A Comparative Study Of Chinese And Thai Idiomatic Phrases

More Thais are learning Chinese.Thai Ministry of Education officially announced Chinese the first foreign language in 2006,and until 2008,Chinese lessons,together with English,have been taught in 2000 middle schools and primary schools all over Thailand.For the non-Chinese,idiomatic phrase is a challenge.Idiomatic phrase refers to the idiomatic combination of words,marked by tuneful sound and inseparable meaning.Unlike common phrases and sentences,idiomatic phrase can be grammatically inappropriate.Chinese idiomatic phrase abounds in connotation,"戴绿帽(to wear a green turban:to have an unfaithful wife)"情人眼里出西施(A lover sees a Xishi in his beloved:Beauty is in the eye of the beholder)","叶公好龙(Lord Ye's love of dragons:to pretend to like something which one really fears)","熟读王叔和,不如临症多(A thorough knowledge of Wang Shuhe the famous doctor is not as good as experience of many diseases:The superb skill of healing comes from practice)",to name just a few.For Thais,literal meaning of the idiomatic phrase doesn't match its denotation.Here lies the reason for the present study on a comparative study on Chinese and Thai idiomatic phrase.The study is helpful to a better understanding to Chinese and Thai phraseology,to culture and way of thinking in both countries,and to a mutual communication.Chinese and Thai held different opinions on what is an idiomatic phrase.Thai scholars,by definition,use idiomatic phrase to refer to single word with connotation, whereas Chinese researchers believe idiomatic phrase to be phrases with solid structure. As for its taxonomy,Chinese values both structure and meaning,so they consider conventional expression,idiom,.common saying and proverb all idiomatic phrases. While Thai looks more into its meaning than structure,to classify idiomatic phrase into pedagogical(?)(Su-Pa-Sit) and non-pedagogical(?)(Kum-Pang-Pei).Recent study on both languages focuses more on culture aspects,with linguistic aspect largely ignored.Despite some discussions on the feature,meaning,grammar of idiomatic phrase,linguistic study on idiomatic phrase is on the whole incomplete and unsystematic. As a Chinese idiomatic phrase goes,see the tree but not the forest,or to see the minute details but miss the major issue.We believe a correct research comes after a clear picture of idiomatic phrase theory.A poor understanding of linguistic feature of idiomatic phrase brings all the problems mentioned before which can only be solved after a thorough comparative linguistic study.What we need to do is to lay good foundation for linguistic theory on Chinese and Thai idiomatic phrase so as to avoid one-sided study.The present study focuses on Chinese idiom,conventional expression,common saying,proverb and Thai pedagogical(?)(Su-Pa-Sit) and non-pedagogical(?) (Kum-Pang-Pei).A research on the idiomatic phrase involves its phonetics, semantics,grammar,rhetoric,culture and others.Theories from common linguistics, comparative linguistics,cultural linguistics,rhetoric and the like are in use on a comparative study on the definition,feature,classification,origin as well as linguistic feature(including phonetics,semantics,grammar and rhetoric) of Chinese and Thai idiomatic phrases.In the discussion of general feature,we are to take a common linguistic perspective to research the definition and basic feature of Chinese and Thai idiomatic phrases,and the difference between idiomatic phrases and single word,free collocation.We are also to compare the classification between Chinese and Thai idiomatic phrase,and to look for equivalence in structure and meaning.On the origin of idiomatic phrase,our discussion will base on three sources including folk language, ancient works and foreign culture.Lastly,the present study will compare Chinese and Thai idiomatic phrase in their phonetical,semantical,grammatical and rhetorical features.