Font Size: a A A

A Comparative Study Of Vietnamese And Chinese Idioms

Posted on:2012-02-04Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:X J CaiFull Text:PDF
GTID:1115330335465925Subject:Applied Linguistics
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Idioms are a linguistic-cultural unit that is different from not only the words, dictums, mottos, but also the common sayings, proverbs, idiomatic phrases and Chinese folk wisecracks (CFW). The definition of idioms can be traced back to Mr. Zhou Zumo's An Introduction of Chinese Idioms in 1954. According to this book, idioms are the defined phrases or short sentences that are used by the common people in series of years, most of which are inherited as a complete semantic unit from the language used in the ancient literature. The structure of the idioms are mostly fixed, which are usually four Chinese characters. Idioms are well-established and are accepted through common practices in a long period of time. Nowadays, with people's progressive understandings of idioms, the research field of idioms is constantly enlarged. The studies of idioms can be divided into holistic study, phonetic study, structural study, semantic study, etymological study, applied study, cultural study, comparative study of idioms and other sayings, specialized idiomatic study and comparative idiomatic study in different languages. Among all these kinds of studies, the number of comparative idiomatic study in two or even more languages is quite few. Therefore, this essay will patch up this point.This research is a detailed application of comparative linguistics. It will translate more that 4000 Vietnamese idioms into Chinese accurately; point out the linguistic-cultural reasons of the differences between Vietnamese and Chinese idioms; also make some relevant proposals about the teaching of Vietnamese and Chinese idioms and the translation of idioms in these two languages. The practical purpose of this research is to make it easier and more accurate for the Vietnamese students to translate Vietnamese idioms into Chinese or even use Chinese idioms directly during their Chinese learning and application process. The theoretical purpose of this research is to further improve the Vietnamese idiomatic system and the idiomatic theoretical frame of comparative study by the comparison between Vietnamese and Chinese idioms. As for the research method, we use the comparative method of combination and description, translation and comparison, and analysis and statistics, explore the corresponding idiomatic unit of Vietnamese and Chinese used in the same period of the time. The research is generally following the next five steps in the comparative study.1. Determining the comparative scope:There are 4715 Vietnamese idioms that are translated into 1760 Chinese idioms correspondingly. 2. Collecting and researching of the documents:This step includes two parts. One is the relevant materials concerned about both Vietnamese and Chinese idioms; the other part is the previous comparative studies of idioms conducted by predecessors.3. Collecting the language material:Due to the present situation that we haven't any Vietnamese-Chinese idiomatic dictionaries, we have to translate 4715 Vietnamese idioms into Chinese on by one, as the studying corpus of this research.4. Analyzing and comparing:In this part, we will analyze the idiomatic structure, the content meaning and the cultural implications.5. Concluding and summarizing:The last part will be the one that states the research findings of this comparative study, and also discusses about its theoretical and practical meaning.By comparing the original Vietnamese idioms with the translated Chinese version in aspect of language form and cultural implications, we have reached the conclusions as follows.1. There are 301 Vietnamese idioms that are completely borrowed from Chinese, which is a great convenience for the Vietnamese-Chinese translators and also the language learners. For example:bac co thong kim/博古通今(means having both ancient and modern learning); danh chinh ngon thuan/名正言顺(means being perfectly justifiable).2. There are 245 Vietnamese idioms that are created either by using Chinese or using Chinese cultural elements, thus special attention is needed to pay when we translate them back into Chinese. For example:cua Khong sdn Trinh(孔子的大门,程颐的院子)/庠序之地(means local schools in ancient times); da nghi Tao Thao(像曹操一样多疑)/生性多疑(used to describe a person who has a suspicious nature). In this category, idioms must be translated according to their potential meaning rather than the literal meaning.3. There are 71% Vietnamese idioms that have 4 syllables, which is quite a large number. But it's still less than the ones in Chinese, which has reached 98.6%. That's why professionals who study Vietnamese idioms seldom mention the syllables in idioms.4. The four-character pattern is the structure that has the strongest rhythm, which is reflected in aspects such as sound, prosody and intonation. The phenomena like tautology, polysyllable and double-prosody are all very common in Vietnamese and Chinese idioms, but they have different expressions. For example, if the four-character idiomatic pattern is ABCD, you can find 99% Vietnamese tautological idioms have the pattern of ABAD, while there is no such situation as AABB, which is used in Chinese, like风风雨雨(used to express various kinds of difficulties and sufferings).5. According to the semantic structure, Vietnamese idioms can be further divided into three categories. They are the symmetrical and unsymmetrical metaphorical idioms and also the idioms that use simile. There's no such classification in Chinese idioms, rather the grammatical structure is divided in detail. We can also find some paradoxical idiomatic units.6. Chinese idioms with literary quotations are mostly quite formal. Comparatively, Vietnamese idioms are formed in common people's daily lives, thus they are usually informal. There are 668 heterogeneous idioms in the 4715 units of the Vietnamese idioms, while idioms with the same meaning take the amount of only 110.7. As a mirror of the culture, idioms reflect clearly both the natural environment and social life among Chinese and Vietnamese. Vietnam belongs to the tropical monsoon climate and it has a long coastline and many rivers. Also the fauna and flora there are various in kind. On one hand, the Vietnamese are pure and honest; on the other hand, they are also optimistic and humorous. The cultural life of them is deeply influenced by Buddhism.As a conclusion, we will apply all these research findings in the theoretical research of Vietnamese idioms and the translation between Vietnamese and Chinese idioms, especially in the fields such as the teaching of idioms to those Vietnamese students. Nowadays, there are more than 40 institutions of higher education have Chinese department or Chinese majors. In the meanwhile, over 7000 Vietnamese students come to China for further study every year and this number is bounded to grow. We believe that this research will provide a favorable condition for those hundreds of thousands Chinese learners.
Keywords/Search Tags:Vietnamese idioms, Chinese idioms, Idioms with a Chinese etymology, linguistic-cultural unit, comparison of idioms, translation of idioms, teaching of idioms
PDF Full Text Request
Related items