VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ******************* PHẠM THỊ THÚY CHINH A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF THE PERCEPTION OF TIME IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE TEMPORAL IDIOMS AND PROVERBS (NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU CÁCH TRI NHẬN THỜI GIAN TRONG NHỮNG THÀNH NGỮ, TỤC NGỮ CHỈ THỜI GIAN TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English linguistics Code: 60220201 HANOI - 2017 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ******************* PHẠM THỊ THÚY CHINH A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF THE PERCEPTION OF TIME IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE TEMPORAL IDIOMS AND PROVERBS (NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU CÁCH TRI NHẬN THỜI GIAN TRONG NHỮNG THÀNH NGỮ, TỤC NGỮ CHỈ THỜI GIAN TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Dr Huynh Anh Tuan HANOI - 2017 DECLARATION I declare that the thesis titled A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF THE PERCEPTION OF TIME IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE TEMPORAL IDIOMS AND PROVERBS has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification at this or any other university and that it is entirely my work I agree that the Library may lend or copy this thesis on request Hanoi, 2017 Phạm Thị Thúy Chinh i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this study could not have been possible without the support of the people I would like to acknowledge as follow First of all, I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Huynh Anh Tuan for his enthusiastic support, encouragement and profound guidance he gave me during the time of conducting research I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to all my lecturers in Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable instruction and assistance throughout the realization of this thesis Last but not least, I am indebted to my beloved family and friends who have always inspired me to complete this study ii ABSTRACT This study is conducted to investigate how the concept of time in English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs is perceived, from which the similarities and differences in how English and Vietnamese people perceive the concept of time are uncovered Data for this study are 50 English and 50 Vietnamese idioms and proverbs about time selected from three idioms and proverbs dictionaries, Oxford dictionary of idioms (2004), Oxford dictionary of proverbs (2004), Vietnamese idioms and proverbs dictionary (Nguyen Lan 2011) The idioms and proverbs are classified and grouped based on the similar source domains The study adopts the Conceptual Metaphor Theory as its approach and contrastive analysis as the research method The findings suggest that the similarities in how English and Vietnamese people perceive time are they both think of time as space, motion, a person, a thing that one can qualify The prominent difference is that whereas English people tend to conceptualize time in terms of the tangibles such as a person, a container, an object, Vietnamese people have the tendency to perceive time as an abstract concept such as farming seasons, weather and the limit of human existence iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Research questions Significance of the research Scope of the research Organization of the thesis PART I DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Idioms and Proverbs 1.1.1 Idioms 1.1.2 Proverbs 1.1.3 Distinction between Idioms and Proverbs 1.1.4 Idioms and proverbs about time 1.2 Cognitive Linguistics and Cognitive Semantics 1.2.1 Cognitive Linguistics 1.2.2 Cognitive semantics 1.3 Contrastive analysis 13 1.3.1 Definitions 13 1.3.2 Guiding principles of Contrastive analysis 14 1.4 Previous studies related to the research 15 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 18 2.1 Research questions 18 2.2 Research approach 18 2.3 Data 19 2.4 Research method 19 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 21 3.1 How the English people perceive through their idioms and proverbs about time 21 3.1.1 Time is perceived as space 21 iv 3.1.2 Time is perceived as motion 23 3.1.4 Time is perceived as container 25 3.1.5 Time is perceived as a person 26 3.1.6 Time is perceived as an object 27 3.1.7 Summary 29 3.2 How the Vietnamese people perceive time through their idioms and proverbs about time 29 3.2.1 Time is perceived as space 29 3.2.2 Time is perceived as motion 30 3.2.3 Time is perceived based on the continuity of action 31 3.2.4 Time is perceived based on the relationship between human and production 32 3.2.5 Time is perceived as the limit of human existence 34 3.2.6 Time is perceived as an object that one can qualify 35 3.2.7 Time is perceived as a person 36 3.2.8 Summary 36 3.3 Similarities and differences in how the concept of time in English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs is perceived 37 3.3.1 Similarities 37 3.3.2 Differences 38 PART III CONCLUSION 43 Recapitulation 43 Pedagogical implications 44 Limitations and suggestions for further researches 45 REFERENCES 46 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1: LIST OF ENGLISH IDIOMS/PROVERBS ABOUT TIME I APPENDIX 2: LIST OF VIETNAMESE IDIOMS/PROVERBS ABOUT TIME VI APPENDIX 3: FREQUENCY AND PERCENTAGE OF TIME PERCEPTION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS AND PROVERBS ABOUT TIME IX v PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale Time is an abstract concept that belongs to the natural world Human beings are born and develop depending completely on the nature so it is apparent that they must have a close relationship with nature in general and with time in particular The relationship between human and time is clearly expressed through human beings‟ history It can be said that there is no human‟s historical event that is not involved in a concrete timeline Also, due to the involvement, people need to perceive the abstract concept and try to convey those perceptions through their own languages Therefore, language becomes one of the major devices to give expression to the time perception of human beings Time perception can be investigated into many areas of a language such as in literature or in communication However, the focus of this thesis will be English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs about time because idioms and proverbs are considered special linguistic units with the very long existential time in which the traditional culture, national custom, praxis of thinking are contained (Huu Dat, 2011) The consideration of idioms and proverbs as the generalization of thinking through language of a nation may be the reason why people should study on its idioms and proverbs when they want to investigate into a nation and its language On the ground of cognitive linguistics, there are many researches on time perception in English or in Vietnamese but few researches on it in both English and Vietnamese were conducted Therefore, this study is conducted to delve into the similarities and differences in how the concept of time in English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs about time is perceived Research questions The purpose of this study is to investigate how the concept of time in English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs about time is perceived so the findings of the research are hoped to bring some insights into cognitive process on time that occurs in English and Vietnamese people‟s mind To achieve the aim of this study, the following research questions have to be answered: How is the concept of time in English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs about time perceived? What are the similarities and differences in how the concept of time in English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs is perceived? Significance of the research This study, to some extent, would like to shed light on the temporal cognitive mechanism happening on human mind by analyzing English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs about time on the basis of the conceptual metaphor theory (a subfield of cognitive semantics theory) Moreover, a contrastive analysis is conducted in this research with the aim of finding out the similarities and the differences in how the concept of time in English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs about time is perceived in the two languages This thesis is also hoped to make a small contribution to the overall stock of cognitive semantic investigation into time from a cross-linguistic perspective The finding of this study will explore the way how people think of time and try to construe partially the reason why they perceive time as the way they Scope of the research This thesis is restricted to investigating the time perceptions expressed in Vietnamese and English temporal idioms and proverbs This investigation is based on my manual selection of 50 English and 50 Vietnamese idioms and proverbs related to the concept of time which are collected from three sources, viz Oxford dictionary of idioms (2004), Oxford dictionary of proverbs (2004) and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs dictionary by Nguyen Lan (2011) The conceptual metaphor theory proposed by Johnson and Lakoff (1980) are used as research approach in analyzing the time perceptions in the selected idioms and proverbs Organization of the thesis This thesis is divided into three main parts The first part is INTRODUCTION which states the rationale of the study, the research questions, significance of the research, scope of the research and the organization of the thesis The next and also most important part is DEVELOPMENT that is subdivided into three chapters: CHAPTER is the discussion on the general theoretical background of the study; CHAPTER 2, the mainstay of the research, is the presentation on the methodology in which the research questions, research method, data and analytical framework is discussed; CHAPTER presents data analysis and discussions The last part is CONCLUSION that will summarize all the major points of the thesis and also gives some implications together with limitations and suggestions for further researches As a rule, the thesis will end with REFERENCE and APPENDIX PART III CONCLUSION Recapitulation The study adopts conceptual metaphor theory as its research approach and contrastive analysis as the research method in order to find out how the concept of time in English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs is perceived and what are the similarities and differences in perceiving time between English and Vietnamese people The study is conducted by selecting 50 English temporal idioms and proverbs in the Oxford dictionary of idioms (2004), Oxford dictionary of proverbs (2004) and 50 Vietnamese idioms and proverbs about time in the Vietnamese idioms and proverbs dictionary (Nguyen Lan 2011) which are classified into groups based on the same source domains By analyzing each of the groups, then, the mappings from source domains into target domains (time) are indicated in turn, from which the way of perceive time of English and Vietnamese people as well as the similarities and differences in their perceiving time are explored In the light of conceptual metaphor theory, the two research questions of this thesis are addressed For the first question, the finding is that time perception of both English and Vietnamese is plentiful and metaphoric Specifically, in English idioms and proverbs about time, the concept of time are perceived as pace, motion, valuable things, a container, a person whereas Vietnamese people perceive time as space, motion, an object, the continuity of an action, farming season, forecasting weather tools, a limit of human existence or in relation with human Thanks to these results, the findings of the second research question are uncovered The similarities in perceiving time, at first, between English and Vietnamese temporal idioms and proverbs are that both of them imagine time as space, motion, a person or thing that can qualify Then, the differences are that English seems to conceptualize time as the tangibles such as valuable things, container, an object whereas Vietnamese tend to perceive time as the intangibles such as farming season, forecasting weather tools, in relation with human or a limit of human existence And, the differences in time perception between English and Vietnamese are explained to derive from their 43 cultural distinctions Specifically, England is known as an industrial country dominated by capitalism so English people have pragmatic thinking Additionally, English people have an individualist culture in which the individual uniqueness and self-determination are valued Therefore, in perceiving the abstract concept as time, English people conceptualize it into concrete existence as an object, a person, money In contrast, Vietnam is an agricultural country where productive activities are totally depended on nature And, Vietnamese culture is collectivistic so they tend to be towards to the common That is the reason why Vietnamese people think about time based on the abstract general elements such as weather, farming season, the limit of existence The findings make clear to us that culture influences on human perception of the world in general and of time in particular Language plays an important role in reflecting human cognitive capacity or human understanding of the world In conclusion, the current study, to a certain extent, is a contribution to the stock of cognitive semantic investigation Therefore, it is hoped to be helpful for EFL teachers, learners and translators as well Pedagogical implications When studying English, it is very important for students to have a good knowledge on semantics so teachers play a very significant role in instructing their students to study it Having knowledge on semantics, students will make aware of the fact that metaphor, idioms, cultural diversity and the diverse usages of a single linguistic item are expressed vividly, from which they can give an explanation of what speakers mean when they produce utterances Thereby, they will be able to improve their English learning and translating capacity as well One way to help students enhance the rhetorical effects and make the expressions of sentences more vivid and interesting is that they should be instructed in conceptual metaphor When introducing the conceptual metaphor, teachers should make clear to students about source domain, target domain and their connection as well as cultural and social elements affecting to each metaphor Also, 44 they should competent to select and use metaphors suitable to students After understanding the conception of metaphor, students will grasp the usage of metaphor and learn that metaphors are not only rooted in literature, but also widely used in the daily life As mentioned above, when introducing conceptual metaphor, teachers should pay attention to cultural teaching By providing the cultural background and meanings of a vocabulary, teachers will facilitate students the essential and basic knowledge from which students will focus in study of cultures and conventions next Then, their capacity of comparing cultural difference of metaphors should be enhanced Limitations and suggestions for further researches The present paper is just a tiny contribution to the overall stock of cognitive semantic studies on the perception of time Although the thesis is a contrastive study on how English and Vietnamese perceive time through their idioms and proverbs indicating time, it cannot give a fully account of all the perceptive meanings of temporal notions because its data are limited within a total of 100 English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs Moreover, the study does not give a complete explanation on the distinct cultures of the two nations which leads to the similarities and differences in perceiving time between English and Vietnamese people In addition, the data of this thesis are English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs selected from dictionaries, many of which are death idioms or proverbs This means the perception of time expressed through those death idioms or proverbs are no longer available Therefore, it is better for further research to - investigate English‟s perception of time in some certain temporary literature works, for example in short stories, poems, etc, - A contrastive study of time perception of English and Vietnamese through some certain English and Vietnamese novels - A contrastive study of characteristics affecting the time perception of English and Vietnamese people 45 REFERENCES Boroditsky, L., Schmidt, L A & Phillips, W (2003) Sex, Syntax, and Semantics In D Gentner & S Goldin-Meadow (Eds.), Language in mind: Advances in the study of language and cognition Cambridge, 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Press Evans, V & Green, M (2006) Cognitive Linguistics: An Introduction Hillsdale, NJ: LEA and Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press James, Carl 1980 Contrastive analysis London: Longman Johnson, M (1987) The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason Chicago: University of Chicago Press 10 Fallahi, M (1991) Contrastive linguistics and analysis of errors Vol 1: The grammatical structure of English and Persian Tehran: Iran University Press 46 11 Fillmore, C (1975) An alternative to checklist theories of meaning Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, pp 123–131 12 Fisiak, Jacek 1981 Contrastive linguistics and the language teacher Oxford: Pergamon Press 13 Gumperz, J J & Levinson, S C (1996) Rethinking linguistic relativity Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press 14 Hữu Đạt (2011) Tri nhận không gian, thời gian thành ngữ, tục ngữ tiếng Việt Nhà xuất từ điển Bách khoa 15 Lakoff, G & Johnson, M (1982) Metaphors We Live By 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I the same Day in, day out repeatedly over a long thing day in, day out period of time To something I think about joining a gym, From time to occasionally, not very or going for a run from time to time often time, but I’m always too busy To delay or prolong the government was using the Gain time something until a desired negotiations to gain time event occurs Have time on Don’t be hurry! We have time Too much time one‟s hand on our hand You can say this when It’s high time you asked your you think something boss for a promotion, you work High time should‟ve been done so hard and deserve to be paid already, and is overdue more! Though she'd been acting for Hit the big time To become successful years, it was after her role in II 22 In good time with no risk of being late 23 Kill time Doing something that is not very interesting to pass time 24 Keep good time to be accurate 25 Make someone‟s day 26 Make up for lost time 27 Move with the times 28 Living on borrowed time 29 Long time 30 Make time make an otherwise ordinary or dull day pleasingly memorable for someone something faster or more often in order to compensate for not having done it quickly or often enough before last summer's blockbuster that she finally hit the big time Max didn't worry about getting an answer today or tomorrow, because he knew it would come in good time Sarah’s not going to be here for another 20 minutes Shall we walk to the park to kill time? I have to return my watch to the store because it doesn't keep good time Mine keeps good time Britney makes my day when she posts letters, she really does We drove as fast as we could, trying to make up for lost time Hurry We have to make up for lost time resorts need to move with the times by providing clean beaches and modernized hotels Continuing to survive I've got cancer - I'm living on against expectation borrowed time Oh, I've known Holly for a long A lengthy amount of time time—since grade school, in fact! find the time to something We have to I know that you are busy, but clear some time in our you will have to make time to schedules to attend the meeting something keep abreast of current thinking or developments III 31 Only time will tell 32 Out of time 33 Overtime 34 Part time 35 Save time 36 Short time 37 Take one‟s time 38 39 40 41 42 We cannot find out the truth or the answer yet We will have to wait and then we will find out in the future There is no more time left to something The time limit or deadline has been reached time in excess of a prescribed period a period of time that is less than the usual or full time to spend a certain amount of time in jail a period or schedule during which the number of working hours is reduced Will we ever have peace in the world? Only time will tell Please stop writing You are out of time The exam has finished The newspaper staff worked overtime He has had a part time job We will save time if we drive instead of taking the bus The recession has put most of the manufacturing plants on short time Take your time answering the question If in government service, take Take time by time by the forelock and secure seize an opportunity the forelock posts you are well qualified to hold the time when someone is The band is hoping to return to The big time famous or successful the big time When the time is ripe, it‟s advantageous to Time is ripe, we should start The time is ripe undertake plans that have our plan been waiting for awhile Time flies like an arrow and Time flies like Time passes very quickly it’s time we had to say an arrow goodbye Time heals all This means that feelings I was angry with him for a long Not be in any hurry IV wounds / time is a great healer 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Time is money Time is capital: invest it wisely Time is like money: once spent it, it can never be spent again of hurt will leave as time passes by This expression usually refers to emotional hurts, not physical ones If time is going to waste, money isn‟t being made Time is as valuable as money Time is as valuable as money no more minutes are available Time and tide Things will not wait for wait for no men you when you are late When the day arrives that you are now calling Tomorrow "tomorrow," you will call never comes that day "today" and a different day will be called "tomorrow." Time‟s up time, but time heals all wounds I am completely indifferent now Remember, time is money Don’t waste it Time is capital: invest it wisely Time is like money: once spent it, it can never be spent again Time's up! Turn in your tests whether you're finished or not Hurry up or we'll miss the bus! Time and tide wait for no man Jill: When are you going to go to lunch with me? Jane: Tomorrow Jill: Tomorrow never comes Turn back the hands of time To go back to the past If I could turn back the hands of time, I wouldn't have done what I did Wasting time/ a waste of time Refers to anything that is not a useful way to spend your time Doing something pointless or useless It's a waste of time calling that company They never answer the telephones V APPENDIX 2: LIST OF VIETNAMESE IDIOMS/PROVERBS ABOUT TIME No Vietnamese IT Bốn chín chưa qua, năm ba tới Có cơng mài sắt có ngày nên kim Đầu năm sương muối, cuối năm gió nồm Đêm ngắn, tình dài 20 21 Đêm tháng năm chưa nằm sáng Đời người có gang tay Hai sương nắng Hai tay buông xuôi Lần lần lữa lữa Mãn chiều xế bóng Năm chờ tháng đợi Năm cũ chưa qua, năm đến Năm tháng tận Năm trước cau, năm sau lúa Năm xung tháng hạn Ngày lành tháng tốt Ngày qua tháng lại Ngày rộng tháng dài Ngày tháng mười chưa cười tối Ngày vui ngắn chẳng tày gang Nước chảy đá mòn 22 Quan thời, dân vạn đại 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Meaning/ Equivalent expression in English Age of forty-nine hasn't passed but age of fifty three is coming Nothing is impossible to willing a heart Hoarfrost at the beginning of year and monsoon at the end of year Night seems to be short when the lovers are together Night in May is shorter than day Life is but a span Working hard to drop off delay from time to time people get older and older Wait in a long time The old year hasn‟t passed while the new year is coming End of the year If the areca season is good this year, the rice season will be good next year Bad time for everything Good day Time passes quickly Have all the time in the world Day in October is shorter than night Happy day doesn‟t last long Drop by drop wears away the stone Madarins are temporary, civilians is forever VI 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 Rắn già rắn lột, người già người snakes getting old will molt, people getting chột old will die Sớm qua tối đến time passes quickly Tháng ba mưa đám, tháng tám light rain in lunar March, heavy rain in mưa lunar August Heavy rains in lunar July so ther is a lot of Tháng bảy nước chảy qua bờ water Tháng chạp mà cấy mạ non, thả It is no good transplanting young rice công ẵm nhà seedling in lunar December Tháng chín ăn rươi, tháng mười season of Nereid in lunar September, ăn nhộng season of chrysalis in lunar October Tháng chín đơi mươi, tháng Experience on doing farm of Vietnamese mười mồng năm people Tháng chín qt đỏ chơn tangerines are ripe in lunar September Tháng có tháng tiểu tháng đại there are small and big months in a year If the first lunar month lacks a day, there Tháng giêng thiếu khoai, will potato crop failure If the second lunar tháng hai thiếu đỗ month is short of a day, there will be bean crop failure tháng giêng trồng trúc, tháng Bamboo should be grown in lunar January, lục trồng tiêu pepper should be grown in lunar June freezing cold in the first lunar month and Tháng riêng rét đài, tháng hai wet cold in the second lunar month and rét lộc, tháng ba rét nàng bân cold in a short time in the third lunar month Tháng hai trồng cà, tháng ba planting the eggplant in lunar February and trồng đỗ bean in lunar March Tháng mười sấm rạp, tháng Thundering in lunar October is not as loud chạp sấm động as it in lunar December tháng, năm trước; tháng năm time passes and never return chẳng ngược sau Tháng ngày đắp đổi day by day Tháng sáu gọi cấy rào rào, Planting rice in lunar June, harvesting rice tháng mười lúa chín mõ rao in lunar October khắp đồng Tháng tám chưa qua, tháng ba March has not passed, August is coming VII tới 41 Tháng tám đói qua, tháng ba đói chết 42 Tháng tám mưa trai, tháng hai mưa thóc 43 44 45 46 47 48 Tháng tám nắng rám trái bưởi Tháng trọn, ngày qua Thời bất lai Thời gian thấm thoi đưa, đi có chờ đợi Thời gian eo hẹp thời gian hàn gắn vết thương lòng 49 Thức đêm biết đêm dài 50 Trăng tròn lại khuyết Vietnamese Farmers in the past were always worried about the hunger in lunar March and August In lunar August, there will be lots of sinanodonta in pond In lunar February, there is a lot of rice in the field strong sunshine in August time passes quickly One‟s spring time never returns Time move quickly as a shuttle Be hard pressed for time Time cures all things Judge not of man and things at first sight/ you never know anyone till you‟ve eaten a peck of salt with him The moon is full then again is half VIII APPENDIX 3: FREQUENCY AND PERCENTAGE OF TIME PERCEPTION IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS AND PROVERBS ABOUT TIME Time perception as English Frequency of Percentage occurrences Vietnamese Frequency of Percentage occurrences 8 6% 12% 10% 16% 16% 8% 0 14% 0% 18% 0% 0% 4% 4 1 0 0 50 8% 8% 2% 2% 8% 4% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 100% 0 0 50 0% 0% 0% 0% 4% 0% 10% 18% 16% 6% 10% 100% space extension of time location of time motion valuable things container person object a possession to be impacted to be lost to be borrowed that one can qualify a living object continuity of an action farming season forecasting weather tools in relation with human a limit of existence Total IX ... VIETNAMESE TEMPORAL IDIOMS AND PROVERBS (NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU CÁCH TRI NHẬN THỜI GIAN TRONG NHỮNG THÀNH NGỮ, TỤC NGỮ CHỈ THỜI GIAN TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English... VIỆT) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Dr Huynh Anh Tuan HANOI - 2017 DECLARATION I declare that the thesis titled A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF THE PERCEPTION... follow First of all, I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Huynh Anh Tuan for his enthusiastic support, encouragement and profound guidance he gave me during the