English idioms and proverbs expressing human feelings and emotions

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG ------------------------------- ISO 9001 : 2008 KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP NGÀNH: NGOẠI NGỮ HẢI PHÒNG - 2010 HAIPHONG PRIVATE UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT ----------------------------- GRADUATION PAPER ENGLISH IDIOMS AND PROVERBS EXPRESSING HUMAN FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS By: Luong Thi Bich Thuy Class: Na1001 Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Yen Thoa, M.A HAIPHONG-2010 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG -------------------------------------- Nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp Sinh viên:............................................................Mãsố:............................ Lớp:.............................Ngành:.................................................................. Tên đề tài: ................................................................................................. .............................................................................................. .............................................................................................. .............................................................................................. Nhiệm vụ đề tài 1. Nội dung và các yêu cầu cần giải quyết trong nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp ( về lý luận, thực tiễn, các số liệu cần tính toán và các bản vẽ). .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 2. Các số liệu cần thiết để thiết kế, tính toán. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3. Địa điểm thực tập tốt nghiệp. .. .. .. CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN ĐỀ TÀI Người hướng dẫn thứ nhất: Họ và tên:............................................................................................. Học hàm, học vị:................................................................................... Cơ quan công tác:................................................................................. Nội dung hướng dẫn:............................................................................ Người hướng dẫn thứ hai: Họ và tên:............................................................................................. Học hàm, học vị:................................................................................... Cơ quan công tác:................................................................................. Nội dung hướng dẫn:............................................................................ Đề tài tốt nghiệp được giao ngày 12 tháng 04 năm 2010 Yêu cầu phải hoàn thành xong trước ngày 10 tháng 07 năm 2010 Đã nhận nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Đã giao nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Sinh viên Người hướng dẫn Hải Phòng, ngày tháng năm 2010 HIỆU TRƯỞNG GS.TS.NGƯT Trần Hữu Nghị PHẦN NHẬN XÉT TÓM TẮT CỦA CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN 1. Tinh thần thái độ của sinh viên trong quá trình làm đề tài tốt nghiệp: .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 2. Đánh giá chất lượng của khóa luận (so với nội dung yêu cầu đã đề ra trong nhiệm vụ Đ.T. T.N trên các mặt lý luận, thực tiễn, tính toán số liệu): .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3. Cho điểm của cán bộ hướng dẫn (ghi bằng cả số và chữ): .. .. .. Hải Phòng, ngày .. tháng .. năm 2010 Cán bộ hướng dẫn (họ tên và chữ ký) NHẬN XÉT ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA NGƯỜI CHẤM PHẢN BIỆN ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP 1. Đánh giá chất lượng đề tài tốt nghiệp về các mặt thu thập và phân tích tài liệu, số liệu ban đầu, giá trị lí luận và thực tiễn của đề tài. 2. Cho điểm của người chấm phản biện : (Điểm ghi bằng số và chữ) Ngày.......... tháng......... năm 2010 Người chấm phản biện Acknowledgements On the completion of this graduation paper,I have received a lot of help, guidance encouragement and idea contribution from my teachers, friends and family. First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor- Mrs.Nguyen Thi Yen Thoa M.A-who has always been most willing and ready to give me vabluable advice, inspiration and supervision to finish this study Next, my sincere thanks also go to the teachers in the English Department of Hai Phong Private University for their previous supportive lectures during four years that provided me with good background to fulfill my graduation paper. Finally, I would like to give my hearted thanks to my parents and my close friends who always stand by and support me both materially and mentally For my young experience and knowledge, I hope to receive from the more useful comments Hai Phong, June 2010 Student Luong Thi Bich Thuy Table of contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale 2. Aims of the study 3. Scope of the study 4. Methods of the study 5. Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEOReTICAL BACKGROUND 1.Idioms in English 1.1. Definition of idioms 1.2. Features of idioms 2.Proverbs in English 2.1. Definition of idioms 2.2. Features of idioms 3.Distinction between English idioms and proverbs 4.Role of idioms and proverbs in life CHAPTER II: ENGLISH IDIOMS AND PROVERBS EXPRESSING HUMAN FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS 2.1.Overview on English idioms and proverbs expressing human feelings and emotions 2.2. Studying on English idioms and proverbs expressing human feelings and emotions 2.2.1.Love a. „Love makes the world go round‟ b.‟Absence makes the heart grow fonder‟ c.‟Out of sight, out of mind‟ d.‟Love is blind‟ e.‟Blood is thicker than water‟ f.„Brothers are like hands and feet‟ 2.2.2.Happiness a.‟Like a dog with two tails‟ b.‟Walk on air‟ c.‟In seventh heaven‟ d.‟On cloud nine‟ e.‟On top of the world‟ f.‟Over the moon‟ g.‟Thrilled to bits‟ h.‟Happy-go-lucky‟&„Tobe in stithches‟ i.‟Stars in our eyes‟ j.„Whatever floats your boat‟ k.„Music to your ears‟ l.‟Happy in the man who can endure with a qualnimity the highest and the lowest fortune‟ m.‟Happy is he that is happy in his children‟ n.‟ The best things in life are free‟ 2.2.3.Anger and envy a.‟Red hot‟ b.‟Blue in the face‟ c.‟Green with envy‟ d.„Green-eyed monster‟ 2.2.4.Sadness and depressiveness a.‟Get the blues‟-„Have the blues‟ b.„Sing the blues‟ c.‟Down in the dumps‟-„Down in the mouth‟ d.„Your heart sinks‟ 2.2.5. Other states of human feelings and emotions a. Disappointment: „To take something to heart‟ b. Tiredness: „someone/something in‟ c. Anxiety:„ Have one's heart in one's mouth‟ d. Delightedness:‟Tickled pink‟ CHAPTER III: APPLICATION OF STUDY 1. Difficulties in the process of studying 2. Solutions for these difficulties 3. Exercises for practice. PART III: CONCLUSION 1.Conclusion 2.Suggestion for futher study 1 Part I Introduction 1.Rationale: In modern life, the globalization of every field in life makes English become more popular as well as it is concerned more and more by people all over the world. Surely, English learners also have many difficulties in studying and using English, which include the studying and using English idioms and proverbs. Therefore, I want to conduct a study on English idioms and proverbs to solve this problem for myself as well as the otherEnglish students. For several years in my university ,I find many difficulties in discovering, understanding and using idioms and proverbs in communication, especially expressing my feelings and emotions as well as understanding the other people „s feelings and emotions in life, which helps human beings understand and sympathize with one another. Futhermore, I have difficulties in expressing my thinking and idea because of the sort of idioms and proverbs. Besides, I also recognize that using idioms and proverbs in communication helps my words become more natural, persuasive and thoughtful. With the above reasons, I want to understand English idioms and proverbs more clearly in general and English idioms and proverbs expressing human feelings and emotions in particular. Moreover, I realize that English idioms are not only used for communication but they also reflect English culture, people and country; Therefore, I hope that I will gain more knowledge on English culture ,people and country after the study on idioms and proverbs 2. Aims of the study: I fulfill this study with the hope of reaching some aims: 2 - Distinguishing between idioms and proverbs -Analyzing more meaningful word about human feelings and emotions to enhance student‟s knowledge in related theme . -Providing exercises for practice to enable students to apply them in communication in daily life 3. Scope of the study: Idioms and proverbs relating to human feelings and emotions are raried ,in this paper, only some typical idioms and proverbs on human feelings and emotions are presented and analyzed. Particularly , I pay attention to collect and analyze idioms and proverbs on human feelings and emotions , such as love, happy, sad, hungry, thirsty, sleepy, terror and etc. Besides, I also try to collect many idioms and proverbs with hope that I can learn many popular idioms and proverbs for purpose of communication. 4.Method of the study: -Collecting material from internet, reference books and so on - Systemizing idioms and proverbs into specific items -Analyzing idioms and proverbs at the purpose of the clearer meaning -Illustrating for the above mentioned analyses by conversations, exercises,etc. 5.Design of the study: Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Development Chapter 1: Theoretical background of English idioms and proverbs including definitions of idioms and proverbs, differences between them, features of idioms and proverbs as well as the roles of idioms and proverbs expressing human feelings and emotions in life 3 Chapter 2: Studies on idioms and proverbs expressing human feelings and emotions . Idioms and proverbs relating to feelings and emotions are collected, classified and analyzed. Chapter 3: Application of the study: 2 Difficulties in the period of studying 3 Solutions for the difficulties 4 Exercises for pratice Part III: Conclusion: 5 Conclusion 6 Suggestion for further study 4 Part II. Development chapter 1 Theoretical background Idioms and proverbs are considered as special units of each language. They all reflect specifically on human being‟s thinking,experiences, spirit, culture and history. In general, for the ESL students and learners,it is necessary to study on idioms and proverbs because idioms and proverbs cause many matters around them. To study specifically on idioms and proverbs in the following chapter ,firstly, I want to give some general information of idioms and proverbs like as definition of idioms and proverbs, distinction between them and so on. 1.1. Idioms in English : 1.1.1. Definition of idioms: Idioms and proverbs are defined in many ways: According to Dictionary Wikipedia,”An idiom is an expression whose meaning is not compositional –that is, whose meaning does not follow from the meaning of the individual words of which it is composed” ( Thus,the above mentioned definition of idioms, idiom‟s meaning do not depend on its individual words. When reading any idiom, readers can not deduce idiom‟s meaning from individual words. For example, the idioms” a month of Sundays” means “ for a long time” in the sentence”I haven’t seen her in a month of Sundays”;According to the definition, idiom‟s meaning can not deduce from individual words like as a, month, of, Sundays. On the website of Linguistic Terms/ What is an idiom.htm, idioms was defined “An idiom is a multiwords construction that is a semantic unit whose meaning cannot be deduced from the meaning of its constituent and has a non-productive syntactic structure”. 5 As for the definition of idiom, the definition concerns about two sides of idiom such as meaning and structure. Firstly, idiom is a semantic unit and cannot deduce from its constituent or its individual words.Secondly, idiom is a multiwords construction and has a non-productive syntactic structure. For example, the idiom “A ok” means “ feel absolutely fine”. In this sentence, in terms of structure, the idiom is a multiwords contruction including two words “a” and “ ok” and it has a non-productive syntactic tructure. In terms of meaing, the idiom is a semantic unit and its meaning “ feel absolutely fine” can not deduce from the words ”a“ and “ok”. Eg: If things are A OK, they are absolutely fine. ( Furthermore, English-zone.com defines “Idioms are words, phrases, or expressions that are unusual either grammatically, as in "Long time, no see!" or there is a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements, as in "It's raining cats and dogs!". Every language has idioms, and they are challenging for foreign students to learn. Like as the above mentioned definitions of idiom, English-zone.com also defines that idioms are multiwords construction or words, phrases,unusual grammatically and its meaning can not deduce from individual words. Besides, idioms‟ meaning includes implicit meaning and explicit meaning. For example, the idiom”Break the ice” includes both explicit meaning and implicit meaning. Eg: (1) Before the bartender made the drink, he broke the ice with a spoon and dropped in into the glass. (2) Before the conference began, the speaker broke the ice with a joke. ( 6 As for the first example, the idiom brings the literal meaning , it shows the action “the break the ice” so the idiom in the sentence (1) has the explicit meaning and can deduce its meaning from individual words. However, the idiom”break the ice” in the sentence (2) can not guess its meaning from the individual words so the idiom in the sentence (2) brings implicit meaning.Therefore, the idiom‟s meaning is to make a beginning or to get through the first difficulties in starting a conversation or discussion. In general, a reader can find that he can understand the meaning of the individual words in idioms or proverbs but he can‟t know the general meaning of the whole idioms. The expression of meaning doesn‟t depends on the meaning of the individual words. Therefore , a reader can‟t translate idioms and proverbs basing on the individual words‟ meaning. which is highlighted as the following examples. Eg: * To rain cats and dogs: to rain very heavily ( *On cloud nine: very happy ( *To be up in arms: very angry ( *Blow a fuse: suddenly lose one‟s temper and become angry ( *Cheesed off: someone is annoyed ,bored and frustrated with something ( *Foam at the mouth: someone is extremely angry about something ( 7 * In cold blood: without feeling; with cruel intent. (Frequently said of a crime, especially murder.), if you do something, especially kill someone, in cold blood, you do it in a way which is cruel because you plan it and do it without emotion, intentionally and without emotion (1) The killer walked up and shot the woman in cold blood. How insulting! For a person to say something like that in cold blood is just horrible. (2) The jury must now decide if the two men are guilty of killing their parents in cold blood. (3) Four men were charged with the killing, in cold blood, of a French tourist last summer. An unarmed boy was shot in cold blood outside his home yesterday. ( From these above idioms,it realizes that “Idiom is a set expression of its individual words that means something other than the literal meanings of its individual words”(Oxford advanced learner‟s dictionary-1998,18);as well as, “Idiom is a speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or can not be understood from the individual meaning of it’s elements”(Idioms dictionary online). In conclusion, deal with idiom, it is necessary to notice two sides. Firstly,in terms of structure, idiom is a multiwords construction that includes individual words, phrases and idiom is unusual grammatically. Secondly, in terms of meaning or expression, idiom „s meaning cannot derive from individual words or its elements; moreover, idiom meaning has explicit and implicit meaning. 1.1.2.Features of idioms: When studying on idioms, some typical features of idioms were realized as following: 8 Firstly, in terms of semantically, we can not translate the meaning of the idiom from the individual words.For example, the idiom “cup of Joe” means “ a cup of coffee”. To realize the idiom‟s meaning, it can not base on individual words as well as the idiom” an arm and a leg” can not guess its meaning from its elements like as “an”,”arm”,”and”,”a” and “ leg” because its meaning is different from the elements‟ meaning. Thus, the idiom‟s meaning is that very expensive, a large of money. Secondly, as for structurally, both the grammar and the vocabulary are fixed; therefore, we change them, that will lose the meaning of the whole idiom. For example, the idiom “All In The Same Boat” means that everyone is facing the same challenges. If we change its vocabulary to” All In The different Boat” or we change it grammatically to “All are In The Same Boat” , the idiom might not meaningful.Therefore, it is sure that idiom‟s grammar and vocabulary can be changed. Thirdly, an idiom is a multiword expression. Individual components of an idiom can often be inflected in the same way individual words in a phrase can be inflected. This inflection usually follows the same pattern of inflection as the idiom's literal counterpart.For example, the idiom “Have a bee in one bonnet” in the sentence “He has bees in his bonnet”. Moreover, it tends to have some measure of internal cohesion such that it can often be replaced by a literal counterpart that is made up of a single word.For example,the idiom” Kick the bucket” having some measure of internal cohesion such that it can often be replaced by a literal counterpart ”die” that is made of a single word. Besides, it resists interruption by other words whether they are semantically compatible or not.For example,the idiom”pull one‟s leg” resists interruption by other words whether they are semantically compatible or not like as “ pull hard on one's leg”or “ pull on one's left leg”. 9 However, it resists reordering of its component parts.For example,the idiom “let the cat out of the bag “ resists ordering of its component parts” the cat got left out of the bag” On the other hand, an idiom has a non-productive syntactic structure. Only single particular lexemes can collocate in an idiomatic construction. Substituting other words from the same generic lexical relation set will destroy the idiomatic meaning of the expression. Eg: Earn one‟s living Break one‟s promise Eat one‟s words (Lacviet dictionary) Finally, an idiom is syntactically anomalous. It has an usually ungrammatical structure.For example,these idioms” But what”or “Close but no Cigar” is unsual grammatically. 1.2.Proverbs in English 1.2.1. Definition of proverbs In the period of studying idioms and proverbs,it realizes that there are many attitudes of proverbs, as following: "A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience." (Miguel de Cervantes-2001:18).Specifically, A proverb is "a phrase, saying, sentence, statement, or expression of the folk which contains above all wisdom, truth, morals, experience, lessons, and advice concerning life and which has been handed down from generation to generation" (Proverbs Are Never out of Season -1994:24).Thus,a proverbs which expresses wisdom, truth, morals, experience, lessons and advice is a short sentence,phrase, saying,statement and has been handed from generation to generation. 10 Eg: (1) Migh