A study on english set expressions containing the word “BLUE” and the vietnamese equivalents

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS
A STUDY ON ENGLISH SET EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING
THE WORD “BLUE” AND THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU NGỮ CỐ ĐỊNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH CÓ
CHỨA TỪ “BLUE” VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

ĐINH THỊ THU HƯƠNG

Hanoi, 2017


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS
A STUDY ON ENGLISH SET EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING
THE WORD “BLUE” AND THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS
(NGHIÊN CỨU NGỮ CỐ ĐỊNH TRONG TIẾNG ANH CÓ CHỨA TỪ
“BLUE” VÀ TƯƠNG ĐƯƠNG TRONG TIẾNG VIỆT)

ĐINH THỊ THU HƯƠNG
Field: English Language
Code: 60.22.02.01

Supervisor: Dr. Nguyễn Thị Vân Đông

Hanoi, 2017

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled A study on English set expressions containing the word “BLUE” and
the Vietnamese equivalents submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the degree of Master in English Linguistics. Except where the reference is indicated,
no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of
the thesis.
Hanoi, October 2017

Dinh Thi Thu Huong

Approved by
SUPERVISOR
(Signature and full name)

Nguyen Thi Van Dong, PhD.
Date:……………………

i


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 Mrs.
Nguyen Thị Van Dong, 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.
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 whole course of studying.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my friends for the
sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work.

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ABSTRACT
The title of my thesis is a study on syntactic and semantic features of English
color expressions and the Vietnamese equivalents. The purpose of my study is to
describe the syntactic and semantic features of color expressions, especially
concentrates on blue color, show some similarities and differences between English
color expressions and the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic
features, and propose the implications for teaching and learning these English
expressions at high school.
To carry out this research, I use descriptive, analytical and contrastive
methods.The author combines descriptive research method and comparative
analysis method, in which survey questionnaires, the comparative method, the
statistic method and the analytical method are included. Being the result of survey,
the author has pointed out the similarities and differences of English BLUE set
expressions. Hopefully, the finding of this study can, to some extent, be suggested
as a referential material for Vietnamese students and teachers in studying and
teaching color expressions.

iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
e.g.:
etc.:

for example
et cetera

CEx:
ECEx:
VCEx:

Color expressions
English color expressions
Vietnamese color expressions

iv


LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1. Functions of adjective .......................................................................... 11
Table 3.1.

Syntactic features of BLUE set expressions ……………………….24

Table 3.2. Semantic meaning of BLUE set expressions in English……………42
Table 3.3.

Semantic fields of the word “XANH” in Vietnamese summarized
from collected data …………………………………………………44

Table 3.4

The similarities and differences of semantic meaning of BLUE set
expressions in English and “XANH” in Vietnamese. ………………44

Table 4.1.

Subjects in use ……………………………………………………...53

Table 4.2.

Key to the exercise …………………………………………………55

Table 4.3.

The result of the survey ……………………………………………..55

Table 4.4.

The result of the survey …………………………………………… 58

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ........................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .....................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................. iv

LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................. v
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION.................................................................................. 1
1.1.

Rationale for the research ............................................................................. 1

1.2.

Aims and objectives of the research ............................................................. 2

1.3.

Research questions……………………………………..……………………3

1.4.

Methods of the study…………………………………………………..…….3

1.5.

Scopes of the research .................................................................................. 4

1.6.

Significance of the research ......................................................................... 5

1.7.

Design of the research .................................................................................. 5

Chapter 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................... 7
2.1.

Review of previous studies .......................................................................... 7

2.2.

Review of theoretical background ................................................................ 9

2.2.1. Theoretical framework ................................................................................. 9
2.2.2. Theory of syntax…………………………………………………..……...…9
2.2.3. Theory of semantics…………………………………………..………...….10
2.2.4. Theory of color set expressions……………………………………..…..…11
2.3.

Theoretical background.............................................................................. 13

2.3.1. Definition of expressions ........................................................................... 13
2.3.2. Classifications of expressions..................................................................... 15
2.3.3. Features of color expressions ..................................................................... 16
2.3.4. An overview of blue color .......................................................................... 19
2.4.

Summary ................................................................................................... 22

Chapter 3 : A STUDY ON ENGLISH SET EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING THE
WORD “BLUE” AND THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS. ........................... 23


3.1.

Syntactic features of blue set expressions. ................................................. 23

3.2.

Semantic features of blue set expressions. ................................................. 26

3.3.

Comparison between the Semantic Features of the Word “BLUE” in English

and “XANH” in Vietnamese.................................................................................. 43
3.3.1. In terms of similarities ............................................................................... 44
3.3.2. In terms of differences ............................................................................... 46
3.4.

Summary ................................................................................................... 47

Chapter 4: COMMON ERRORS MADE BY LEARNERS OF ENGLISH WHEN
USING ENGLISH “BLUE” SET EXPRESSIONS. ............................................... 49
4.1.

Survey questionnaires ................................................................................ 50

4.1.1. The subjects…………………………………………………………….…..51
4.1.2. Questionnaires (predictions)....................................................................... 51
4.1.3. Procedure ................................................................................................... 52
4.2.

Common errors made by learners of English when using English BLUE set

expressions in English and in Vietnamese ............................................................. 57
4.2.1 Common errors made by learners of English .............................................. 57
4.2.2 Causes of committing errors....................................................................... 57
4.3.

Suggestions for teaching and learning English BLUE set expressions in

English and in Vietnamese .................................................................................... 58
4.4.

Summary ................................................................................................... 60

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION .................................................................................... 61
5.1.

Recapitulation ............................................................................................ 61

5.2.

Concluding remarks…………………………………….………………………...61

5.3.

Limitations of the research ......................................................................... 62

5.4.

Suggestions for future research .................................................................. 62

REFERENCES ...................................................................................................... 63
APPENDICES....................................................................................................... 66

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Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale for the research
Nowadays, the globalization has become a wide-spread trend in the world,
therefore, communication with high requirements has become an urgent trend in the
world than ever. That is the reason why English is the most popular and flexible
language in the world. However, in spite of the fact that English has been the most
common language, there stand challenges existing for foreign learners to overcome.
Those difficulties derive from special factors such as culture, context or even
speaker’s implication. They affect on foreign learners’ understanding as well as
using the language.
In studying English, especially for the Vietnamese, it is really a shortcoming if
we do not take English color expressions into consideration, English color
expressions are not only a part of language, but also one of the components creating
traditional culture of a nation. Through these expressions, we can learn more clearly
and deeply about English people, their country as well as their culture.
According to Rod Ellis, one way to help foreign learners of English overcome
their language related problems is to teach them formulaic and figurative
expressions such as proverbs, idioms, metaphors, phrasal verbs etc. which are a
crucial part of natural language production (Rod Ellis, 2008). Therefore, color
expressions are selected as the focus of this study because it is seen as specific
characteristics of culture, and each color English expression has its own features. It
lies in the fact that, colors have taken an important role in the living and each color
also has its own meaning. Therefore, there have been a lot of studies involved in the
meaning of colors expressions in order to know how to use them.

It is said that the “color terms” have been used to show differences in color
of each language all over the world. While we might readily expect differences for
words relating to things in environment such as animal and plants, or for cultural
system like governance or kinship terms, it might seem surprising that terms for
colors should vary. The investigation claims that languages vary in the number and
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range of their basic color terms. (Berlin and Kay, 1969) As a result, knowledge of
color expressions can increase comprehension of texts and using them can make
learners’ verbal and written communication more effective (Iron, 1986;
Vanyushkina-Holt, 2005).
Being aware of the importance of color expressions in daily interaction as well
as in learning language, many researchers have made efforts to study issues and
aspects in this field. Many researchers have concentrated on analyzing semantic and
cultural features, as well as psychological factors of color expressions.
Nevertheless, a study of English and Vietnamese color expressions has not been
dealt with so far.
For the reasons above, I decided to choose the thesis entitled “A study on
English set expressions containing the word “blue” and the Vietnamese equivalents”
as the topic of the master graduation thesis with a view of helping Vietnamese learners
of English understand more clearly about the way of using and translating them from
English to Vietnamese and vice-versa. Hopefully, it will somehow help Vietnamese
learners enrich their knowledge and have a deeper insight into English color
expressions. As for the learners of English or Vietnamese, a contrastive analysis of
semantic features of color expressions in this thesis will help them improve the ability
of using and understanding. Especially, the study of all kinds of color expressions are
expected to provide the translators with fresh thinking of culture, lifestyle, custom,
notions, which brings their works to perfection to some extent.
1.2. Aims and objectives of the research

This study is conducted to aim at finding out the typical semantic features of
English color expressions, especially investigating BLUE set expressions in English
and the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features, thus
helping Vietnamese learners of English to have better understanding of these
expressions and be able to use them effectively in daily communication.
With a view to achieving the mentioned-above aims, some specific objectives
have been put forward as the following:

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- Identify, describe the syntactic, semantic features of English color
expressions and the BLUE set expressions in English.
- Point out the similarities and differences of these English expressions
containing the word BLUE and the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic
and semantic features.
- Make some suggested applications for teaching and learning English
expressions containing the word BLUE.
1.3. Research questions
- What are the syntactic and semantic features of set expressions especially those
containing BLUE set expressions in English?
- What are the similarities and differences of the BLUE set expressions in
English and the Vietnamese equivalents in terms of syntactic and semantic features?
- What are the implications of mastering set expressions for teachers and
students in English teaching - learning process?
1.4. Methods of the study
This study is planned to identify and describe some syntactic and semantic
features of the English color expressions BLUE with reference to the Vietnamese
equivalents, from these findings, some similarities and differences would be shown.
To achieve this purpose, a large number of color expressions, and BLUE color has

been collected and treated differently at various time. After that, the data has been
collected and analyzed in a careful consideration with the combination of
contrastive analysis in qualitative and quantitative approaches, which are used in the
arguments and discussions.
Comparative and contrastive methods help us to set up similarities and
differences in the way of using color expressions by English and Vietnamese people
in both spoken and written language by doing the survey.

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Besides, descriptive, analysis and contrastive methods are used as the major
methodology of this study. The method as descriptive research is utilized to
describe and demonstrate linguistic features of expression containing the word Blue
in English and the Vietnamese equivalents, the methods are also used to describe
the syntactic and semantic feature of the word Blue. Some typical examples and
statistic tables of classification these ones are given to make a clearance. The
method contrastive research is utilized to find out similarities and differences of
these expressions in terms of syntactic and semantic features.
Besides, some of the research techniques are used and combined such as
statistics and observation methods to draw out necessary findings.
Last but not least, setting up a regular consultancy with supervisor for a
guidance and academic exchange is a critical technique to get the right direction to
do this research.
1.5. Scopes of the research

1.5.1. Academic scope
In this master thesis, syntactic and semantic features of English color
expressions in general are extensively discussed, in which English expressions
containing the word BLUE will be more concentrated on with reference to the

Vietnamese equivalents, thus helping us to propose some possible applications for
learning and teaching these expressions from English into Vietnamese and vice-versa
.
1.5.2. Social scope
In the process of completing this research thesis, all the material collection of
English color expressions and the equivalents in Vietnamese with illustration
examples are collected and considered before being used with the hope that the
outcome of this thesis, to some extent, would be able to make a certain contribution
to enhancing the quality of communication for Vietnamese learning English.

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1.6. Significance of the research
In terms of theoretical significance, the research is expected to contribute an
in-depth description of English expressions containing the word BLUE by
analyzing their syntactic and semantic features in comparison with Vietnamese
equivalents.
In terms of practical significance, English color expressions have been studied
in many aspects such as culture, custom, and even psychology but there have been
no studies dealing with the syntactic and semantic features of English color
expressions, especially BLUE color set expressions with reference to the
Vietnamese equivalent. Thus, this research is conducted in attempt to provide
Vietnamese learners of English with better mastering these color expressions in
sensible ways, and naturally use them in receptive and productive skills. In
describing the syntactic and semantic features of English color expressions,
especially BLUE color set expressions will be taken into consideration as the
ground for my study with the hope of making a contribution in to the process of
overcoming some difficulties met by the Vietnamese learners of English.
1.7. Design of the research

This study includes five main chapters as follows:
Chapter 1, “Introduction”, provides an overview of the issues to be covered
and the situations in which the study is carried out. The aims, the specific
objectives, the research questions, the methods of the study, the scope, the
significance and the design of the study are also presented in this chapter.
Chapter 2, “Literature Review”, discusses the previous studies on proverbs
relating to the area of the research and presents some theoretical preliminaries that
could be used as foundation for the process of conducting the research.
Chapter 3, describes and analyses the syntactic and semantic features of
English expressions, especially the expressions containing the word BLUE with
reference to the Vietnamese equivalents to find out and discuss the similarities and

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dissimilarities in terms of these features expressed through English and Vietnamese
English expressions containing word BLUE set expressions
Chapter 4, mentions the errors that students are easy to make by some methods
(survey questionnaires, trap students by giving the wrong answers for them to do,
therefore, help them realize their errors and they will know the uses of the
expressions
Chapter 5, The conclusions, summarizes the major findings resulted from the
investigation and data analysis, presents the limitations of the study, provides some
suggestions for further research and proposes some possible applications for using
these expressions containing the word BLUE from English into Vietnamese.

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Chapter 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review serves two main purposes. The first part, gives a review
of previous studies related to English color expressions in general. The second part
presents and discusses the theoretical background which guide and inform this
research.
2.1. Review of previous studies
It could be seen that English color expressions considerably play an important
part in linguistic treasure of all nations in the world. That is one reason that there
have been many studies on English color expressions in terms of psychological and
cultural factors but few of them concentrates on various fields of language such as
syntax, semantics and translations, etc. Therefore, this caused some difficulties for
the writer in the process of researching materials.
In English
In 1953, Lenneberg made an often-cited “strong version” of the claim, firstly
given to the readers who showed concerns to the theory, proposes that language

•

structure determines how we perceive the world. In this claim, Lenneberg and his
colleague – Roberts presented their paper “The Denota of Color Terms” at the
Linguistic Society of America. In this paper, they reported their findings on color
recall in Zuni speakers. Zuni has one color term for yellow and orange, and
Lenneberg and Roberts’ study reported that Zuni speakers encountered greater
difficulty in color recall for these colors than English speakers, who have available
terms to distinguish them. On the contrary to Lenneberg and Roberts’ study, a
“weaker version” of this claim posits that language structure influences the world
view of speakers of a given language but does not determine it.
After that, Brown and Lenneberg published “A Study in Language and
Cognition” in 1954, where they discussed the effect of cod ability on recognition.
Brown and Lenneberg attributed this effect to the property of cod ability. Linguistic
cod ability is the ease with which people can name things and the effects of naming

on cognition and behavior. In their experiment, they used a series of Munsell chips
to test color recall and recognition in English speakers. Their findings suggested

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that the availability of a basic color term in a given language affected the retention
of that color in recall testing. In other words, Brown and Lenneberg linked their
study to Lenneberg and Roberts’ 1953 findings on color recall in Zuni speakers.
In 1969, Berlin and Paul Kay carried out a research named “Basic color terms:
their universality and evolution” (published by University of California Press). This
is one important area of discussion has been the differences in color terms in
languages and raised a new theory of differences for words relating to things in
environment such as animals and plants, or for cultural systems like governance or
kinship terms, it might be surprising that terms for colors should vary. Berlin and
Kay investigated the fact that languages vary in the number and range of their basic
color terms.
The conclusion seems to be that the perception of the colors is the same for all
human beings but that language lexicalizes for different naming; and certainly, all
of the previous studies on perception of colors have raised the issue that there are
universals in color naming and thus forms a critique of the hypothesis of linguistic
relativity.
In Vietnam:
As a matter of fact, there have been a lot of studies on expressions which have
attracted learners of English such as Bùi Phụng (2003), Thành ngữ Anh Việt, Nxb
Văn hóa thông tin, Hà Nội or Nguyễn Lực, Lương Văn Đang with “Thành ngữ tiếng
Việt” in which a large amount of expressions, their variants are collected with
examples. Besides, “Từ điển Thành ngữ tục ngữ Việt Nam” by Đặng Hồng Chương
•

is a collection of expressions and proverbs with explanations of them.
The relativity between colors and languages is not a newly- debated issue;
however, some of these only concentrates on some focal colors, such as Trần Thị
Thu Huyền with “Hoa cỏ và màu sắc trong thành ngữ tiếng Việt” (2001).
Another study is “Tính biểu trưng của từ ngữ chỉ màu sắc trong tiếng Việt” by
Trịnh Thị Minh Hương at Ho Chi Minh Pedagogical University (2009). In this
paper, she also described, analyzed and compared linguistic and cultural features
between English and Vietnamese color words.
I have also researched the thesis of Phạm Thị Kim Chuyên at Da Nang
University, the research is on the linguistic features of the words “Green” in English
and “Xanh” (lá cây) in Vietnamese, Phan Thị Lệ Huyền marked a new trend with

8


contrastive analysis in both semantic and pragmatic of “black” in English and
“Đen” in Vietnamese. Together with the study on semantic features of English color
expressions with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents (nghiên cứu đặc trưng
ngữ nghĩa của các thành ngữ Tiếng Anh chỉ màu sắc trong sự liên hệ với tương
đương Tiếng Việt) Nguyễn Thị Hòa (Hanoi Open University). The research makes
clear the semantic features of color expressions, especially Red and Green, with the
similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese as well.
After examining the studies mentioned above, it could be seen that so far there
have found no studies engaged in the semantic features of English color expressions
with reference to the Vietnamese equivalents in English although many linguists,
grammarians, compilers and researchers have dealt with color words in Vietnamese.
Therefore, these materials have made a suggestion about the subject of color
expressions with the reference in Vietnamese equivalents that still is open subject.

2.2. Review of theoretical background

2.2.1. Theoretical framework
In this part, some concepts and the uses of the theory of syntax have been
mentioned in a very clear way with semantics and color set expressions that will
help people find out the similarities and differences of syntactic and semantic
features of English set expressions containing the word Blue and the Vietnamese
equivalents.

2.2.2.

Theory of syntax

Until now, there are many definitions to adjectives but the core one is:
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, we think of syntax as “word order”.
However, syntax is also achieved in some languages such as Latin by inflectional
case endings. In computer languages, syntax can be extremely rigid as in the case of
most assembler languages or less rigid in language that make use of “keyword”
parameters that can be stated in any order.
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Syntax is also a set of rules in a language. It dictates how word from different
parts of speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought.
In this research, syntax is used to convey the meaning of color expressions and
BLUE color set expressions, to explain the rules for grammatical arrangement of
words denoting color expressions and the word BLUE color in sentences.
2.2.3.

Theory of Semantics

John Isaeed (1997) posited that Semantics is the study of meaning
communicated through language and “Syntax is the study how words can be
combined into a sentence; and semantics is the study of the meanings of words and
sentences”. It could be seen that whereas syntax is the grammar, structure or order
of the elements in a language statement, semantics is the meaning of these elements.
Semantics has a long history of researching as well as many controversies about its
definition but the word “semantics” made it earliest entry into the Old English
Dictionary only in 1890s.
Goddard (1998) remarks that semantics is the systematic study of meaning, is
at the center of linguistic request to understand the nature of language and human
language abilities for two reasons. The first reason is that expressing meanings is
what language is all about – everything from words to grammatical constructions
and structures. The second one is that semantics can shed the light on the
relationship between language and culture.
The term “linguistic semantics” is used by J. Lyons (1995) and considered as
correspondingly ambiguous because “linguistic semantics” can be held to refer
either to the study of meaning in so far as this is expressed in language or,
alternatively, to the study of meaning within linguistics. “Linguistics semantics is
the study of meaning in so far as it is systematically encoded in the vocabulary and
grammar of natural languages”. As for Charles. Kreidler (1998), there are three
disciplines are concerned with the systematic study of “meaning” itself: psychology,
philosophy, and linguistics. Their particular interests and approaches are different,
yet each borrows from and contributes to the others.
Obviously, “Semantics is the systematic study of meaning of words and
sentences, and linguistic semantic is the study of how language organize and
express meaning” (Charles. Kreidler,1998); hence, it has been the central to the

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study of communication and study of the human mind - thought processes,
cognition. With this definition, semantics is included under lexicology, the more
general science of words, being its most important branch.
In all cases mentioned above, the linguistic researchers offer different aspects
of Semantics. Different as they are, the definition of Semantics is more interesting
and clear. Due to the scope of this study, semantics aspect is selected to serve as
working researching for the study; therefore, the findings in chapter III basically
concentrates on semantic findings of expressions containing word Blue
2.2.4.

Theory of color set expressions

In the first place, definition of adjective denoting colors will be presented:
An adjective is a kind of word that modifies a noun. Nouns are words that
name a place, a person, a thing or an idea. An adjective is a word that give more
information about the noun that goes with it. It is a part of speech. Adjectives are
something that describe something and make the things sound better.
The table below will help readers to understand more about the roles of
adjectives, so that the adjective “BLUE” is used and understood more clearly.
Table 2.1. Functions of adjective
Order
1

Functions

Examples

Describe feelings or qualities

He is a lonely man, she is an
honest person

2

Give nationality or origin

I am Vietnamese

3

Tell more about a thing’s characteristics

A wooden table

4

Tell about age

He is a young man

5

Tell about size and measurement

That is a long film

6

Tell about color

The sky is blue

7

Tell about materials

She wore a cotton hat

8

Express a judgement or a value

Grammar is boring

There are definitions (or categories) of color based on the color wheel:
primary color, secondary color and tertiary color. Although color theory principles

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first appeared in the writings of Leone Battista Alberti and the notebooks of
Leonardo da Vinci (1490), a tradition of "color theory" began in the 18th century,
initially within a partisan controversy around Isaac Newton's theory of color
(Opticks, 1704) and the nature of so-called primary colors. From there it developed
as an independent artistic tradition with only superficial reference to calorimetric
and vision science.
There are also two kinds of color process: Subtractive color (reflected
pigment) and addictive color (projected light or reflected light)
But in my study, color theory has been concerned originally formulated in

terms of three "primary" or "primitive" colors - red, yellow and blue (RYB) because these colors were believed the capable of mixing all other colors and black
and white (achromatic colors) - two of the most debated issues about color. Ask a
scientist and you will get a reply based on physics: “Black is not a color, white is a
color.” Ask an artist or a child with crayons and you will get another: “Black is a
color, white is not a color.” Because of some issues, it is very interesting to discover
in my thesis.
After having studied 98 languages (20 languages experimentally and
investigating the literature on color term semantics for 78 additional languages),
Berlin and Kay 1969 presented evidence indicating that all languages share a
universal system of basic color categorization. Furthermore, their basic
experimental found that “color categorization is not random and the foci of basic
color terms are similar in all languages”. On the other hand, their conclusion drawn
in this and subsequent studies is that color naming systems are based on the
neurophysiology of the human visual system (Kay and M.C. Daniel 1978). A
further claim is that there are eleven basic categories; and that these form the
implicational hierarchy below:
Basic color term hierarchy (Berlin and Kay, 1969):

This hierarchy represents the claim that in a relation Athen it must have A, but not vice versa.
All languages contain terms for white and black.

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- If a language contains three terms, then it contains a term for red.
- If a language contains four terms, then it contains a term for either green or
yellow (but not both).
- If a language contains five terms, then it contains a term for blue.
- If a language contains six terms, then it contains a term for brown.

- If a language contains eight or more terms, then it contains a term for
purple, pink, orange, grey, or some combination of these.
2.3. Theoretical background

2.3.1. Definition of expressions
According to John Lyons (1995) posited that the expression of a language falls
into two sets. One set, finite in number, is made up of lexically simple expressions:
lexemes. These are the expressions that one would expect to find listed in a
dictionary: they are vocabulary-units of a language, out of which the members of
the second set, lexically composite expression, are constructed by means of
grammatical (i.e. syntactic and morphological) rules of the language.
Not all the expressions listed in a dictionary, however, are words. Some of
them are what traditionally called phrases; and phrasal expressions, like wordexpressions.
English expressions have their own phrases and sentences that used daily in
communication, in speech as well as in writing. Furthermore, “phraseology unit is
the study of set expressions called phraseological units. These set expressions are
completely or partially idiomatic in speech as ready-made unit” (Đang Tran Cuong,
2001). Expressions required of fixed phrases, sentences, idioms and proverbs; in
this study the working definition include proverbs and idioms. In order to bring a
deep insight, the definition of expression would be presented firstly as follows.
In short, there are many kinds of definitions of expressions, but the one I
would like to mention here is the definition of color expression, and here is the
classification of expressions.
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

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languages as well as to natural languages. Usually, we think of syntax as “word

order”.
Syntax is also a set of rules in a language. It dictates how word from different
parts of speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought.
In this research, syntax is used to convey the meaning of color expressions and
Blue color set expressions, to explain the rules for grammatical arrangement of
words denoting color expressions and the word Blue color in sentences.
Syntax refers to the ways in which we order specific words to create logical,
meaningful sentences. While the parts of speech are all the different types of words
that we can use, syntax is the set of rules, patterns, or processes by which we can
put them together.
Set expressions are the word-groups consisting of two or more words,
combination of which is integrated as one unit with specialized non-literal meaning
of the whole.
+ Set expressions functioning like nouns (white elephant)
+ Set expressions functioning like verbs (to catch up with…)
+ Set expressions on functioning like adjectives (as mad as a hatter…)
+ Set expressions functioning like adverbs (once in a blue moon…)
+ Set expressions functioning like interjections (God bless me! Hang it all)
+ Set expressions functioning like proverbs (It’s no use crying over spilt milk)
+ Set expressions functioning like set phrases (Tell it to the horse marines)
• In this part, syntactic features of blue set expressions are used in the
following cases:
- Syntactic features of blue set expressions are regarded as adjective phrases
- Syntactic features of blue set expressions are used as verb phrases
- Syntactic features of blue set expressions are used as adverb phrases
- Syntactic features of blue set expressions are used as noun phrases
Now some detailed information below about noun phrases, adverb phrases,
adjective phrases and verb phrases will be analyzed to make clearer the function and
the uses of syntactic features of blue set expressions.
• Noun phrases: A noun phrase is a phrase that plays the role of a noun. The

head word in a noun phrase will be a noun or a pronoun. Like any noun, a noun
phrase can be a subject, an object, or a complement.

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E.g.: The best defense against the atom bomb is not to be there when it goes
off.
In the above example, there is a noun phrase within a noun phrase. The noun
phrase “the atom bomb” is the object of the preposition “against”. The prepositional
phrase against the atom bomb modifies defense.
• Adverb phrases: An adverb phrase is simply two or more words that act as an
adverb. It can modify a verb, adverb, or adjective and can tell “how”, “where”,
“why”, or “when”.
E.g.: Bob nodded as if he understood.
Meet me at the mall
• Adjective phrases: An adjective phrase is a group of words that describe a
noun or a pronoun in a sentence. The adjective in an adjective phrase can appear at
the start, end, or in the middle of the phrase. The adjective phrase can be placed
before, or after the noun or pronoun in the sentence.
E.g.: The final exams were really difficult.
The highly emotive actor gave a wonderful performance.
• Verb phrases: A verb phrase consists of a main verb alone, or a main verb.
plus, any modal and/or auxiliary verbs. The main verb always comes last in the verb
phrase. A simple verb phrase consists of a main verb. The verb in the simple verb
phrase shows the type of clause (Your camera takes fantastic pictures). Complex
verb phrases may include one modal verb and one or more auxiliary verb before the
main verb. A modal verb always comes before any auxiliary verbs. (You may have
played this game before)
2.3.2. Classifications of expressions

It is generally accepted that there are some ways to classify expressions,
depending on their meaning (semantically) and structure (structurally), or the degree
of idiomaticity. Basing on the definition of expressions which have been mentioned
above and the purpose of the study, the classification of expressions is concentrated
in the field of syntax and semantics.
Semantically, the most dominant feature of expression classifications is their
composite unity which consists of empty words. With these ones, their meanings

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should be taken symbolically and metaphorically because they create a very
different meaning than their appearance at first glance.
According to Jackson and Ze Amvela, there are so-called “pure idioms” which
are, in fact, “frozen idioms” that “tend to lose their vividness and speakers often
lose sight of their metaphorical origins”. Frozen idioms are not widely used by
modern English speakers.
Fernando divided expressions into three different groups depending on the
degree of semantic isolation and the degree of opacity as follows.
2.3.3. Features of color expressions
Each language has its own features, and these features have made the face, the
cultural components of that language. As we know, English language is more various
and flexible than any other ones. Especially, English has been a global language and
called by an exact name “a living language”. Therefore, English has much more
outstanding and individual characteristics than other languages in the world.
The general view of color expressions below will be able to provide readers with a
certain knowledge of the features of some color expressions.
2.3.3.1. Red color
A stimulant, red is the hottest of the warm colors. Studies show that red can
have a physical effect, increasing the rate of respiration and raising blood pressure.

It is a strong color that conjures up a range of seemingly conflicting emotions
from passionate love to violence and warfare. People tend to wear red when they
desire energy or would like to make an impact or attract attention. With respect
English idioms, red is also one among the most popular colors in English idioms
with different meanings. Here are some red-based idioms in English:
2.3.3.2. Yellow color
Yellow is sunshine. It is a warm color that, like red, has conflicting symbol. It

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