A Contrastive Study Of English Idioms And Chinese Chengyu And The Implication For English Language Teaching

Idiom is an important part of language; and there are large numbers of idioms in every language. In addition, in each language, idiom is the most representative part of culture. Idioms have specific structural elements in their meaning and their formation and development are closely related with cultural characteristics and historical background of this language. So it is hard to understand idioms and harder to use them properly.Both English and Chinese, as two languages enjoying the largest populations of speakers in the world today, abound in idioms. Misunderstanding of idioms often causes failure in communication between English-speaking people and Chinese English speakers, and vice versa. Students of English as a second language usually lack awareness and confidence in their ability to use idiomatic expressions. And if they make clear of the usage of idioms, their English proficiency will improve greatly, whether their speech or their writing tends to become formal and proper.The object of this study includes both English and Chinese idioms. According to some Chinese scholars, the range of the concept of the word"idiom"can be broad or narrow (Jiang, 2000:198). This thesis adopts the term"idiom"in its narrow sense. As for English idioms we means the common set expressions such as kick the bucket, spill the beans, exclusive of slangs and proverbs; as for Chinese idioms, by idioms we mainly refer to the four-character set-idioms, that is, Chinese chengyu.Much work has been done on the study of idioms and chengyu both at home and abroad. From traditional views, linguists in western countries study idioms from the semantic perspective, syntactic perspective, pragmatic perspective and psycholinguistic perspective. Chinese linguists focus chiefly on their features, classification, sources, formation, application and rhetorical functions. All of these studies have made great achievements, while at the same time; we can find that few have attempted a comprehensive contrastive study of the English idioms and Chinese chengyu.In view of this inadequacy in the field of contrastive study and based on the studies of the forerunners'marvelous works, this thesis explores the linguistic and cultural similarities and differences between English idioms and Chinese chengyu from synchronic and diachronic perspective respectively. The thesis consists of six chapters:Chapter one is introduction. The author firstly introduces the definitions of English idiom and Chinese chengyu, then points out the dialectic relation between idioms and chengyu, and this chapter also briefly introduces the purpose and significance of this study.Chapter two is the literature review. This chapter mainly focuses on the previous studies of idiom and chengyu home and abroad. Their research paved the way for this thesis. Meanwhile, the deficiencies in their research also leave space for the new perspectives of this thesis.Chapter three is the synchronic contrast of idiom and chengyu. It firstly explores the semantic and structural similarities of idiom and chengyu and then analyzes their differences.Chapter four is devoted to the diachronic contrast of idiom and chengyu. This chapter first surveys the various sources of idiom and chengyu, lays a foundation for the discussion of their cognitive mechanisms. Then it probes into the similarities and differences between cognitive mechanisms of idiom and chengyu. Finally, it explains how the mechanisms work to interpreter idioms and chengyu.Chapter five is the implications of this study for English teaching. The author discusses the necessity of idiom teaching on the basis of the results of a test about the students'mastery of idioms. Then this thesis puts forward several methods of teaching idioms in English teaching.Chapter six is the conclusion of this thesis. This chapter firstly makes a summary of the main points of the thesis. And then it points out the limitations of this study and makes some suggestions for further study.The present study belongs to the qualitative study, and the methods adopted are contrastive approaches, consulting relative materials and making a contrastive analysis. The significance lies in that through this study, we can have an in-depth understanding of the meanings and usages of the idioms and chengyu. Meanwhile, we can have a brand new perspective for the idiom learning and teaching.