VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VI HUYỀN MINH A comparative study of idiomatic expressions containing the word ‘eye’ in English and Vietnamese equivalents So sánh đối chiếu thành ngữ có chứa từ ‘Mắt’ tiếng Anh với thành ngữ tương đương tiếng Việt M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTIC CODE: 60 22 15 HA NOI - 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VI HUYỀN MINH A comparative study of idiomatic expressions containing the word ‘eye’ in English and Vietnamese equivalents So sánh đối chiếu thành ngữ có chứa từ ‘Mắt’ tiếng Anh với thành ngữ tương đương tiếng Việt M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTIC CODE: 60 22 15 SUPERVISOR: ĐỖ TUẤN MINH , Ph.D HA NOI - 2010 iii Table of contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENT …………………………………………………………… i ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………………… ii TABLE OF CONTENT ……………………………………………………………… iii INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………… 1 Rationale ………………………………………………………………………… Aims of the study ………………………………………………………………… Scopes of the study ………………………………………………………………… Methods of the study ……………………………………………………………… Design of the study ………………………………………………………………… DEVELOPMENT ………………………………………………………………… CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND …………………………………… 1.1 Definition of Idioms …………………………………………………………… 1.2 Some Features of Idioms ………………………………………………………… 1.3 Types of idioms ……………………………………………………………………… 1.4 The relationship between idioms and culture …………………………………… 1.5 The differences between idioms and proverbs …………………………………… 10 CHAPTER TWO: “EYE” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE …………………………… 12 2.1 Literal and figurative meanings of the word “eye” in English and Vietnamese … 12 2.2 Idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ ……………………………… 14 CHAPTER THREE: IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING THE WORD „EYE‟ IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE ………………………………………………………… 16 3.1 Idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in English …………………… 16 3.1.1 Expressing good points …………………………………………………… 16 3.1.1.1 Positive looks ………………………………………………………… 16 iv 3.1.1.2 Describing people and their abilities ………………………………… 17 3.1.1.3 Describing appearances ……………………………………………… 18 3.1.2 Expressing bad points ……………………………………………………… 19 3.1.2.1 Negative looks …………………………………………… 19 3.1.2.2 Describing people and their negative actions ………………………… 19 3.1.3 Expressing neutral points …………………………………………………… 20 3.1.3.1 Neutral looks ………………………………………………………… 20 3.1.3.2 Describing people …………………………………………………… 21 3.1.3.2 Describing views and appearance …………………………………… 22 3.2 Idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in Vietnamese ………………… 22 3.2.1 Expressing good points …………………………………………………… 22 3.2.1.1 Positive looks ………………………………………………………… 22 3.2.1.2 Describing people and their abilities ………………………………… 23 3.2.1.3 Describing appearance ……………………………………………… 23 3.2.2 Expressing bad points ……………………………………………………… 24 3.2.2.1 Negative looks ………………………………………………………… 24 3.2.2.2 Describing people and their negative actions ………………………… 24 3.2.2.3 Describing appearance ……………………………………………… 25 3.2.3 Expressing neutral points …………………………………………………… 26 3.3 A comparative analysis between idiomatic expressions containing the word “eye” in English and Vietnamese equivalents ……………………………………… 27 CHAPTER FOUR: IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSLATION AND LANGUAGE TEACHING 34 4.1 Implications for English language teaching to Vietnamese learners …………… 34 4.2 Implications for English – Vietnamese translation and vice versa ……………… 35 CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………………… 37 REFERENCES …………………………………………………………………… 39 INTRODUCTION Rationale In Vietnam, nowadays, English has been widely used You can see it in billboards, ads, signs, banks, offices,… It is also one of the important subjects in many schools, colleges and universities And most of all, it is used in communication with foreigners coming to Vietnam more and more, many of whom speak English Learning English therefore is necessary In learning English today, besides the emphasis on four skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening, vocabulary also plays an important role More and more translators and communicators admit that to master English, vocabulary should be paid much attention to Words, however, not just come individually, they also come in expressions - in groups Idioms are among the most common of these expressions There are thousands of them in English: I could eat a horse His eyes are bigger than his stomach It's not up to scratch I got there in the nick of time Idioms are considered an interesting area of English, which make English more attractive and colourful And nobody can deny that idioms are really important in communication Firstly, idioms are important because they are very common It is impossible to speak, read, or listen to English without meeting idiomatic language This is not something you can leave until you reach an advanced level Secondly, language is literal and metaphorical In communication, however, the metaphorical use of a word is more common today than its literal use For example, we know that catch a ball is an example of the literal use of catch, nevertheless, catch is more used in a metaphorical way: you can catch the bus; you can catch my attention; you can also catch the sun; or you can catch what I said If we just learn the literal meaning of the word catch, we cannot use it in a variety of communicative situations Finally, idioms are important because it is fun to learn and to use Because there is so much to learn, anything which helps you to remember things is important and if the language you are learning is more colorful and interesting, there is more chance that you will remember it You will also sound more natural if your English contains more idioms.( Wright 1999:9) Being interested in idioms, I choose idioms as my thesis topic Due to the limited time and knowledge, I have conducted the study on a very small part of the huge idiomatic treasure, “A comparative study of idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in English and Vietnamese equivalents” There are two research questions for the study: 1/ How should learners use English idiomatic expressions containing the word ‘eye’ effectively? 2/ Are there any Vietnamese equivalents for them? Hopefully, the study may help learners, teachers, and translators of English avoid difficulties in realizing and translating English idioms into Vietnamese and vice versa Aims of the study The study aims to: • Study idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in English and compare with those in Vietnamese • Explore the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ • Provide some suggestions for the teaching/ learning and translation of idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in English 3 Scope of the study • In this study, idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in both English and Vietnamese are extensively discussed; cultural features are analyzed when English idioms are compared with Vietnamese ones • The study focuses only on the English idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ and a comparison between them and Vietnamese ones • The English and Vietnamese idioms in this study are collected from dictionaries and the Internet, therefore this research may not cover all idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ Methods of the study Here are two languages namely English and Vietnamese are compared and contrasted In the contrastive analysis, English is treated as the instrumental language and Vietnamese is the target language Hence, idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in English collected will be mentioned and analyzed first and then they will be compared and contrasted with Vietnamese to find the similarities and differences between the two languages The steps of the study are order as follows: • Collect English and Vietnamese idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ from several dictionaries and from the Internet, and then sort them out • Analyze the cultural features of idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in both English and Vietnamese • Compare and find the differences and similarities between English and Vietnamese idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ Design of the study The study consists of three parts The first part „INTRODUCTION‟ provides the rationale, aims, scopes, method and design of the study Part II is DEVELOPMENT, the body of the thesis, including three chapters Chapter is concerned with the theoretical background for the study It consists of definitions of idioms, some features and some types of idioms, the relationship between idioms and culture, and the differences between idioms and proverbs Chapter is designed to present the literal and figurative meanings of the word „eye‟ in English and Vietnamese and give the general introduction about idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ Chapter which is the main focus of the thesis gives us a comparative analysis of idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in English and Vietnamese equivalents to find out the differences and similarities between English and Vietnamese idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ Chapter provides some suggested ideas that will be helpful to teachers of language in their language teaching job as well as translators in the process of translating things dealing with this subject The CONCLUSION summaries the issues discussed in the thesis Development CHAPTER ONE THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Definition of Idioms Knowing a language includes knowing the morphemes, simple words, compound words, and their meanings In addition it means knowing fixed phrases, consisting of more than one word, with meanings that cannot be inferred from the meanings of the individual words The usual semantic rules for combining meanings not apply Such expressions are called idioms.(Fromkin & Rodman 1998:189) According to McCarthy (2002: 6), idioms are expressions which have a meaning that is not obvious from the individual words For example, the idiom drive somebody round the bend means make somebody angry or frustrated, but we cannot know this just by looking at the words The best way to understand an idiom is to see it in context If someone says: „This tin opener's driving me round the bend!‟ I think I'll throw it away and get a new one next time I'm in town Then the context and common sense tells us that drive round the bend means something different from driving a car round a curve in the road The context tells us the tin opener is not working properly and that it's having an effect on the person using it Another definition is taken from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idioms): “An idiom is a phrase whose meaning cannot be determined by the literal definition of the phrase itself, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through common use.” In linguistics, idioms are widely assumed to be figures of speech that contradict the principle of compositionality; however, this has shown to be a subject of debate John Saeed (2003: 60) defines an idiom as words collocated together happen to become fossilized, becoming fixed over time.This collocation words commonly used in a group changes the definition of each of the words that exist As an expression, the word-group becomes a team, so to speak That is, the collocated words develop a specialized meaning as a whole and an idiom is born An idiom is a word or phrase that means something different to what the words imply if interpreted literally When a person uses an idiom, the listener might take the actual meaning wrong if he or she has not heard this figure of speech before Idioms don't usually cross language boundaries In some cases, when an idiom is translated into another language, the meaning of the idiom is changed or does not make any sense as it once did in another language Idioms are probably the hardest thing for a person to learn in the process of learning a new language This is because most people grow up using idioms as if their true meanings actually make sense 1.2 Some Features of Idioms Idioms, grammatically as well as semantically, have special features They must be entered into the lexicon or mental dictionary as single items with their meanings specified, and speakers must learn the special restrictions on their use in sentences Many idioms may have originated as metaphorical expressions that established themselves in the language and became frozen in their form and meaning Femado, C (1996: 3) gives three most frequently mentioned features of idioms: Compositeness: idioms are commonly accepted as a type of multiword expression (red herring, make up, smell a rat, the coast is clear, etc.) accept even single words as idioms Institutionalization: idioms are conventionalized expressions, conventionalization being the end result of initially ad hoc, and in this sense novel, expressions 26 3.2.3 Expressing neutral points There are many idioms containing the word „eye‟ to describe people with various neutral nuances They are neither good nor bad and don‟t reflect the attitude of the speaker If the English have ‘eyes are bigger than his stomach’ to talk about someone who is greedy and take more than he/she can consume or manage, the Vietnamese have ‘con mắt to bụng’ or „no bụng đói mắt‟ with the same meaning E.g Các anh mắt to bụng, ăn đâu mà đòi thêm (You are so greedy; you want more than you can eat) The English and the Vietnamese have the same idea when they use the word „eye‟ to express someone‟s surprise The English have „rounded- eyed’ while the Vietnamese have „mắt tròn mắt dẹt‟ But apart from that meaning „mắt tròn mắt dẹt‟ also implies a frightened or timid look E.g Khi nghe ông thủ từ cấm không cho tụi chúng vào thượng điện, nơi thờ cúng thần linh, đứa mắt trịn mắt dẹt dám đứng ngồi song cửa nhịm vơ (When they learned that the guard forbade them to enter the sanctuary where a deity was worshipped, they were frightened standing outside the door railing and looking in.) When you are dizzy, dazzled by being beaten or tired, the Vietnamese think of glowworms, an insect that has a green light at its tail and use the idiom „mắt đổ đom đóm‟ to describe your state E.g Người anh rã rời, mắt đổ đom đóm (He was exhausted, feeling dizzy and dazzled) To say someone who is very busy with a lot of tasks, so busy that he has no time to raise his head or open his eyes, the Vietnamese often say: „bận chúi mắt chúi mũi‟ E.g Người ta bận chúi mắt chúi mũi,, đầu óc đâu mà nghĩ đến chuyện (I am so busy having no time and mind to think of that matter) 27 3.3 A comparative analysis between idiomatic expressions containing the word “eye” in English and Vietnamese equivalents In the following table, we have shown all the idioms we have taken from dictionaries and from the Internet including the idioms we have mentioned above In English In Vietnamese Apple of one‟s eyes All eyes on sb As far as the eye can see Xa ngút tầm mắt Bat an eye/ eyelid … Believe one‟s eyes Tin vào mắt (mình) Blink of an eye Trong nháy mắt In the twinkling of an eye Better than a stick in the eye … Bird‟s eye view … 10 Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (Sáng mắt chặt đầu gối) 11 Blue-eyed boy … 12 Catch one‟s eyes Bắt mắt 13 Cast/Run an eye /one‟s eye(s) over 14 Give the glad eye to sb Liếc mắt đưa tình 15 Make eyes at 16 Cast sheep‟s eyes at … 17 Clear- eyed … 18 Close/Shut one‟s eyes to Nhắm mắt làm ngơ 19 Turn a blind eye to something (Bưng tai bịt mắt) 20 Cry one‟s eyes out (Khóc mắt) 21 Eye – filling 28 22 Eyes are bigger than one's stomach/ belly 10 Con mắt to bụng 11 No bụng đói mắt 23 Eye for an eye 24 Eye candy [Ăn miếng trả miếng] 25 Eyes in the back of one's head 12 Mắt để sau gáy 26 Eyes like a hawk 13 Mắt diều hâu 27 Eyes wide open 28 Eye- wash 29 Eye-opener 30 Eyes down! 31 Easy on the eye 32 Eagle eyes 33 The evil eye 34 The eye of the storm 14 Mắt bão 35 The eye of the wind/the wind‟s eye … 36 Do someone in the eye … 37 For someone‟s eyes only … 38 Find/ lose favour in someone‟s eyes … 39 Feast one's eyes on something 15 (Bổ mắt) 40 Four-eyes … 41 Get the eye … 42 Give an eye to 43 Give sb the eye … 44 Green-eyed monster … 45 A gleam in one‟s eyes … 46 Half an eye … 47 Have an eye on … 48 Have an eye to … 29 49 Have an eye to the main chance … 50 Have a roving eye … 51 Have eyes for … 52 Have eyes only for … 53 Have one‟s eyes on stalks 54 Hit sb in the eye … 55 Hit between the eyes … 56 Hit the bull‟s eye … 57 If you had half an eye … 58 In the public eye … 59 In the eyes of the law … 60 In the eyes of sb/ in sb‟s eyes … 61 In one's mind's eye … 62 In a pig‟s eye … 63 Keep an eye on 16 Để mắt đến 64 Keep an eye on the ball … 65 Keep one‟s eyes peeled … 66 Keep one‟s eyes off … 67 Keep an eye open/out … 68 Keep your eyes on the prize … 69 Keep a weather eye open … 70 Lay/ set eyes on … 71 Look someone in the eyes … 72 Lift one‟s eyes … 73 Make someone open his eyes … 74 Meet one‟s eye … 75 Meet the eye … 76 Misty – eyed 17 Mắt nhòa lệ 30 77 More than meet the eye … 78 My eye! 79 Mud in your eye 80 The naked eye 18 Mắt thường 81 Never/not (be able to)take one‟s eyes off … 82 Not a dry eye in the house … 83 Open (up) one‟s eyes 19 (Sáng mắt ra) 84 Out of the corner of one‟s eye … 85 One in the eye for someone … 86 On the blink … 87 Pull the wool over one‟s eyes 20 (Lấy vải thưa che mắt thánh) 88 Private eye … 89 Pick the eyes out … 90 Rounded – eyed 21 Mắt tròn mắt dẹt 91 Raise a few eyebrows … 92 Roll your eyes … 93 Run one‟s eye over … 94 See eye to eye … 95 Sight for sore eyes … 96 Stars in one‟s eyes … 97 See with half an eye … 98 The scales fall from sb‟s eyes … 99 Stary-eyed 100 Up to your eyes … 22 (Bận chúi mắt chúi mũi) 23 (Bận không kịp mở mắt) 101 Under the eye of sb 102 To the eye … 103 There‟s more to … than meets the eye … 31 104 Throw dust in sb‟s eyes … 105 Weather eye … 106 Wipe one‟s eyes … 107 With an eye to 108 With (one‟s) eyes open 109 With (one‟s) eyes close 24 Nhắm mắt làm 110 Worm‟s eye view … 25 Bịt mắt ăn dơ … 26 Bụng đói mắt mờ … 27 Có mắt không … 28 Cái đinh bụng gai trước mắt 29 Coi mắt, bắt tay … 30 Chẳng tuần chay không nước mắt … 31 Che mắt gian … 32 Chờ/mong đỏ mắt … 33 Chướng tai gai mắt … 34 Coi/ Nhìn người nửa mắt … 35.Coi đời nửa mắt … 36 Cười nước mắt … 37 Da ngà mắt phượng 38 Mắt phượng mày ngài … 39 Đầu mày cuối mắt … 40 Đĩa dầu vơi, nước mắt đầy … 41 Đói vàng mắt … 42 Khuất mắt cho qua … 43 Lạ mắt lạ tai … 44 Làm đổ mồ hôi, sôi nước mắt … 45 Mau nước mắt 32 … 46 Mắt dơi mày chuột … 47 Mắt để chán … 48 Mắt la mày lét … 49 Mắt lòa chân chậm [To see stars] 50 Mắt đổ đom đóm … 51 Mắt nhắm mắt mở … 52 Mắt sắc dao … 53 Mắt thấy tai nghe … 54 Mắt trước mắt sau … 55 Móc mắt lơi mề [Never offer to teach fish to swim] 56 Múa rìu qua mắt thợ … 57 Nhắm mắt đưa chân … 58 Nhắm mắt khoanh tay … 59 Nước mắt chảy xuôi … 60 Nước mắt cá sấu … 61 Rơi nước mắt ớt, rớt nước mắt hành … 62 Tai mắt … 63 Thấy tối mắt lại … 64 Tiếc rỏ máu mắt … 65 Trăm tay nghìn mắt … 66 Trơ mắt ếch … 67 Trời khơng có mắt … 68 Tức nổ mắt Note: … : there is no equivalent in the language […] : there is an equivalent but not containing the word „eye‟ (…) : there is an idiom having nearly the same meaning 33 There maybe still more idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ that we have not known and have not included in this table However, It is very clear to find out from the table that there are more English idioms related to eyes than Vietnamese ones And while English idioms carry more positive meanings than negative, Vietnamese ones carry more negative Many English idioms have no equivalents in Vietnamese and vice versa Vietnamese idioms have no equivalents in English Some English idioms and some Vietnamese ones have idioms or proverbs having the same meanings but not containing the word „eye‟ This is the case of the idiom 23 in English column and the idioms 50, 56 in Vietnamese column In Vietnamese, to describe someone who is dizzy or dazzled, people often think of a glowworm because it has a green lights at its tails, so they say ‘mắt đổ đom đóm’ But in that case English people think of stars‟ lights so they say ‘to see stars’ The two left idioms (the idiom 23 in English column and the idiom 56 in Vietnamese column) have two proverbs expressing the same meanings but also not containing the word „eye‟ This exposes the differences in cultural features of the English language and the Vietnamese ones There are nevertheless many idioms which are absolutely similar in two languages It is difficult for us to give the exact amount of idioms which are absolutely similar in two languages because in some cases, to express one idiomatic meaning, there are two English idioms with one Vietnamese equivalent and vice versa These are the cases of the idioms and in English column with the idiom in Vietnamese column, the idioms 14 and 15 in English column with only the idiom in Vietnamese column Besides, there are four idioms (two in English and two in Vietnamese) having the same meaning That is the case of the idioms 18 and 19 in English and the idioms and in Vietnamese In addition, as we have presented above, there are some idioms having nearly the same meaning For example, „Up to your eyes‟ and „Bận chúi mắt chúi mũi‟or „Bận không kịp mở mắt‟ They have the same meaning despite expressing a bit differently The case of idiom 10 in English and idiom in Vietnamese, idiom 20 in English and idiom in Vietnamese Idiom 39 in English and idiom 15 in Vietnamese, 83 in English and 19 in Vietnamese, 87 in English and idiom 20 in Vietnamese are in the same case This exposes the similarities in cultural features of the English language and the Vietnamese ones 34 CHAPTER FOUR IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSLATION AND LANGUAGE TEACHING Mastering idioms containing the word „eye‟ is very helpful in process of translating them from English into Vietnamese and vice versa as well as in teaching them In this chapter, some suggestions are given to help teachers of language in their teaching job, and help translators in the process of translating things dealing with idioms containing the word „eye‟ 4.1 Implications for English language teaching to Vietnamese learners As we have mentioned in Chapter I, idioms are expressions which have a meaning that is not obvious from the individual words So it is a common difficulty for learners to understand the meaning of an idiom because they cannot know this just by looking at the words The best way to understand an idiom is to see it in context So a good idea to teach idioms is that teachers should put them in text before giving the meanings of these idioms The following exercise is an example: Note the idioms and their meanings in these paragraphs I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw her She was so beautiful, I just couldn't keep my eyes off her I tried to catch her eye to say hello As a teacher myself, I know that teaching is not easy You always have to keep an eye on the students, but sometimes you just have to turn a blind eye if they behave badly If you want to be a teacher, you have to go into the profession with your eyes open 35 Jenny and I were good friends at first, but now we don't see eye to eye I know the fact that we stopped being friends raised a few eyebrows at the time Could you run/cast your eye over this report and see if there are any spelling mistakes? My computer's on the blink 10 and the spell-checker refuses to work These reports are important, I always have to have/keep one eye on 11 how the boss will reach to them if they look untidy couldn't believe what I was seeing surprised/shocked people couldn't stop looking at her have a quick look at get her attention; make her look at me 10 keep your attention on wrong, probably because it is old (to blink ignore behaviour which you know is wrong means to close and open your eyes very aware of all the problems there could be quickly) 11 agree with each other is beginning to break down and go observe carefully (McCarthy, M & O‟Dell, F (2002: 108) English Idioms in Use.) In this way the meanings of the idioms become very clear and easy to understand 4.2 Implications for English – Vietnamese translation and vice versa According to Roger T Bell (1991), translation is the expression in another language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences The content and style of the original text should be preserved as far as possible in the translated text The aim of converting information from one language or language variety into another is to reproduce as accurately as possible all grammatical and lexical features of the 36 „source language‟ original by finding equivalents in the „target language‟ At the same time all factual information contained in the original text… must be retained in the translation Therefore idioms, to some extent, are quite difficult to translate It is really ideal when you meet an idiom which has an equivalent in the target language The table shown in chapter III can help you with this kind of idioms containing the word „eye‟ But in the case when there is no equivalent in the target language, you need to master the meaning of the idiom as well as using it in the context The next task is to find suitable words to convert information so that it sounds good and the readers can understand There is an English paragraph included some idioms containing the word „eye‟ It all happened in the blink of an eye and no one could anything to prevent it It was horrible But the police officer standing nearby didn‟t bat an eyelid Then something caught my eye which shocked me even more In this paragraph, there are two idioms: blink of an eye and caught my eye which have equivalents in Vietnamese But the idiom didn’t bat an eyelid does not The idiomatic meaning of this idiom is not react or show any emotion when surprised, shocked, etc We therefore venture to give the following translation: Tất diễn nháy mắt , khơng kịp làm để ngăn cản Thật khủng khiếp Vậy mà viên cảnh sát đứng gần chẳng có phản ứng Sau có bắt mắt khiến tơi sửng sốt 37 CONCLUSION „Eye‟ in both English and Vietnamese denotes an organ of sight of human body From that primary meaning „eye‟ has many figurative meanings The word „eye‟ is used metaphorically basing on its function The English have eye of the potato, eye of the storm eye of the peacock’s tail, hook and eye of the dress, the eye of the day, the private eye And the Vietnamese have mắt khoai tây, mắt bão, mắt na, mắt dứa, mắt võng, mắt lưới… Especially, the word „eyes‟ are the basis of a large number of idioms In both English and Vietnamese people widely use many idiomatic expressions containing the word „eye‟ in daily communication and written texts And there are several similarities as well as differences between the two language communities in using them In terms of differences, among the idioms that we have mentioned, English idioms carry more positive meanings than negative while Vietnamese ones carry more negative Therefore, to describe people, the English have many idioms such as: „clear- eyed‟, „brighteyed and bushy- tailed‟, „easy on the eye‟, „starry-eyed‟,… In Vietnamese, however, in comparison with English, we can see much fewer idioms describing people We can find only „da ngà mắt phượng/mắt phượng mày ngài‟ and „sáng mắt chặt đầu gối‟ Also in describing good appearances there is only Vietnamese idiom: „bắt mắt‟, while there are many in English Meanwhile, The Vietnamese have many idioms describing negative actions In terms of similarities, there are many idioms which are absolutely similar in the two language While the English have „As far as the eye can see‟, the Vietnamese have „Xa ngút tầm mắt‟ The English have „Eyes in the back of one's head’ , the Vietnamese have „Mắt để sau gáy’ and so on Also, there are some idioms having nearly the same meaning For example, „Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed’ in English and ‘Sáng mắt chặt đầu gối’ in Vietnamese or „Pull the wool over one’s eyes‟ in English and ‘Lấy vải thưa che mắt thánh’ in Vietnamese 38 Mastering idioms containing the word „eye‟ is very helpful in process of translating them from English into Vietnamese and vice versa as well as in teaching them A good idea to teach idioms is that teachers should put them in text before giving the meanings of these idioms And in the process of translating idioms containing the word „eye‟, when you meet an idiom having no equivalent in the target language, the first task is that you need to master the meaning of the idiom as well as using it in the context The next task is to find suitable words to convert information so that it sounds good and the readers can understand 39 REFERENCES IN ENGLISH Bell, R.T (1991) Translation and Translating: Theory and Practice London: Longman Cowie, A.P Mackin, R & I.R Mc Caig (1993) Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms Oxford: Oxford University Express Fernado, C (1996) Idioms and Idiomaticity Oxford and New York: Oxford 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Metaphors Relating to Parts of Human Body in English And Vietnamese .(M.A Thesis) 40 IN VIETNAMESE 16 Nguyễn Đình Hùng (1999).Tuyển Tập Thành Ngữ Tục Ngữ Ca Dao Việt – Anh thông dụng Nxb Giáo dục 17 Makkai, A (1994 ) Từ điển thành ngữ Anh Việt Hiện đại Nxb Mũi Cà Mau 18 Nguyễn Lân (1994) Từ điển Thành ngữ Tục ngữ Việt nam Nxb KHXH 19 Nguyễn Lân (2000) Từ Điển Từ ngữ Việt nam Nxb TP Hồ Chí Minh 20 Nguyễn Lực (2005) Thành ngữ Đồng nghĩa Tiếng Việt Nxb Thanh niên 21 Nguyễn Như Ý(1995) Đại Từ điển Tiếng Việt Nxb GD LINKS 22 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idioms 23 http://www.lwck.cn/Article/yingyu/yuyan/200814/2324.Html 24 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye 25 http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/e.html 26 http://www.learn-english-today.com/idioms/idiom-categories/eyes.htm ... translation of idiomatic expressions containing the word ? ?eye? ?? in English 3 Scope of the study • In this study, idiomatic expressions containing the word ? ?eye? ?? in both English and Vietnamese are... containing the word ? ?eye? ?? Chapter which is the main focus of the thesis gives us a comparative analysis of idiomatic expressions containing the word ? ?eye? ?? in English and Vietnamese equivalents. .. realizing and translating English idioms into Vietnamese and vice versa Aims of the study The study aims to: • Study idiomatic expressions containing the word ? ?eye? ?? in English and compare with