English idioms on friendship with reference to vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

LE THI DIEP

ENGLISH IDIOMS ON FRIENDSHIP
WITH REFERENCE TO
VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH VỀ TÌNH BẠN
ĐỐI CHIẾU VỚI TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT)
M.A. THESIS



HANOI - 2013





MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

LE THI DIEP

ENGLISH IDIOMS ON FRIENDSHIP

WITH REFERENCE TO
VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH VỀ TÌNH BẠN
ĐỐI CHIẾU VỚI TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT)
M.A. THESIS

Field: English Language
Code: 60220201
Supervisor: Ly Lan, Ph.D.


HANOI - 2013






i

DECLARATION
I hereby declare that no part of the enclosed Master Thesis has been copied
or reproduced by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement and
that the thesis is originally written by me under strict guidance of my
supervisor.


Hanoi, 30
th
December 2013

Le Thi Diep
APPROVED BY










ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to express my great gratitude from
bottom of my heart to my supervisor, Ly Lan, Ph.D. for her valuable
advices and assistance in completing my graduation paper. Without her
guidance, correction and support, this thesis could not come into being.
My sincere acknowledgement also goes to all my lecturers and officers
of Faculty of Graduate Studies, Hanoi Open University, who have
facilitated me with the best possible conditions during my training course.
Last but not least, let my thanks go to my family and friends, whose
encouragement and assistance are of extreme importance during the course
of my thesis completion.

Hanoi, 30
th

December 2013


Le Thi Diep







iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
e.g.: For example
N: Noun
V: Verb
Adv: Adverb
Adj: Adjective
Prep.: Preposition
Conj.: Conjunction
O: Objective
S.C: Subordinate clause
NP: Noun Phrases
VP: Verb Phrases
Adj.P: Adjective phrases
PP: Preposition Phrases
HDU: Hong Duc University
SL: Source language
TL: Target language

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LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, GRAPHS
Table 1.1: Classification of idioms based on structural features……… 15

Table 2.1: Information of the research participants…………………… 29

Table 2.2: The participants’ basis knowledge of idioms on friendship……

36

Table 2.3: The participants’ ability in understanding structural features of
idioms on friendship……………………………………………………….


37

Table 2.4: The participants’ ability in understanding semantic features of
idioms on friendship……………………………………………………….

37

Table 2.5: The participants’ difficulties in translating idioms on
friendship from English into Vietnamese………………………………….


38















v

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iii

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, GRAPHS iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

INTRODUCTION 1

1.

Rationale of the study 1

2.

Aims and objectives of the study 2

3.

Research questions 3

4.

Scope of the study 3

5.

Methods of the study 3

6.

Design of the study 4

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1.

Literature review 5

1.1.1.

Previous studies overseas 5

1.1.2.

Previous studies in Vietnam 7

1.2.

Theoretical background 8

1.2.1. Theoretical background of idioms 8

1.2.2. Theoretical background of translation 23

1.3.

Summary 27

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 28

2.1. Research design 28

2.2. Research participants 28

2.3. Research procedure 29

2.4. Data collection instruments 30

2.4.1. Selective material 30

2.4.2. The survey questionnaire 31

2.5. Data analysis methods 35

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 40


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3.1.

Structural features of English idioms on friendship 40

3.1.1.

Noun Phrases (NP) 40

3.1.2. Verb Phrases (VP) 41

3.1.3. Adjective Phrases (Adj.P) 41

3.1.4. Preposition Phrases (PP) 42

3.2. Semantic features of idioms on friendship 43

3.2.1. Sentiment 43

3.2.2. Solidarity and ties 43

3.2.3. Agreement and conflict 43

3.2.4. Loyalty and betrayal 44

3.2.5. Sharing and understanding 44

3.2.6. Forgiveness 45

3.2.7. Choice 45

3.2.8. Happiness 46

3.2.9. Indifference 46

3.2.10. Metaphorical meaning 46

3.2.11. Metonymic meanings 47

3.3. English idioms on friendship with reference to Vietnamese equivalents 48

3.3.1. In terms of structures 48

3.3.2. In terms of semantics 52

3.4. Discussion on the result of survey conducted at HDU 55

3.4.1. English idioms on friendship with no absolute equivalent in
Vietnamese 57

3.4.2. English idioms on friendship with similar counterparts in Vietnamese
but different meaning 58

3.4.3. English idioms on friendship used with both literal and idiomatic
meanings 59

3.4.4. Similar English idioms on friendship used in different contexts 59

CHAPTER 4: POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS FOR TRANSLATING IDIOMS
ON FRIENDSHIP FROM ENGLISH INTO VIETNAMESE 61
4.1. Using equivalent expressions with similar meanings and forms 61


vii

4.2. Using equivalent expressions with similar meanings and dissimilar
forms 62

4.3. Paraphrasing 63

4.4. Omitting or adding words 64

4.5. Literal translation with supplementary notes 64

CONCLUSION 66

1.

Recapitulation 66

2.

Limitations of the study 69

3.

Suggestions for a further study 69

REFERENCES 70

APPENDICES 75


1

INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
Language plays an important role in human life because language is the
significant mean in communication. However, language of each country
cannot be similar to each other due to its different culture, tradition, belief
and custom. Language and culture are two concepts which always go along
with each other and have close relationship with the development of their

nations.
In different nations, the meanings of the words and utterances are also
dissimilar. A word or a sentence can have plenty of meanings (literal
meaning, figurative meaning, denotative meaning and narrow meaning). For
example: In Vietnamese, “nhà” does not only mean “the building where
people live in” but also “the wife”. Therefore, it is easily misunderstood for
those who study Vietnamese as a foreign language.
With regard to the role of language and culture, the usage of idioms in
human life cannot be underrated. Idioms have been created along with the
development of communication in human society. Idioms reflect typical
culture, tradition, custom of each nation. The meaning of the idioms cannot
be deduced from the individual words because both the grammar and the
order of words in the idiom are fixed, and if their forms are changed, the
idioms will lose their meanings. The main messages of the idioms are often
hidden under surface words, thus it becomes a challenge for foreign
language learners. Being able to mastering English idioms is likely to help
learners of English feel more confident in communicating and in doing
translation as well.

2

Idioms denote various fields of human life such as love, marriage,
family, animals, plants, weather, parts of the body etc., thus having been
studied by a number of researchers in Vietnam and overseas. However,
idioms on friendships seem to be open for being discussed and further
studied. Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between two or more
people; besides, friendship is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an
association. As a result, friendship has been studied in academic fields such
as sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and philosophy. With a view
to helping Vietnamese learners to have a thorough understanding of English

idioms on friendships and then being able to avoid negative interferences in
doing translation, a research problem of “English idioms on friendship with
reference to Vietnamese equivalents” have been chosen for my graduation
thesis. It is also hoped that the study could probably make a small
contribution to figure out English and Vietnamese idioms on friendship.
2. Aims and objectives of the study
This study is aimed at investigating the structural and semantic features
of English idioms on friendship and their Vietnamese equivalents in order to
propose some applications for translating the idioms on friendship from
English into Vietnamese in an effective way.
With a view to achieving the mentioned-above aims, some specific
objectives have been put forward as follows: (i) finding the main structural
and semantic features of English idioms on friendship; (ii) pointing out the
similarities and dissimilarities between English and Vietnamese idioms on
friendship; (iii) investigating some difficulties faced by third-year learners at
Faculty of Foreign Languages of Hong Duc University in translating idioms
on friendship from English into Vietnamese; (iv) suggesting some possible

3

applications for translating idioms on friendship from English into
Vietnamese.
3. Research questions
The study is conducted to find out the answers of the following
questions: (i) What are structural and semantic features of English idioms on
friendship with reference to their Vietnamese equivalents? (ii) What are
some applications for translating idioms on friendship from English into
Vietnamese?
4. Scope of the study
The study focused on analyzing and comparing features of English and

Vietnamese idioms on friendship in terms of structural and semantic
features. The similarities and dissimilarities withdrawn from the study could
be explained on the basis of the cultural and linguistic features, thus helping
us find out some applications for translating idioms on friendship from
English into Vietnamese.
5. Methods of the study
In order to complete this study, some different research methods will be
applied. Firstly, the descriptive method is applied to examine the basis
knowledge of English idioms on friendship. Secondly, the comparative
method is used to find out the similarities and dissimilarities of the English
idioms on friendship and their Vietnamese equivalents in the terms of
structural and semantic features. Thirdly, the qualitative method is used to
investigate structural and semantic features of English idioms on friendship
from different sources of selective material with a view to designing a survey
questionnaire to find out the actual problems faced by the third-year learners
at Faculty of Foreign Languages of HDU when acquiring idioms in general,

4

and translating idioms on friendship from English into Vietnamese in
particular. Finally, the quantitative method is used to collect and analyze the
results taken from the survey questionnaire, defining the major difficulties of
the target participants in terms of idioms on friendship, so as to giving some
possible applications for translating them from English into Vietnamese in
an effective way.
6. Design of the study
Apart from the Introduction and Conclusion, the main part of the thesis
will be divided into four chapters:
Chapter 1 presents the review of literature and theoretical background
relating to English and Vietnamese idioms.

Chapter 2 presents methodology which has been applied to conduct the
research of the whole graduation thesis.
Chapter 3 points out the findings and discussion on English idioms on
friendship with reference to Vietnamese equivalents as well as some
difficulties met by the third-year learners at Faculty of Foreign Languages of
HDU when translating idioms from English into Vietnamese.
Chapter 4 proposes some possible applications for translating idioms on
friendship from English into Vietnamese in an effective way.





5

CHAPTER 1
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1. Literature review
There are a large number of studies on English idioms in various fields
of language such as syntax, semantics and translations, etc. These studies
have provided us interesting outcomes which should be reviewed before
going into the main details of the study.
1.1.1. Previous studies overseas
One of the famous works done by group authors of Andrew Ortony,
Danie L. Schallert, Ralph E. Reynolds and Stephen J. Antos was
“Interpreting Metaphors and Idioms: Some Effects of Context on
Comprehension”. In 1978 they conducted two experiments. In experiment
one, the targets were sentences followed by short or long contexts which
included either literal interpretations or metaphorical ones. Its result
indicated that only in the short context condition did subjects take

significantly longer to understand metaphorical than literal targets. In
experiment two, the targets were phrases that could be given either an
idiomatic or a literal interpretation. It was found that the comprehension of
phrases receiving an idiomatic interpretation took no longer than the
comprehension of those same phrases when given a literal interpretation, and
there were some evidence that idiomatic interpretations were consistently
faster.
In 1978, Jennifer Seidl and Mc Mordie, W. carried out a research on
“English idioms and how to use them”. Idioms in their research were
presented with various key words or key structures. They gave some
keywords with idiomatic uses in part of speech such as adjectives and

6

adverbs, nouns and miscellaneous in other chapters. They also presented
idioms with key structures in each individual part with some examples to
illustrate such as idioms with nouns and adjectives, idiomatic pairs, idioms
with prepositions, phrasal verbs, verbal idioms, idioms from special subjects,
and idioms with key words form special categories and idioms with
comparison.
Another study on “Comprehension of Idioms” was carried out by
Cristina, Cacciari and Patrizia Tabossi in 1988. The access of idiomatic
expression was investigated in three cross-modal priming experiments.
When the idiomatic string was predictable, subjects were faster at
performing a lexical decision to idiomatically related targets than to literally
related targets (Experiment one). When the string was not recognizable as
idiomatic until its completions, then subjects were faster on the target
literally related to the last word (Experiment two). Lexical decision for the
same materials used in Experiment two, when target words were presented
300 messages after the end of idiom was heard, was faster both for targets

related to the last word and for the idiomatic meaning of the string, relative
to control targets (Experiment three). The experimental results showed that
the idiomatic interpretation of a string easier than or as easy to access as its
literal interpretation were largely due to the inadequacy of the experimental
paradigms used.
The research on “Idioms for everyday uses” conducted by Milada
Broukal (1994) consisted of different related topics such as colors, food,
numbers, parts of the body, animals, etc. It was presented in form of reading
comprehension practice to help learners collecting the meanings for
convenient reference.

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Felicity O’Dell and Michael McCarthy (2010) conducted a study on
“English idioms in use”, which consisted of six sections with practice
exercises. In section one, key aspects of what idioms are and how to use
them were dealt with. In section two, the authors presented specific
individual types of idioms. In section three, the units were organized around
the topic or functional area where they are most likely to be used. The
section four focused on some of the written contexts where idioms are
frequently found. The ways in which idioms are typically used in spoken
language were focused on in the next section. The last section concentrated
on one keyword which gave rise to a particularly large number of English
idioms.
1.1.2. Previous studies in Vietnam
In Vietnam, there are many studies on English idioms under different
topics which gain a great deal of interest, such as “Cẩm nang thành ngữ tiếng
Anh” by Tran Ngoc Que Chau, (2011) investigating the semantic and
syntactic features of idioms denoting family in English and Vietnamese;
“Idioms containing terms for plants in English and Vietnamese” by Hoang

Thi Nhung, (2011); “English and Vietnamese idioms of comparison” by Le
Thi Hong, (2011); “An investigation into English and Vietnamese idioms
containing words denoting mental” by Vo Ngoc Anh, (2012); and “English
and Vietnamese idioms related to love and marriage” by Nguyen Thi Mong
Cam, (2012).
Furthermore, a number of researches on Vietnamese idioms can be
found, such as “Về khái niệm thành ngữ tiếng Việt” by Nguyen Thien Giap,
(1975); “Thành ngữ tiếng Việt” by Luong Van Dang, (1978); “Ngữ nghĩa
thành ngữ và tục ngữ, sự vận dụng” by Nguyen Duc Dan, (1986); “Kể

8

chuyện thành ngữ, tục ngữ” by Hoang Van Hanh, (1994); Bình diện cấu trúc
hình thái ngữ nghĩa của thành ngữ tiếng Việt by Nguyen Cong Duc, (1995)
and “Tuyển tập thành ngữ , tục ngữ , ca dao Việt –Anh thông dụng” by
Nguyen Dinh Hung, (2002).
However, there have been no studies dealing with the structural and
semantic features of English idioms on friendship with reference to
Vietnamese equivalents. This study is being implemented to find out some
similarities and dissimilarities of the structural and semantic features of
idioms in both languages, thus proposing some possible applications for
translating idioms on friendship from English into Vietnamese.
1.2. Theoretical background
1.2.1. Theoretical background of idioms
1.2.1.1 Definition of idioms
There have seen several definitions of idioms. First, an idiom is defined
as a number of words taken together, which mean something different from
the individual words of the idiom when they stand alone (S. Jenifer & W. Mc
Mordie, 1979: 20). Second, an idiom is a combination of words that has a
figurative meaning, due to its common usage. An idiom's figurative meaning

is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is
made (Culicover, P. & Jackendoff, R., 2005). Idioms are numerous and they
occur frequently in all languages. There are estimated to be at least 25,000
idiomatic expressions in the English language (Jackendoff, R., 1997). Carter
defines “idioms as special combinations with restricted forms and meanings
that cannot deduced from the literal meanings of the words which make them
up.” (Carter, R., 1985: 65). Accordingly, an idiom is learned and used as a
single language unit. It should not be analyzed into its constituents; it is

9

unchangeable and always carries a figurative meaning. Third, Jonathan C.
defines idiom as “a phrase or sentence whose meaning is not clear from the
meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit”
(Jonathan, C., 1995: 67). In the same year, Dean Curry offered another
definition of idiom as “the assigning of a new meaning to a group of words
which already have their own meaning” (Dean, C., 1994: 49).
Though definitions of idioms are different to some extent, all of them
share the basic concept: “idioms are words, phrases or expressions that
cannot be taken literally; in everyday language usage, they have a meaning
rather than the basic one you would find in the dictionary.”
In conclusion, there is no conflict between definitions of idioms
mentioned-above in spite of some different ways of expressing. They
integrate at one point that an idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning
cannot be worked out by combining the literal meaning of its individual
words.
1.2.1.2. Features of English idioms
(i) Structural features
As these definitions of idioms mentioned above, an idiom is a fixed
group of words. Each word is regarded as a component of an idiom and an

idiom can consist of at least two components. Idioms are structurally and
lexically restricted; therefore, the components of idioms cannot be added,
omitted or replaced. They cannot be changed or varied in the way literal
expressions are normally varied both in speech and writing. In both English
and Vietnamese, the stability in idioms is very high.
Bell, R.T. (1974:2) identifies some structural features which are
essential in the recognition of idioms. Some of their features are: (i)

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Alteration of Grammatical Rules: The idiomatic expression is not always
grammatical, but it is established, accepted and used by native speakers of
the language with a fixed structure and meaning. E.g.: It’s been ages since
we met (singular with a plural noun); (ii) Conventional Phrases: Idioms are
special expressions which are almost known and agreed by all the members
of a particular community. E.g.: Once in a blue moon (rarely, infrequently);
(iii) Alteration of Word Order: Idiomatic expressions in English, usually, do
not respect the English word order. E.g.: It may be well ahead of time
(normal word order) or It may well be ahead of time (probably); (iv)
Figurativeness: The basic characteristic of idiomatic expressions is that the
words are used metaphorically. Therefore, the surface structure has a little
role to play in understanding the meaning of the whole expression. For
example, in the idiom to bury the hatchet (to become friendly again after a
disagreement), the meanings of the words ‘to bury’ and ‘the hatchet’ are
different from the meaning of the whole expression; (v) Phrasal Verbs:
These are the most common type of idioms in English. Many of them carry
idiomatic meanings that cannot be inferred from the form, unless the phrase
is already known. E.g.: After war began, the two countries broke off
diplomatic relations (discontinue); most automobile companies bring out
new modals each year (to show or introduce).

However, Fraser has specified the idioms between those which are able
to undergo all the grammatical changes and those which are unable to
undergo the smallest grammar changes at all (Fraser, B., 1970: 33).
Therefore, some idioms are more flexible and can be made some changes
without losing their idiomatic meaning. This means that idioms are only
fixed in some of their parts but not all. Idioms are expressions, not subjected
to analysis, only some syntactic changes may be carried out in them. The

11

idioms which can easily be subjected to syntactic changes are more flexible.
Tense changes within idioms can be possibly made in most of the idioms,
for they indicate the animation of the actions in different tenses on the
person’s mind. For example: keep in touch => kept in touch (to maintain
communications with someone). Besides, some idioms can be broken or
changed more or less in their structures. For example, we sometimes say:
like mother like daughter/ like father like son.
In terms of structures, the central part of an idiom can be nouns (Two
peas in a pod), verbs (to stick to one’s last), adjectives (nearest and dearest)
or prepositions (with open arm). Each idiom has a stable structure and
meaning; an idiom can have a regular structure, an irregular or even a
grammatically incorrect structure. Firstly, idioms which have a regular
structure have common forms but there is no connection between the
meaning of each component and that of the whole unit, for example tell tales
out of school (to tell secrets or spread rumors). Secondly, the idioms can be
groups of words which have unconventional forms but their meaning can be
worked out through the meaning of individual words such as: make your
enemy your friend. According to the rule of grammar, the structures of the
verb ‘make’ are make somebody do something and make
somebody/something + Adj. However, in this case, the idiom does not need

to obey grammatical rule to make sense, it can still be understood that (make
your enemy become your friend). Finally, the idioms can be groups of words
which both are grammatically incorrect in form and irregular in meaning.
The structure is grammatically inaccurate and the meaning is not precisely
expressed by gathering the meaning of each member-word such as: Be up to
no good (doing or planning something wrong or dishonest). The structure of
the above idioms can be written as “Verb + preposition + adjective”. In

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English grammar, normally adjectives never come after prepositions
individually, however, as in an idiom, this case is acceptable.
In short, in terms of structural features, firstly, an idiom is a set-
expression and any changes in the internal structure of the idiom can make it
lose the idiomatic meaning. Secondly, idioms may take various forms or
structures such as noun phrases, verb phrases, preposition phrases, adjective
phrases, etc. In relation with structures, the idiom can have a regular,
irregular or even incorrectly grammatical structure.
(ii) Semantic features
Idioms are composed of words; however, they are not the combination
of the meaning of each element forming them. Kramsch stated: “The
meaning of an idiom was the special chemical mixture of the meaning of all
components, which is completely new in quality” (Kramsch, C. 2000: 63).
Therefore, it is important to understand idioms metaphorically. The meaning
is the most important aspect when discussing semantic features of idioms.
The basic characteristic of idioms is figurative meaning which helps to
distinguish whether a fixed expression is an idiom or not. For example: Read
somebody like a book (to understand someone very well, you can know
exactly what they are feeling or thinking without having to ask) and its
Vietnamese translation equivalent is ñi guốc trong bụng.

In case the meaning of an idiom is either partly (motivated idioms) or
completely different from the meaning of all components (non-motivated
idioms) the meaning of idioms cannot be guessed from the meaning of their
components (Kunin, A.V., 2006). However, in some cases of partial
difference, their figurative meaning is not quite different from the literal one,

13

for examples: out of sight, out of mind (xa mặt cách lòng); new one in, old
one out (có mới nới cũ); to stick like glue (dính như keo), etc…
In addition, idioms can convey positive, neutral, or negative meanings.
In terms of positive meaning, there can be seen an example: share
somebody’s sorrow and mirth (someone shares sorrow and happiness or
advantages and disadvantages each other). As for idioms expressing neutral
meaning, some examples are shown: two peas in a pod (to be very similar)
and make friends (to establish a link of friendship with someone). With
regard to negative meaning, some typical examples of idioms are bite the
hand that feeds one (to do harm to someone who does good things for you)
and stab someone in the back (to harm (someone) by treachery or betrayal of
trust).
To sum up, idioms can be motivated, partially-motivated and non-
motivated. Besides, idiomatic expressions can convey positive, neutral, or
negative meanings. Idioms have high evocativeness because the speaker in
conversation usually uses utterances that express his attitude or emotion. For
instance, when talking about similar people tending to associate with each
other, the idiom birds of a feather may be used.
1.2.1.3. Classification of English idioms
Some authors categorized and classified idioms in different ways.
Cowie says that “there is no clear dividing-line between idioms and non-
idioms: they form the end-points of a continuum” (Cowie, A. P., 1983). He

categorizes idiomatic expressions according to their degree of fixedness and
figurativeness. He distinguishes between: pure idioms, figurative idioms,
restricted collocations, and open collocations. Pure idioms “form the end-
point of a process by which word-combinations first establish themselves

14

through constant re-use, then undergo figurative extension and finally petrify
or congeal”. In figurative idioms, “variation is seldom found and pronoun
substitution unlikely”. As far as the transparency of meaning is concerned,
“the literal senses of these expressions do not survive alongside their
figurative ones in normal, everyday use”. Restricted collocations are
sometimes called “semi-idioms”. In these phrases, “one word has a
figurative sense not found outside that limited context. The other element
appears in a familiar, literal sense”. Some expressions in this category allow
a degree of lexical variation. In open collocations, the elements are freely re-
combinable and each element is typically used in a common literal sense.
(Cowie, A. P., 1983).
In terms of figurative meaning, idioms are divided into four types: non-
compositional/opaque (e.g. by and large), compositional/opaque (e.g. kick
the bucket), compositional/transparent (e.g. spill the beans) and quasi-
metaphorical (e.g. don’t give up the ship) (Glucksberg, S., 2001). The term
non-compositional means that idioms cannot be analyzed either semantically
or syntactically, while compositional idioms can. The term opaque refers to
the fact that meanings cannot be derived from the meanings of the
constituents; meanings of transparent idioms, on the other hand, can be
mapped onto their constituent words. Among the four types, quasi-
metaphorical, are idioms, “which behave just as metaphors”. To sum up,
Glucksberg’s categorization is similar to Cowie’s in a way that the categories
form a continuum going from petrified, opaque expressions to those that

allows some variation and whose meaning can be arrived at through
semantic analysis.
Tkachuk provides the following division with idiomatic classes, basing
on grammatical characteristics of the phrases, namely sentential (e.g. the

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grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.) and non-sentential.
Non-sentential idioms can be verbal (e.g. blacken sb’s reputation) or
verbless. In the verbless idioms, there can be a nominal (e.g. a red rag to a
bull), adjectival (e.g. white as snow) or adverbial phrase (e.g. once in a blue
moon). (Tkachuk, Tetyana, 2005).
However, due to the limited framework of a graduation thesis, it is
impossibility to cover all criteria for idioms classification. Therefore, only
two main categorizations of idioms on the base of the structural and semantic
features have been focused on.
(i) Classification based on structural features
Basing on structural features, idioms can be classified into five main
types: idioms in form of noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases,
adverb phrases and preposition phrases. In accordance with their
grammatical function, they can be described as in the following table:
Table 1.1: Classification of idioms based on structural features
Classification
of idioms
based on
structural
features
Some
common
structure

Example

Meaning
N + N Crocodile tears Insincere tears
N’s +N The cat’s
whiskers
Wonderful
N+ prep +
N
A bolt from the
blue
Some unexpected
bad news
Noun phrases
(NP)
N+ Adj knight
commander
Chivalrous man who
is ready to help and
protect oppressed
and helpless people