A study on syntactic and semantic features of english weather proverbs and idioms denoting weather with reference to the vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HUỆ

A STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC
FEATURES OF ENGLISH PROVERBS AND IDIOMS
DENOTING WEATHER WITH REFERENCE
TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA TỤC NGỮ VÀ
THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH VỀ THỜI TIẾT TRONG SỰ LIÊN HỆ
TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT)

M.A THESIS
Field: English Language
Code: 60220201


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HUỆ

A STUDY ON SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC
FEATURES OF ENGLISH PROVERBS AND IDIOMS
DENOTING WEATHER WITH REFERENCE
TO THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(ĐẶC ĐIỂM CÚ PHÁP VÀ NGỮ NGHĨA CỦA TỤC NGỮ VÀ
THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH VỀ THỜI TIẾT TRONG SỰ LIÊN
HỆ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TIẾNG VIỆT)
M.A THESIS

Field: English Language
Code: 60220201
Supervisor: Dr. NGUYEN DANG SUU.

Hanoi, 2016


Front hard cover
Back hard cover

NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HUỆ

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

2014 - 2016


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project
report entitled

“ A study on syntactic and semantic features of English

proverbs and idioms denoting weather and with references to the Vietnamese
equivalents” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of Master in English Language. Except for the indicated reference, no other
person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the
thesis.
Hanoi, 2016

Nguyen Thi Bich Hue

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

Nguyễn Đăng Sửu
Date:……………………

i


ii


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support
from a number of people.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to
Nguyen Dang Suu - Ph.D, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly
supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas,
expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an
academic researcher.
During this work, I have collaborated with many postgraduates, for they
have helped me with my work. Finally, my special thanks go to my family
members, especcially my husband for supporting and encouraging me to
pursue this degree. Without their encouragement, I would not have finished the
degree.

iii

ABSTRACT
Everyone understands the importance that proverbs and idioms exist in
every language. In the form of short, easy memorable phrases, the proverbs
and idioms contain a great treasure of folk wisdom, and through the use of
proverbs and idioms, it is often easier to express an idea better and more
convincingly than a long speech. A good knowledge of proverbs and idioms is
necessary for a perfect knowledge of a language. Yet, proverbs and idioms
in general and weather proverbs, idioms in particular are units of language
which cause a lot of problems for second language learners. Therefore, the
thesis makes an effort to deal with a small part of proverbs and idioms : the
syntactic and semantic features of English weather proverbs and idioms and
their Vietnamese equivalents. Along with the investigation is the qualitative
and quantitative analysis of English and Vietnamese proverbs and idioms
collected from reliable books, dictionaries and websites. The key target of the
investigation is to discover the similarities and differences between English
and Vietnamese weather proverbs and idioms

in terms of syntactics and

semantics by means of contrastive analysis. Finally, the study also puts
forward some suggestions for teaching and learning idioms and proverbs in
general and idioms and proverbs denoting weather, in particular.

iv


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
EWP: English Weather Proverbs
VWI: Vietnamese Weather Idioms.

EWPI: English Weather Proverbs , Idioms
VWPI: Vietnamese Weather Proverbs , Idioms.

v


LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Semantic fields of Weather Conditions in EWPI and VWPI
Table 2: Weather’s influence on Production and Human Health

vi


TABLES OF CONTENT
Certificate of originality.................................................................................. iii
Acknowledgements......................................................................................... iii
Abstract .......................................................................................................... iv
List of abbreviations ........................................................................................ v
List of tables ................................................................................................... vi
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................... 1
1.1. Rationale. .................................................................................................. 1
1.2. Aims of the research. ................................................................................ 2
1.3 Objectives of the research .......................................................................... 2
1.4. Scope of research ...................................................................................... 3
1.5. Significane of the research ........................................................................ 3
1.6. Structure organization of the thesis ........................................................... 3
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................... 5
2.1. Review of previous studies ....................................................................... 5
2.2. Review of theoretical background ............................................................. 6
2.2.1. Theory of syntax .................................................................................... 6

2.2.2.Theory of semantics ................................................................................ 8
2.2.3. Proverbs and idioms in English .............................................................. 9
2.2.4. Syntactic and Semantic features of proverbs and idioms in English. ............ 11
Chapter 3:METHODOLOGY. ....................................................................... 18
3.1 Research-governing orientations. .......................................................... 18
3.1.1.Research questions ................................................................................ 18
3.1.2. Research methods ................................................................................ 18
Chapter 4: FINDING AND DISCUSSION. ................................................... 20
4.1. Definition of proverbs and idioms denoting weather .............................. 20
4.2. Semantic features of proverbs and idioms denoting wearther in English
and Vietnamese.............................................................................................. 20
4.2.1. Anticipating weather changes............................................................... 22
4.3. Syntactic features of proverbs and idioms denoting weather in English
and Vietnamese.............................................................................................. 44
4.3.2.VWPI with Simple Sentences ............................................................... 44
4.3.3.EWPI and VWPI with Compound sentences ......................................... 44
vii


4.3.4.EWPI and VWPI with Complex Sentences ........................................... 45
4.3.5.EWPI and VWPI with irregular sentences............................................. 46
4.3.6. Similarities and Differences between EWPI and VWPI in Terms of
Syntactic ........................................................................................................ 46
4.4. Implications ............................................................................................ 47
ChAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ........................................................................ 49
5.1. Recapitulation ......................................................................................... 49
5.2 Concluding remarks ................................................................................. 49
5.3. Limitations of the study .......................................................................... 50
5.4 Suggestions for further study ................................................................... 51
REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 52

APPENDIX 1 ................................................................................................ 54
APPENDIX 2 ................................................................................................ 63

viii


Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale.
We have no doubt about the importance of foreign languages, especially
English. In Vietnam, English has long been regarded as a tool of international
communication, and together with its rising importance, the need of learning
English is become more and more urgent. It can’t be denied that all foreign
learners in general and Vietnamese learners in particular desire to master
English as the native speakers. However, they usually face a lot of difficulties
that prevent them from gaining successful conversations. One of the reasons for
these problems lies in the way people perceive and use idioms and proverbs.
Therefore, it is unquestionable that to learn a foreign language also means to
gain benefits from its great stock of proverbs and idioms in which most cultural
values are reflected. However, most Vietnamese learners are taught English mainly
with the knowledge of language, not culturally appropriate factors embedded in the
teaching language. They speak English without understanding of English
communication manner. They write English with little knowledge of English
cultural background. Consequently, it causes appropriateness, learning English in
general and learning English proverbs and idioms in particular seem to be a
challenging process. It is really a risky road for learners to understand and translate
English proverbs and idioms into Vietnamese.
Each nation’s language has its own similar and different concepts on
many fields of life such as humane values, ways of thinking, behavior. Words
and expressions including idioms and proverbs have formed the vocabulary

system of a language. Idioms and proverbs are regarded as special factors of a
language’s

vocabulary

system

because

they

reflect

cultural

specific

characteristics of each nation, including material and spiritual values. Therefore,
many researchers have long shown their concerns for idioms and proverbs.
There have been a large number of researches conducted to investigate different
1


features of proverbs and idioms as well as their applicability in language
teaching. Yet, most of the studies deal with proverbs and idioms in general. In
this paper, the researcher would like to focus only on the English weather
proverbs and idioms, put them in the comparison and contrast with Vietnamese
ones in terms of semantic and syntactic features.
Being interested in idioms and proverbs, I choose idioms and proverbs as
my thesis topic. I just focus on a very small part of the huge idiomatic and

proverbial treasure, “A study on semantic and syntactic features of English
proverbs and idioms denoting weather with reference to the Vietnamese
equivalents”.
The reason for me choosing weather, as we know, has been closely
associated with us since we appeared in the world.Our life, our work, our
feeling….are often in fluenced by weather. Weather idioms and proverbs make
us much more aware of our environment so we can observe and appreciate the
many wonderful and intricate things going on in our natural surroundings.I hope
this thesis would help English learners as well as Vietnamese learners improve
their ability understanding and using proverbs and idioms in daily
communication.
1.2. Aims of the research.
The research aims at studying the the syntactic and semantic features of
English and Vietnamese idioms and proverbs denoting weather and helping
Vietnamese learners of English be more aware of English and Vietnamese
proverbs and idioms and how to use them in appropriate way. On that basis, the
writer suggests some implications for teaching and learning English idioms and
proverbs denoting weather.
1.3 Objectives of the research
The objectives of the study are:
- Describing the syntactic and semantic features of
Vietnamese proverbs and idioms denoting weather.
2

English and


- Comparing and contrasting syntactic and semantic features of English
and Vietnamese proverbs and idioms denoting weather to investigate the
similarities and differences between them.

- Giving some suggested implications for teaching and learning English
proverbs and idioms denoting weather to Vietnamese learners of English.
1.4. Scope of research
Proverbs and idioms are large parts in both English and Vietnamese; thus
it is impossible for the author to carry out a comprehensive study on them; thus,
the study just focuses on some proverbs and idioms relating to weather. In
addition, the researcher only concentrates on semantic and syntactic features
although the study would be of greater success if it deals with other linguistic
and non-linguistic features of weather proverbs such as pragmatics, culture and
syntax. However, some aspects of culture are used to explain some different
elements between two languages when necessary.
1.5. Significane of the research
It is obvious that proverbs,idioms occupy a large part in almost every
language. It is hoped that along with the understanding of the semantic and
syntactics features of proverbs,idioms in general and those of weather proverbs
in particular, the findings of the study can help learners employ weather
proverbs more regularly, spontaneously and effectively. Language learners can
exploit them as a source of language units to enrich and color their writing and
speaking in both academic and daily settings. As regards the teaching process,
this thesis can also provide such a great reference source in the subject of
semantics. It can help to improve teachers’ awareness of the importance of
proverbs,idioms as an inseparable unit of the linguistic system and the need to
include them into the curriculum.
1.6. Structure organization of the thesis
The study consists of the five following chapters:
Chapter I: Introduction
3


Chapter II: Literature Review

Chapter III: Methodology
Chapter IV: Findings and Discussion
Chapter V: Conclusion
Chapter 1: Introduction, includes the rationale, aims, research questions, scope
of the research, significance of the research, and structure of the research.
Chapter 2: Literature Review, reviews some publications on weather proverbs,
idioms and previous studies as well as establishes the theoretical background for
the study as the firm foundation with definitions of proverbs, idioms and
weather proverbs, idioms. The distinctive and remarkable characteristics of these
phenomena will also be unearthed in order to provide a clear concept from the
beginning.
Chapter 3: Methodology, deals with the research design and procedures. In this
chapter, description of the sampling, instruments, the procedure of data
collection and analysis for implementing the thesis are mentioned.
Chapter 4: Findings and Discussions, is the main part of the research, which
includes a generalization about the semantic and syntactics features of weather
proverbs,idioms in both languages - English and Vietnamese - and in what ways
they are similar to or different from each other. The latter discusses some
weather proverbs,idioms that are not reliable in both languages.
Chapter 5: Conclusions, summarizes the main content of the research and
draws out conclusions. This part also gives implications for teaching and
learning. Moreover, a statement of limitations and suggestions for further
research are also indicated in this chapter. Apart from that, references and
appendices are enclosed for those who are interested in studying the same issues.

4


Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Review of previous studies
Up to now, there have been many books and dictionaries on proverbs and
idioms . First of all, Peaty( 1983) conducted all kind of English idioms and the
frequent use of idiomatic phrases in “Working with English Idioms”. This book
is helpful guide.It is primarily a language practice book for students at
intermediate level or above to recognize, understand and use some of the
everyday idioms in appropriate context.
Also in 1985, Neal R. Norick published his book “ How proverbs mean”.
It focuses on the proverbs as a discrete text.
The books entitled “Weather Proverbs: How 600 Proverbs, Sayings, and
Poems Accurately Explain Our Weather” written by George Freier was very
informative and still applies. In this book, the author defines and classifies
weather proverbs. He also mentions weather proverbs in terms of semantic fields
as well as troubles with some proverbs.
“Weather proverbs” is the book written by H. H. Dunwoody in 1977,
including Popular Weather Prognostics by Ralph Abercrombie & William
Marriott and Proverbs Relating to Animals by Dr. C. C. Abbott. Proverbs are
classified into semantic fields relating to birds, clouds, dew, fish, fog, frost,
insects, the moon, plants, rain, rainbows, reptiles, stars, snow, sun, thunder and
lightning, trees, wind, years, seasons, months, weeks and days, and general
prognostics.
There are a lot of studies on proverbs and idioms in Vietnam with variety
of topics, such as: “ Tục ngữ và dân ca Việt Nam” by Vũ Ngọc Phan, “ Thành
ngữ tiếng Việt” by Lương Văn Đang ( 1993) and Nguyễn Lực( 1993).
The study entitled “ An overview of English and Vietnamese proverbs: a
contrastive analysis” by Bui Thi Thuy Van (2011) investigates some

5

resemblances, differences as well as some gaps between the proverbs in two
languages: English and Vietnamese via explanations and examples.
Some studies focus on proverbs denoting different semantic fields and their
characteristics, but there have not been studies on weather proverbs with reference to
Vietnamese equivalence. For examples, the thesis” An investigation into linguistic
features of money related proverbs in English and Vietnamese”.Ngo Thi Quynh
Hoa( 2011) does not study proverbs denoting weather but she focuses on idioms in
her thesis.
So far

there have no studies engaged in the syntactic and semantic

features of proverbs and idioms denoting weather in English and with reference
to the Vietnamese equivalents. This study is implemented to find out the abovementioned features, thus proposing some possible applications for teaching and
learning.
The studies mentioned above are helpful to this study in terms of
providing the theoretical background for the thesis
2.2. Review of theoretical background
This chapter addresses the theoretical background of the study. In each
section, the definition or explanation of the key terms is presented together with
the studies worldwide.
2.2.1. Theory of syntax
There are many reasearcher who have studied syntax. After investigating,
we have concluded some theories syntax from famous philologist.
Morris ( 1938 ) organized emiotics, the study of signs, into three areas:
syntax(the study of the interrelation of the signs), semantics( the study of the
relation between the signs and the objects to which they apply), and pragmatics(
the relationship between the sign system and the user). According to Moris,
syntax is the grammar, structure,or order of the elements in a language statement
(semantics is the meaning of these elements). Syntax applies to computer

languages as well as to natural languages. Usually, people think of syntax as
6


word order. However, syntax is also achieved in some languages such as Latin
by inflectional case endings. Syntax is understood

to be the the theory of the

structure of sentences in a language. This view has its direct antecedents in the
theory of immediate constituents, in which the function of syntax is to mediate
between the observed forms of a sentence and its meaning.
Bloomfield( 1987), syntax is now the study of the principles and rules that
govern the ways in which words are combined to form phrases, clauses, and
sentences in a language. Syntax which is subfield of grammar focuses on the
word order of a language and the relationships among words. In this use, syntax
is opposed to morphology, the study of word structure. In other words,
morphology deals with word formation out of morphemes whereas syntax deals
with phrase and sentence formation out of words.
Google Books defines syntax as the study of the rules whereby words or other
elements of sentence structure are combined to form grammatical sentences.
For example: Subject, predicate in the following sentences are about
something or someone that the sentence is about is called the subject of the
sentence which is shown in bold type.
- Mary often comes late to class.
- My sister and I both have a cat named Mimi.
- Many parts of the Asian coastline were destroyed by a tsunami in 2004.
Ingo Plag (2002) defined that words are syntactic atoms the smallest
elements in a sentence. Words belong to certain syntactic classes( nouns, verbs,
adjectives, prepositions, etc.), which are called parts of speech, word classes or

syntactic categories. The position in which a given word may occur in a
sentence is determined by the syntactic rules of a language.These rules make
reference to words and the class they belong to. For example, “the” is said to
belong to the class called articles, and there are rules which determine the
position in a sentence such words, ie.articles, may occur( usually before nouns
and their modifiers, as in “the big house”).We can therefore test whether
7


something is a word by checking if it belongs to such a word class.If the item in
question, for example, follows the rules for nouns, it should be a noun, hence a
word. Or consider the fact that only words( and groups of words), but no smaller
units can be moved to a different position in the sentence. For examples,in “yesno” questions, the auxiliary verb does not occur in its usual position but it
moved to the beginning of the sentence ( You can read my textbook vs. Can you
read my textbook?). Thus syntactic criteria can help to determine the wordhood
of a given entity.
2.2.2.Theory of semantics
Semantics (as the study of meaning) is central to the study of
communication and as communication becomes more and more a crucial factor
in social organization, the need to understand it becomes more and more
pressing. Semantics is also at the center of the study of the human mind –
thought processes, cognition, conceptualization – all these are intricately bound
up with the way in which we classify and convey out experience of the world
through language.
Because it is,in these two ways, a focal point in man’s study of man,
semantics has been the meeting place of various cross – currents of thinking and
various disciplines of study. Philosophy, psychology, and linguistics all claim a
deep interest in the subject. Semantics has often seemed baffling because there
are many different approaches to it, and the ways in which they are related to
one another are rarely clear, even to writers on the subject (Leech 1990).

Semantics means the meaning and interpretation of words, signs, and
structure. Semantica largely determine our reading comprehension, how we
understand others, and even what decisions we make as a result of our
interpretations. Semantics can also refer to the branch of study within linguistics
that deals with language and how we understand meaning. This has been a
particularly interesting field for philosophers as they debate the essence of

8


meaning, how we build meaning, how we share meaning with others, and how
meaning changes over time.
Generally, semantics is the study of meaning. It is a wide subject within
the general study of language. An understanding of semantics is essential to the
study of language acquisition and of language change.It is important to
understand language in social contexts, as these are likely to affects of style. It is
thus one of the most fundamental concepts in linguistics. The study of semantics
includes the study of how meaning is constructed,interpreted, clarified,
obscured, simplified, negotiated, contradicted and paraphrased.
2.2.3. Proverbs and idioms in English
2.2.3.1. Definitions of proverbs
There are numerous definitions of proverbs. According to the standard
dictionary definition, a “proverb” is “a short saying in common use that
strikingly expresses some obvious truth or familiar experience” (Guralnik and
Solomon 1980, p.1144). The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Proverbs (1998)
postulates in its introductory remarks the following definition: “A proverb is a
traditional saying which offers advice or presents a moral in a short and pithy
manner” (Simpson/Speake 1998).
Meanwhile, Burridge, in 1981, assumed that “a proverb is a wise saying.” In
the book entitled “How Proverbs Mean: Semantic Studies in English Proverbs”, a

proverb is defined as a typical spoken, conversational form with didactic function
and not associated with any particular source (Neal R. Norrick, 1985, p.51-55). In
other words, a proverb is a short traditional saying expressing a truth or moral
instruction. (Geddes& Grosset, 1994).
George D. Freier (1992, p.6) defines a weather proverb as a short,
sensible, salty statement about the weather. The study of weather proverbs is
known as paroemiology.
Mieder (1993, p.5) defines that “A proverb is a short, generally known
sentence of the folk which contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views
9


in a metaphorical, fixed, and memorable form and which is handed down from
generation to generation.” "A proverb is a standard statement of moral and
colloquial imperatives in fixed metaphorical paradigmatic form; it deals with
fundamental logical relationships" (Barley 1972, p. 741).
As defined in the book "Tục Ngữ, Thành Ngữ Ca Dao và Dân Ca Việt
Nam" written by Trần Ngọc Ngải, Chicago, Illinois, USA 1997, a proverb is a
saying giving advice or satire. According to Lê Gia in his book "Tâm Hồn Mẹ
Việt Nam" (1994), a proverb is a saying based on the customs absorbed in
people’s thought and approved and used through generations. Vũ Ngọc Phan
indicates: “a proverb is a sentence that is complete in meaning itself and
expresses an idea, a comment, an experience, an ethics, a truth or a criticism”.
(cited in Tổng tập văn học dân gian người Việt Tập 1: Tục ngữ”, 2002, p.46). He
also distinguishes between a proverb and an idiom as follows: grammatically, a
proverb is a complete sentence regardless of how short it is, while an idiom is a
phrase or a word group; semantically, an idiom is a part of a sentence that
cannot express a complete idea by itself; as regards genre, an idiom is a set
expression while a proverb is a kind of folklore; and hierarchically, an
idiom is treated as a word while a proverb is considered to be a sentence.

Most of the above definitions help to make clear the remarkable features
of a proverb. In terms of form, it is short and lapidary. In terms of content, it
expresses a truth, moral instruction, advice and traditional wisdom.
2.2.3.2. Definitions of idioms.
According to the most common definition, idioms are fixed linguistic
expressions, a special kind of collocation involving two or more words in context,
whose overall meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the constituent
parts.
A traditional definition of idioms runs roughly as follow: “an idiom is a
collocation whose meaning is not the sum of the meanings of its constituents, but
which has a literal counterpart.” (Strässler, 1982, p.13). Seidl and Mordie (1978),
10


Palmer (1990), and Asher (1994) also share this view. According to Seidl and
Mordie “an idiom is a number of words, which taken together, meaning something
different from the individual words of the idiom when they stand-alone.” (1978,
p.8). Palmer (1990) also states that an idiom is an expression whose meaning
cannot be inferred from the meanings of its parts. According to Asher (1994), an
idiom is defined as a phrase or other sequence of words which has a meaning
beyond or other than the sum of the meaning of the individual words. However,
these definitions are not completely clear and really satisfy other linguists.
Therefore, many other definitions have continuously been proposed.
Jackson and Amvela (2000) put forward a more concise definition of idioms:
“an idiom may be defined as a phrase, the meaning of which cannot be predicted
from the individual meanings of the morphemes it comprises” (p.66)
Another specific definition is introduced by Fernando (1996, pp.2-3), she
describes idioms as conventionalized multiword expressions, individual units whose
components cannot be varied or varied only within definable limits.
Sharing a similar viewpoint on idiom definition with all above linguists,

Saeed (2003) gives a clearer definition of idiom, which is adopted for the current
thesis research. He defines an “idiom” as “words collocated that became affixed
to each other until metamorphosing into a fossilized term. This collocation —
words commonly used in a group — redefines each component word in the
word-group and becomes an idiomatic expression. The words develop a
specialized meaning as an entity, as an idiom.” (p.60)
2.2.4. Syntactic and Semantic features of proverbs and idioms in English.
2.2.4.1. Syntactic features of proverbs and idioms in English.
(i)- Proverb
As said above,… “a proverb is a complete sentence regardless of how
short it is”.So, we’ll look at proverbs in terms of characteristics of sentence.
(i) Simple sentences

11


A simple sentence, according to Quirk et al,consists of a single
independent clause and there are seven clause types: SVA, SVC, SVO, SVOA,
SVOC, SVOO and SV.
SV
He has arrived
SVA
He is in the garden
SVC
He looks tired.
SVO
I read his letter.
SVOA
They put him in a good position
SVOC

He makes me happy
SVOO
He gave me his book.
(ii). Compound sentences.
A compound sentence according to Quirk et al, consists of two or more
coordinated main clauses; the clauses of a compound sentence provide classic
instances of a paratactic relationship that is they have equivalent function.
Example:
He got up late and rushed to university
(iii). Complex sentences
A complex sentence according to Quirk et al,is like a simple sentence in
that it consists of only one main clause, but unlike a simple sentence it has one
or more subordinate clauses functioning as an element of the sentence.
Example:
When round the moon there is burr, the weather will be cold and rough.
12


(iv) Irregular sentences
+ Aphoristic sentences
The aphoristic sentence structure is found in many proverbs.
The common structural feature is the balancing of two equivalent
constructions against each other.
Example:
The higher the clouds the better the weather.
+ Abbreviated sentences
They are usually used with the omission of there is, it is or a form of the
verb be.
Example:
Evening red and morning gray, two sure signs of one fine day.

(ii).Idiom
As mentioned in the previous part, “ idioms are fixed linguistic expressions, a
special kind of collocation involving two or more words in context, whose overall
meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the constituent parts.”
Idiom is a set phrase which include:
a.Noun phrase; b.Verb phrase
c.Adj phrase;

d.Prepositional phrase

a.Noun phrase
In grammar, a noun phrase is a whole head which is a noun or a pronoun,
optionally accompanied by a modifier set. In general, a noun phrase has its head
noun, a pronoun, a nominal adjective or a numeral. As all phrases, the structure of
the English noun phrase can be analyzed into both functional and formal
constituents. Based on functional point of view, noun phrase consists of four major
components in a fixed order:
The head is the central and indispensible component for other constituents to
cluster.

13


The determiner is the component which determines the reference of the noun
phrase in its linguistic or situational contexts (a, the, this, her, his your…).
Pre-modification

is the component consisting of all the modifying or

describing constituents before the head other than the determiners.

Post-modification

is the element which contains all the modifying

constituents placed after the head. For example:
beautiful

The
Determiner

girl

pre-mod

on the beach
head

post-mod

b.Verb phrase
Verb phrase is a group of words which has a main or lexical verb, the head.
The verb phrase is the expansion of a verb and always acts as a predicator in the
clause. The verb forms operate in finite and non-finite verb phrases. Finite verb
phrases have tense distinction.For example:
His advice fails.
The non-finite forms of verb are the infinitive, ing- and ed- participles. A nonfinite verb phrase consists of one or more such items. For example:
Rain before seven, lift before eleven.
c.Adj phrase
Adjective phrase is a group of words in which the head is the adjective. The
head may be preceeded by pre-modifiers and followed by post-modifiers. Adjective

phrases modify nouns.They may function attributively (standing before noun) or
predicatively(appearing after linking verb), but not all adjectives can be used in
both the positions.
Pre-modifications are the modifying, describing or qualifying constituents
preceeding the head.
The head, an adjective or a participle serves as the focus of the phrase.
Post-modifications are modifying constituents which follow the head.For
example:
She seems very
Pre-mod

happy.
head
14