MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY LE THI DIEP ENGLISH IDIOMS ON FRIENDSHIP WITH REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH VỀ TÌNH BẠN ĐỐI CHIẾU VỚI TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT) M.A. THESIS HANOI - 2013 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY LE THI DIEP ENGLISH IDIOMS ON FRIENDSHIP WITH REFERENCE TO VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH VỀ TÌNH BẠN ĐỐI CHIẾU VỚI TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT) M.A. THESIS Field: English Language Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Ly Lan, Ph.D. HANOI - 2013 i DECLARATION I hereby declare that no part of the enclosed Master Thesis has been copied or reproduced by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement and that the thesis is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor. Hanoi, 30 th December 2013 Le Thi Diep APPROVED BY ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my great gratitude from bottom of my heart to my supervisor, Ly Lan, Ph.D. for her valuable advices and assistance in completing my graduation paper. Without her guidance, correction and support, this thesis could not come into being. My sincere acknowledgement also goes to all my lecturers and officers of Faculty of Graduate Studies, Hanoi Open University, who have facilitated me with the best possible conditions during my training course. Last but not least, let my thanks go to my family and friends, whose encouragement and assistance are of extreme importance during the course of my thesis completion. Hanoi, 30 th December 2013 Le Thi Diep iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS e.g.: For example N: Noun V: Verb Adv: Adverb Adj: Adjective Prep.: Preposition Conj.: Conjunction O: Objective S.C: Subordinate clause NP: Noun Phrases VP: Verb Phrases Adj.P: Adjective phrases PP: Preposition Phrases HDU: Hong Duc University SL: Source language TL: Target language iv LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, GRAPHS Table 1.1: Classification of idioms based on structural features……… 15 Table 2.1: Information of the research participants…………………… 29 Table 2.2: The participants’ basis knowledge of idioms on friendship…… 36 Table 2.3: The participants’ ability in understanding structural features of idioms on friendship………………………………………………………. 37 Table 2.4: The participants’ ability in understanding semantic features of idioms on friendship………………………………………………………. 37 Table 2.5: The participants’ difficulties in translating idioms on friendship from English into Vietnamese…………………………………. 38 v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iii LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, GRAPHS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale of the study 1 2. Aims and objectives of the study 2 3. Research questions 3 4. Scope of the study 3 5. Methods of the study 3 6. Design of the study 4 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5 1.1. Literature review 5 1.1.1. Previous studies overseas 5 1.1.2. Previous studies in Vietnam 7 1.2. Theoretical background 8 1.2.1. Theoretical background of idioms 8 1.2.2. Theoretical background of translation 23 1.3. Summary 27 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 28 2.1. Research design 28 2.2. Research participants 28 2.3. Research procedure 29 2.4. Data collection instruments 30 2.4.1. Selective material 30 2.4.2. The survey questionnaire 31 2.5. Data analysis methods 35 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 40 vi 3.1. Structural features of English idioms on friendship 40 3.1.1. Noun Phrases (NP) 40 3.1.2. Verb Phrases (VP) 41 3.1.3. Adjective Phrases (Adj.P) 41 3.1.4. Preposition Phrases (PP) 42 3.2. Semantic features of idioms on friendship 43 3.2.1. Sentiment 43 3.2.2. Solidarity and ties 43 3.2.3. Agreement and conflict 43 3.2.4. Loyalty and betrayal 44 3.2.5. Sharing and understanding 44 3.2.6. Forgiveness 45 3.2.7. Choice 45 3.2.8. Happiness 46 3.2.9. Indifference 46 3.2.10. Metaphorical meaning 46 3.2.11. Metonymic meanings 47 3.3. English idioms on friendship with reference to Vietnamese equivalents 48 3.3.1. In terms of structures 48 3.3.2. In terms of semantics 52 3.4. Discussion on the result of survey conducted at HDU 55 3.4.1. English idioms on friendship with no absolute equivalent in Vietnamese 57 3.4.2. English idioms on friendship with similar counterparts in Vietnamese but different meaning 58 3.4.3. English idioms on friendship used with both literal and idiomatic meanings 59 3.4.4. Similar English idioms on friendship used in different contexts 59 CHAPTER 4: POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS FOR TRANSLATING IDIOMS ON FRIENDSHIP FROM ENGLISH INTO VIETNAMESE 61 4.1. Using equivalent expressions with similar meanings and forms 61 vii 4.2. Using equivalent expressions with similar meanings and dissimilar forms 62 4.3. Paraphrasing 63 4.4. Omitting or adding words 64 4.5. Literal translation with supplementary notes 64 CONCLUSION 66 1. Recapitulation 66 2. Limitations of the study 69 3. Suggestions for a further study 69 REFERENCES 70 APPENDICES 75 [...]... learners to have a thorough understanding of English idioms on friendships and then being able to avoid negative interferences in doing translation, a research problem of English idioms on friendship with reference to Vietnamese equivalents have been chosen for my graduation thesis It is also hoped that the study could probably make a small contribution to figure out English and Vietnamese idioms on friendship. .. answers of the following questions: (i) What are structural and semantic features of English idioms on friendship with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents? (ii) What are some applications for translating idioms on friendship from English into Vietnamese? 4 Scope of the study The study focused on analyzing and comparing features of English and Vietnamese idioms on friendship in terms of structural... between English and Vietnamese idioms on friendship; (iii) investigating some difficulties faced by third-year learners at Faculty of Foreign Languages of Hong Duc University in translating idioms on friendship from English into Vietnamese; (iv) suggesting some possible 2 applications for translating idioms on friendship from English into Vietnamese 3 Research questions The study is conducted to find... syntactic features of idioms denoting family in English and Vietnamese; Idioms containing terms for plants in English and Vietnamese by Hoang Thi Nhung, (2011); English and Vietnamese idioms of comparison” by Le Thi Hong, (2011); “An investigation into English and Vietnamese idioms containing words denoting mental” by Vo Ngoc Anh, (2012); and English and Vietnamese idioms related to love and marriage”... applied to conduct the research of the whole graduation thesis Chapter 3 points out the findings and discussion on English idioms on friendship with reference to Vietnamese equivalents as well as some difficulties met by the third-year learners at Faculty of Foreign Languages of HDU when translating idioms from English into Vietnamese Chapter 4 proposes some possible applications for translating idioms on. .. semantic features of English idioms on friendship and their Vietnamese equivalents in order to propose some applications for translating the idioms on friendship from English into Vietnamese in an effective way With a view to achieving the mentioned-above aims, some specific objectives have been put forward as follows: (i) finding the main structural and semantic features of English idioms on friendship; (ii)... conducted a study on English idioms in use”, which consisted of six sections with practice exercises In section one, key aspects of what idioms are and how to use them were dealt with In section two, the authors presented specific individual types of idioms In section three, the units were organized around the topic or functional area where they are most likely to be used The section four focused on. .. other chapters They also presented idioms with key structures in each individual part with some examples to illustrate such as idioms with nouns and adjectives, idiomatic pairs, idioms with prepositions, phrasal verbs, verbal idioms, idioms from special subjects, and idioms with key words form special categories and idioms with comparison Another study on “Comprehension of Idioms was carried out by Cristina,... idioms on friendship Secondly, the comparative method is used to find out the similarities and dissimilarities of the English idioms on friendship and their Vietnamese equivalents in the terms of structural and semantic features Thirdly, the qualitative method is used to investigate structural and semantic features of English idioms on friendship from different sources of selective material with a view to. .. for idioms expressing neutral meaning, some examples are shown: two peas in a pod (to be very similar) and make friends (to establish a link of friendship with someone) With regard to negative meaning, some typical examples of idioms are bite the hand that feeds one (to do harm to someone who does good things for you) and stab someone in the back (to harm (someone) by treachery or betrayal of trust) To . Metonymic meanings 47 3.3. English idioms on friendship with reference to Vietnamese equivalents 48 3.3.1. In terms of structures 48 3.3.2. In terms of semantics 52 3.4. Discussion on. of survey conducted at HDU 55 3.4.1. English idioms on friendship with no absolute equivalent in Vietnamese 57 3.4.2. English idioms on friendship with similar counterparts in Vietnamese. Hong Duc University in translating idioms on friendship from English into Vietnamese; (iv) suggesting some possible 3 applications for translating idioms on friendship from English into