the diversified classification of idioms as well as kind of sports, those people who really take interest in sport idioms will have abundant resources to broaden their new knowledge horizon The message to the audience through using idioms is stronger than ever 48 CHAPTER APPLICATION OF THE STUDY English is an international language, consisting of idioms in general and sports idioms in particular Therefore, understanding these set expressions is not ever enough The importance is how to use them correctly and frequently in specific situation of the different fields In my graduation paper, I would like to figure out popular applications such as the application in communication, teaching and learning Some suggestions and tips in translating sports idioms for learning are also given 3.1 APPLICAION IN COMMUNICATION: In fact, sports idioms are products of the games, which have been played up to now The more people in the world play games and sports, the more sports idioms are used in life Therefore, those who understand many idioms especially sports idioms will make their conservations turn more interesting than others without any doubt The obvious reason is that sports idioms are short phrases and sentences but their ultimate weapon is their figurative meanings that sometimes stun English learners Moreover, if we use sports idioms in life especially in business area, listeners will highly appreciate our knowledge, which may form belief in what we speak out In a word, using sports idioms in conservations coincidently is very useful for us, they make our talk more vivid and beautiful in the eyes of the addressees 3.2 APPLICATION IN TEACHING AND LEARNING IDIOMS For the popularity of English, teaching and learning English is extremely necessary for all nations all over the world It is a must from primary to high school The 49 English lectures will sound more funny and interesting with sports idioms thrown into Teachers, who put idioms into their lectures, can make their lectures more impressive, which can attract student’s attention Then, they have an opportunity to save the time for the next parts of the lecture It is difficult for students to master English idioms because the figurative meanings of English idioms can not be predicted through an analysis of their individual word meanings Thus, I would like to figure out some various effective activities for teaching English idioms to college students in order that they can not only learn them effectively but also apply them practically • Teaching English Idioms in Contexts The role of context is central in language learning It is common that students not really understand the various meanings of new words in different contexts That is why students not know how to apply the words they have learned practically in various contexts It is fundamental for teachers to provide a rich context for students’ language learning and practice The contextual cues surrounding a particular word can help readers get that is meaning Consequently, it is more effective for students to learn language in meaningful contexts than learn isolated words through memorization and drilling • Introducing English Idioms in Story Contexts Stories have been popularly used to teach and entertain students in language learning Interesting stories usually draw students’ s attention and easily make students absorbed in them Since contextual information is significantly effective for aiding students’ understanding English idioms, it is essential for teachers to provide students with rich context Thus, introducing English idioms within 50 interesting stories can possibly help students to understand and remember them better • Teaching English Idioms with Rich Illustrations Although there is lingering debate regarding the effect of visuals on reading comprehension, some researchers claim that reading materials accompanied by visuals will be more comprehensible For example, researchers stressed that teachers need to illustrate key vocabulary effectively by showing pictures and diagrams so as to improve the students’ reading comprehension They also found that words and pictures presented together helped students recall better than alone It is efficient to provide interesting pictures to foster and reinforce vocabulary development Consequently, visuals must be stimulating, interesting and motivating to students’ comprehension and retention of reading • Teaching English Idioms with Group Discussion Students’ discussing what they read is a helpful strategy to increase their comprehension Group talk can provide learners with rich opportunities to acquire social and linguistic knowledge necessary for understanding new texts they encounter As a result, group discussion appears to be an effective technique to enhance students’ reading comprehension • Applying Group Discussion in Understanding English Idioms Students are likely to be passive learners when they receive lectures only in classrooms On the contrary, small group discussion could stimulate students to be involved in the active process of constructing knowledge Furthermore, during group discussions, students will learn from each other, whether consciously or unconsciously Accordingly, I applied group discussion in students’ active learning of English idioms before explaining the meaning of idioms to them Students in group discussion could understand English idioms better than when they were 51 introduced to English idioms within a story only This demonstrated the significant effect of group talk on students’ understanding of English idioms • Teaching English Idioms with Readers Theater Readers Theater has been viewed as an interesting and motivating strategy that can provide readers with a legitimate reason to reread text and further improve their word recognition, reading fluency and reading comprehension Researchers claim that Readers Theater offers a way to improve fluency and enhance comprehension as well as to create interest in and enthusiasm for learning Even slow learners can benefit from Readers Theater because there is no memorization required and there is no risk for them at all Apparently, Readers Theater provides enough opportunity for practice-repeated reading in language learning This activity also enhances interaction opportunities with peers and makes the reading task more appealing than learning alone • Applying Readers Theater to Practice English Idioms Readers Theater help students practice English idioms in order to enhance students’ retaining them Class observation and students’ interviews further revealed their positive attitudes, such as excitement toward the implementation of Readers Theater in reading classes Moreover, students retained English idioms better by applying Readers Theater because it provided students with opportunities for idiom oral practice because of rereading scripts Consequently, it is obvious to see that Readers Theater has a significant effect on students’ learning and retaining English idioms • Teach English Idioms with Retelling and Rewriting Retelling has been a good strategy to know how much students have learned and to increase their comprehension Retelling activities can facilitate students’ reading retrieval because the activities can encourage students to try to recall Their 52 recalling help teachers understand how much information their students have obtained Older students can benefit from retelling stories because it allows students to learn to organize and describe events, which enhances reading comprehension Students not only became more enthusiastic and willing to take a chance and read aloud but also remembered the vocabulary better with this method As a result, retelling activities can reinforce integration of recently learned reading • Applying Retelling and Rewriting to Practice English Idioms Since retelling activities are good techniques to facilitate students’ reading retrieval, this motivates me to apply the activities in teaching English idioms The retelling and rewriting activities provided students with more chances to be aware of the meanings of English idioms and be familiar with the English idioms they have just learned Idioms are a colourful and fascinating aspect of English; they are commonly used in all types of languages, informal and formal, spoken and written Learners’ language skills will increase rapidly if learner can understand and use them confidently and correctly Moreover, they can gain more knowledge about lots of kinds of sports, rules, equipments and games played not only in the UK but also all over the world and the figurative meanings of sports idioms as well Nowadays, thousands of sports events are held, thousands of tournaments “kick-off” every hour, which shows the fact that a combination of learning English in a usual way with studying sports idioms can bring an amazing result for those who want to master English There are five top tips to learn English sports idioms effectively: 53 • If you see an idiom in context i.e., in a magazine, newspaper or a book, try to understand the context and this will help you with the idiom use examples to help you understand the meaning DO NOT learn idioms from a list, because a simple list cannot help you understand Try learning the most common English idioms by reading the examples given for each one Try to say each example out loud so that you can repeat it naturally when you are in a similar situation • Keep an ‘Idioms’ diary Every time you hear an idiom or read one, write it down but then make sure that you can look it up at home and to write it in a sentence otherwise you will forget the meaning • A lot of idioms can be found in songs If you can download the lyrics, have a look at the words and find the idioms – remember an idiom does not make sense if you translate every word but more that you see it as a whole expression • Try to see the idiom in your mind Can you see the image? Many idioms are made of images Try to imagine them and this will help you remember them by seeing the pictures in your mind • Use the idioms you have learnt in everyday life Should you be in a certain situation then don’t be afraid to use one either in writing or in speaking It is vital for learners to learn English idioms in order to master English and also be important for teachers to design various activities for students to use with English idioms and subsequently acquire them efficiently Moreover, students learn better when they are provided with collaborative activities because they can interact with peers and share fun in learning Finally, when teachers integrate listening, speaking, reading and writing activities together in teaching English idioms, students can be involved in the application of English idioms in four skills Thus, it is effective to 54 teach learners English idiom when they are provided with various activities to practice and utilize English idioms in different contexts This leads to the fact that the student’s knowledge about is not only widened but moral lessons, useful advices and experience of life are formed via lectures containing idioms To sum up, using idioms is very familiar with people Idioms are not only a diversity of the literature but they also bring the new way to communicate with each other Only when people can use idioms, especially sports idioms, to express their idea, they really reach to the peak at social intercourse 55 CONCLUSION Idioms in general and sports idioms in particular make the language beautiful and set up different characteristics of each language They play a really important role in reflecting the traditional culture of people speaking the language Many idioms are formed from water sports, other idiomsenter into the English language from the world of team sports During the time of studying the topic, I have realized that sports idioms are totally interesting especially in their unpredictable and amazing figurative meaning Idioms help us “think outside the box” Incorporating idioms into your writing is an effective way to make your work more creative This is because an idiom can be used as an artistic expression The idiom livens up the text and prompts readers to think beyond the facts Idioms help us find our “sense of humor” Idioms can also add humor to your writing in places where you may otherwise seem brash For example, rather than writing about a character who is not smart – or at least not thinking straight – you could say “the lights are on, but nobody’s home” “When pigs fly” is a more dynamic way to say that something is highly unlikely to occur These idioms tend to be softer and somewhat less insulting Now I would like to present a quick look at my graduation paper as follows: Chapter 1: I figure out some definitions of idioms and sports from dictionaries and linguists The classifications and differences are included in the chapter 56 Chapter 2: The outlook of the collected sport idioms based on frequency, structures, semantics together with the methods of the study such as collection, quantity, quality method Nearly 100 sports idioms are explained and analyzed, some examples for each are made as well Chapter 3: The applications of the study namely the applications in communication, teaching, learning are mentioned Through the study, I want to highlight some key points: The best way to teach idiomatic expressions is to treat them as new items and try to encourage the learners to guess their meaning from situation and context Some specific strategies can evoke interest among the students and helps the student to understand them If the idiomatic expressions are understood, he/she would be able to produce them or use them Idiomatic expression plays an important role in everyday language use because idioms convey the ideas in ornamental way It adds beauty to one’s language and convey the message in a better beautiful manner as well as in shorter way Idiomatic usage of language has become very common in English that it can allow the learner to speak or write fluently with using idioms Therefore, the learning of idioms can be considered as an integral part of vocabulary learning Student should consider sports idioms as supplemental regular materials Finally, I hope to broaden my knowledge on sports idioms as well as the cultural characteristics related to sports and games played all over the world 57 REFERENCES English materials 1.Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary,(1995), Cambridge University Press Cobuild,L.(1996), English Learners’s Dictionary, London, Oxford University Press Đặng, Trần Cường, (2005), Lexicology, Tủ sách Viện Đại học Mở Hà Nội John Graham Chambers, (1867), The Queensberry rules for the sport of boxing Longman Dictionary Of Contemporary English,( 1995), London Press Oxford Advanced Learners’s Dictionary,(1991), Oxford University Press 7.Webster,(1999), Dictionary, New World Colledge Dictionary Press Vietnamese materials Hoàng Phê , (1988), Từ điển tiếng Việt, Nhà xuất Khoa học xã hội Hoàng Văn Hành, (2004), Thành ngữ học tiếng Việt, Nhà xuất Khoa học xã hội 10 Phạm, Đăng Bình, (1999), Thành Ngữ Tiếng Anh Giàu Hình Ảnh, NXB Hải Phòng 11 Thùy Linh, (2007) Thành Ngữ - Tục Ngữ Việt Nam Nhà Xuất Bản Lao Động Xã Hội Sources from Internet 12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiom/ 13 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports/ 58 14 http://sportsidioms.com/ 15 http://www.englishclub.com/vocalbulary/idioms-sports.htm 16 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List-of-sports-idioms 17 http://www.learn-english-today.com/idioms/idiom-categories/sportsidioms.htm 59 [...]... kinds of sports such as team sports idioms, water sports idioms, track and field horse racing sports idioms, combat sports idioms, cards and games idioms, skydiving and flying sports idioms, tennis and court sports idioms, target ball sports idioms, hunting and shooting idioms Secondly, they were divided into 3 small categories: in terms of frequency, structure, semantics to find out what kind of sports. .. racing sports idioms 12 12 4 Hunting & shooting idioms 14 14 5 Combat sports idioms 7 7 6 Target ball sports idioms 4 4 7 Tennis & court sports idioms 2 2 8 Skydiving & flying idioms 1 1 9 Games & cards idioms 11 11 Total 9 100 Table 2.1 – In terms of frequency 100 Looking at the table, it is very clear to realize the highest frequency is water sports idioms and team sports idioms with 26 and 25 idioms. .. used most in idioms and understand more about sports idioms structure as well as semantics 2.2 DATA COLLECTION After studying books and searching information from various links on the Internet, I have finally found 100 sports idioms and divided them into different categories as follows 20 2.2.1 In Terms of Frequency Kinds of sports Total Percentage 1 Water sports idioms 26 26 2 Team sports idioms 25... SPORTS IDIOMS The purpose of this part is to collect sports idioms to make the semantic meanings and syntactic characteristics clear as well in order to figure out what is the most widely- used sport in idioms The study is based on the quantity, quality and statistics methods 2.1 PROCEDURE To write my graduation paper with the topic of sports idioms, I firstly collected all the idioms relating to sports. .. There are 37 idioms with positive meaning compared with 33 ones with negative meaning and 32 ones with neutral meaning 2.3 SPORTS IDIOMS IN ENGLISH Sports, gambling and card games are a major part of the English way of living People in the United Kingdom work hard and play hard They love to play, because games have captured the English heart and mind Terms associated with play becoming Sports idioms generally... Percentage (%) 1 Idioms functioning as verb phrases 74 74 2 Idioms functioning as noun phrases 14 14 3 Idioms functioning as prepositional 12 12 1 1 1 1 100 100 phrase 4 Idioms functioning like comparative structures 5 S + V + Adv Total 5 Table 2.2 – In terms of structure Sports idioms functioning as verb phrases are the most widely- used with the total of 74 idioms Ranking the second are idioms functioning... jump…) Sport – Sports that fall into multiple categories • Curling • Paintball On the whole, like in Vietnamese literature, idioms came into being very early and had a profound effect in the spiritual life of English people Idioms have a tremendous vitality and hold a prime position Idioms related to sports also become such an essential part of English culture during history length Sport idioms, as a... 25 idioms respectively, as team sports and water sports are often chosen to play and practice by a lot of people all over the world Hunting and shooting idioms (14), followed by Track and field horse racing idioms( 12); games and cards idioms( 11) are less frequent The table also reveals that idioms which relate to combat, target ball, tennis court and skydiving & flying sports are the least frequent with... of Their Origins Idioms are produced in a variety of aspects of life namely sports, business, military, agriculture etc Sport idioms: 15 Bail out (sailing) – To help, to save Bark up the wrong tree – To make a wrong choice Business idioms: Red ink – Debt Sell hotcakes – To sell very quickly Military idioms: Armed to the teeth – To be heavily armed To fight a losing battle Agriculture idioms: To put one’s... prepositional phrases with 14 and 12 idioms respectively Of 100 sports idioms I have studied, there is only one idiom functioning as comparative structure and one idiom with structure ( S+V+Adv) 2.2.3 In Terms of Semantics Semantics Total Percentage (%) 1 Positive 35 35 2 Negative 33 33 3 Neutral 32 32 22 Total 3 100 100 Table 2.3 – In terms of semantics In general, sports idioms level of semantics is quite