Nghiên cứu về tục ngữ liên quan đến mối quan hệ hôn nhân trong tiếng anh và tiếng việt

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

TRỊNH THỊ HƯƠNG GIANG

A STUDY ON MARRIAGE – RELATED ENGLISH AND
VIETNAMESE PROVERBS
(FROM LINGUISTIC – CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE)
(Nghiên cứu về tục ngữ liên quan đến mối quan hệ hôn nhân trong tiếng Anh
và tiếng Việt)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15

Hanoi, 2013


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

TRỊNH THỊ HƯƠNG GIANG

A STUDY ON MARRIAGE – RELATED ENGLISH AND
VIETNAMESE PROVERBS
(FROM LINGUISTIC – CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE)

(Nghiên cứu về tục ngữ liên quan đến mối quan hệ hôn nhân trong tiếng Anh
và tiếng Việt)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15
Supervisor: Văn Thị Thanh Bình, M.A.

Hanoi, 2013


TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABSTRACT
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I:
INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
2. Aims of the study
3. Scope of the study
4. Methodology
5. Design of the study
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: Theoretical background and Literature review
I. Theoretical background
1.1. Proverbs

1.1.1. Definitions
1.1.2. Proverbs about marriage
1.1.3. Classification of proverbs
1.1.4. Proverbs and idioms
1.1.5. Proverbs and sayings
1.2. Some features of proverbs
1.2.1. Semantic features
1.2.2. Syntactic features
1.3. Some characteristics of English and Vietnamese people and
culture
1.3.1. Culture and cultural values
1.3.2 The relationship between language and culture
1.3.3. Characteristics of Vietnamese people and culture
1.3.4. Characteristics of English people and culture
II. Literature review
Chapter 2. Methodology
1. Research method
2. Data collection procedure

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3. Data analysis
Chapter 3. Data analysis and discussion
I. Comparison and contrast of English and Vietnamese proverbs about
marriage in terms of syntactics

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II. Comparison and contrast of English and Vietnamese proverbs about
marriage in terms of semantics
III. Comparison and contrast of English and Vietnamese proverbs about
marriage in terms of culture
PART III: CONCLUSION
1. Recapitulation
2. Implications
2.1. For EFL teaching and learning
2.2. For translation
3. Suggestions for further studies
REFERENCE
APPENDIX 1: English proverbs about marriage
APPENDIX 2: Vietnamese proverbs about marriage
APPENDIX 3: Collection of English and Vietnamese proverbs in terms of
cultural features

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PART I. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Nowadays, in this globalization and integration era, communication and cross- cultural
communication have become a pivotal want and need of people all over the world. Through
language, we communicate and exchange our material and spiritual values, making the cultural
knowledge of one another richer and more diversified. However each nation’s language lies in
itself similar and different cultural concepts of many fields of life such as human values, ways
of thinking, behavior standards, beliefs, customs and traditions, social conventions, etc.
Therefore, it would be difficult for foreign language learners to communicate successfully with
native speakers if they have poor understanding of the language itself and the language relation
with culture.
Among favourite languages such as French, Chinese etc, English has still played its decisive
role in international communication and has been studied by a large number of people in the
world. All foreign learners of English desire to master English as native speakers but they
usually face many difficulties that prevent them from gaining successful conversations. One of
the reasons for these problems lies in the way people perceive and use proverbs.
For many years, English proverbs have often been neglected in learning and teaching because it
is a difficult area of English, but nobody can deny that proverbs are really important in
communication, “a proverb in hand is worth a thousand words”(Reynolds, 1959: 75)
Firstly, proverbs as traditional wisdom are never absent from our daily speeches. They are the
main part of each nation’s culture, which reflect all aspects of life. People epitomize their ways
of thinking and their ideas through proverbs. We can use them to solve our daily conflicts or

support our arguments. Proverbs are the mirrors that reflect human cultures. Elzaki (2002: 43)
states: “If we want to understand the culture in a given society, we have to study its proverbs as
any nations have its own characteristics that reflect their lives and environmental
surroundings”. Hence, it can be said that proverbs can help learners know more about social
and cultural characteristics of that language.

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Secondly, proverbs are used to express ideas in figurative ways. They bring the vividness and
richness for the speaker’s speeches. Everyone who is much concerned about proverbs owns a
very attractive manner of speaking. Especially, they can provide users with a whole new way of
expressing concepts linguistically. Without them, it can be stated that English might lose its
colour and vitality. In terms of teaching English, lessons will be more interesting and effective
if the teacher knows how to apply proverbs to design different activities in an English class:
quizzes, games, role- play, etc.
Studying English proverbs in comparison and contrast with Vietnamese proverbs, we can find
the similarities and differences between two languages and cultures, which therefore, help
learners of English understand and have a better use of English and Vietnamese proverbs. This
can also help learners have better communication in the cross- cultural communication.
Brutus (1995: 23) stated the practical effect of learning proverbs: “Through proverbs I know
your points of view, the attitudes of your ancestors. Each time I know a new Vietnamese
proverb, I become Vietnamese a little. I believe when we know all proverbs of each other, we
are brothers”.
Having been interested in proverbs for a long time, I decided to choose marriage- related
proverbs as my thesis topic. Thanks to these proverbs, I can draw very good lessons and know
how to treat others and behave myself accordingly.
Hopefully, the study may be an interesting and helpful material for learners, teachers of English
and for people who are interested in cultural patterns in communication and cross- cultural
communication.

2. Aims of the study
The study aims to:
- Investigate the general syntactic, semantic and cultural features of
English and Vietnamese proverbs about marriage.
- Explore the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese
proverbs about marriage
- Provide some suggestions for the teaching, learning and translation of the

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English proverbs about marriage.

3. Scope of the study
Proverbs are plentiful in both English and Vietnamese. Therefore it is impossible for the author
to carry out an all- rounded study on them. Only marriage- related proverbs are selected and a
comparison and contrast between English and Vietnamese is made to distinguish one from
another.
In this study, both English and Vietnamese proverbs about marriage are discussed in terms of
syntactics, semantics and cultures.
All English and Vietnamese proverbs are collected from dictionaries and books. Hence, this
research may not cover all marriage- related proverbs, just those of common use.
4. Methodology
The study was intended to answer the following questions:
1. What are the general syntactic, semantic and cultural features of English and
Vietnamese proverbs about marriage?
2. Are there any similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese proverbs
about marriage in terms of syntactics, semantics and culture?
The major methods applied in the study are comparative and contrastive analysis. This study is

conducted by carefully collecting and referring to materials from various sources to have fullblown information of proverbs about marriage in terms of syntactics, semantics and culture.
The good choice of proverbs in Vietnamese and in British English will be carefully analysed
and examined to see the similarities and differences between the two cultures and languages.
The author’s own experience in communication and cultural awareness will be referred to as
way of viewing the field.

5. Design of the study
The study consists of three parts. The first part “INTRODUCTION” outlines the background
of the study. In this part, a brief account of relevant information is provided about the rationale,
aims, scopes, methodology, and design of the study.

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The main part of the study is part II: Development. This part includes three chapters. Chapter
one, as implied in the title: “Theoretical Background and Literature Review”, covers a
series of proverb- related concepts ranging from definitions of proverbs, features of proverbs,
types of proverbs, proverbs in comparison with idioms and sayings. It also mentions some
previous studies on proverbs. Chapter two and three make up the more specifically focused part
of the study. Chapter two is concerned with “Methodology” whereas chapter three deals with a
“Data analysis and Discussion”. The final part is the “CONCLUSION”, which provides the
recapitulation, implications for the EFL teaching and learning and for translation and
suggestions for further studies. The study ends with the “REFERENCES”.

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PART II. DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND
LITERATURE REVIEW

I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1. Proverbs
1.1.1. Definitions of proverbs
Proverbs are widely known in human languages and they are the crystallization of human
beings’ wisdom. A proverb can not only teach, enlighten and persuade people but also can
enrich language and culture. So, it is vey necessary to define what proverbs are.
According to The New Oxford Dictionary (1996), a proverb is “a short, pithy saying in general
use, stating a general truth or a piece of advice”. This definition is developed in the Oxford
English Dictionary (2001, online) which defines a proverb as “a short, pithy saying in common
and recognized use: a concise sentence, often metaphorical or alliterative in form, which is held
to express some truth ascertained by experience or observation and familiar to all”. Albig
(1931: 529) argued that, “a proverb is a social definition of a situation.” Mieder (1989: 64)
added “a proverb has been defined as a short, repeated, witty statement or set of statements of
wisdom, truth and experience which is used to further a social end”. In other words, it is a short
well- known expression that states a general truth or advice.
Vu Ngoc Phan (2000: 39) considered proverbs as “a complete saying in which it expresses one
idea of comment, experience, morality, justice, or criticism” whereas Archer Taylor (1931)
defined a proverb in more than 200 pages, and he concluded that it was impossible to give a
meaningful definition of it. Taylor noted that “…an incommunicable quality tells us this
sentence is proverbial and that one is not” (1931:3”)
Even though there are different definitions of proverbs, they have something in common.
Accordingly, proverbs are selected with meaningful sentences which play an important role in
building people’s characters as well as educating people, especially children so as to draw
useful more lessons. We come to a conclusion that proverbs are educational sentences of
wisdom.

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1.1.2. Marriage- related proverbs

According to Oxford dictionary, “marriage” refers to the legal relationship between husband
and wife. The Oxford advanced learner’s encyclopedic dictionary says “marriage is a legal
union between a man and a woman as husband and wife; state of being married”
From time to time, the definition of marriage changes by the benevolence of public opinion
and also depends on the point of view. According to Wikipedia “marriage is a social union or
legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal
relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on
the culture or subculture in which it is found. Such a union, often formalized via a wedding
ceremony, may also be called matrimony”.
Thus by, “marriage- related proverbs” here is meant proverbs that may be used to educate
husband and wife regarding to their relationship with parents –in –law, their children and
neighbors.

1.1.3. Classification of proverbs
It is said that the work of classifying proverb is just hard as defining it. Despite the foregoing
constraint, scholars have attempted to categorize the proverbs. There exists many different
ways of proverb classification among liguists who have based on different categories as origin,
meaning and fuction .
Simpson/ Speake in the Oxford Concise of Proverbs (1998) ̣state that proverbs can be divided
into three main categories. Those of the first type take the form of abstract statements
expressing general truth, such as Absence makes the heart fonder ...
Proverbs of the second type, which include many of the more colourful examples, use specific
observations from everyday experience to make a point which is genral; for instance, “There is
no rose without a thorn”. The third type of proverb comprises sayings from particular areas of
traditional wisdom and folklore. In this catogory we have, for example, the health proverbs
After dinner rest a while, after supper walk a mile. In addition, there are traditional country
proverbs which relate to husbandary, the seasons, and the weather...

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From my point of view, analyzing the proverbs according to the classification based on the subtopic is a very effective and interesting way. When comparing the system of sub-topics of
proverbs, it is not so hard to find the similarities and differences between social and cultural
aspects of the English and Vietnamese communities. This kind of classification is very
popularly used in many books. For example, Dictionary of proverbs by Fergusson (6000
proverbs, 188 subjects) and Tuc ngu Viet Nam (Hanoi, 1993) by Chu Xuan Dien (4100
proverbs, 73 subjects)

1.1.4. Proverbs and idioms
Flavell (1992) said that proverbs exist in all languages and written collections of them date
back to the earliest times. Proverbs can be defined as memorable short sayings of the people,
containing words of advice or wisdom and often appear in the form of whole sentences - to be
adapted into proverbial form. Meanwhile, idioms are normally phrases where the whole phrase
means something different from the meaning of the separate words.
Another distinction that proverbs differ from idioms is stated by Hornby (1995) in Oxford
Advanced Learner Dictionary that a proverb is a short well- known sentence or phrase that
states a general truth about life or gives advice, e.g An injury forgiven is better than an injury
revenged or Chồng giận thì vợ bớt lời, cơm sơi nhỏ lửa một đời không khê. Vu Ngoc Phan
(2000; 39) shared the same view and considered a proverb as a complete saying expressing one
idea of comment, experience, morality, justice or criticism.” For example: Trời không chịu đất,
đất phải chịu trời.
In general, idioms and proverbs share some same features that they are set- expressions with
stable components and used in a metaphorical way, their meanings cannot be deduced from the
individual words but must be understood as a whole. Because they are products of human’s
thought, cultures and processes of labour and daily activities, both idioms and proverbs are
orally handed down from generation to generation and naturally accepted in life.
However, proverbs possess their own characteristics: they must have the clause or sentence
(not word) to express justice or an event implying the justice. Sometimes, subject or predicate
can be hidden in proverbs such as: Voi một ngà, đàn bà một mắt. Besides, proverbs have a

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meaning beyond or other than the sum of the meaning of the individual words e.g: A man is
master in his own house. Also, proverbs can stand independently with a complete meaning e.g:
You can’t fight city Hall. The way that proverbs show their contents and meanings is logical
and expressive and directly indicate the idea of justice and the idea of comment, experience,
morality justice or criticism basing on an action or an event as illustrated in the proverb: East
or west, home is best. Proverbs are claimed to contain 3 main literary functions namely
aesthetics, apprehension and education whereas idioms contain just one literary function of
aesthetics. (Hornby (1995))
The distinction between proverbs and idioms can be summarized in the table 1 below:
PROVERBS

IDIOMS

stable in structure; ready for reproduction
reflecting the national characteristics

Similarities

Structure - complete clauses or sentences

Differences

Meaning

-set phrases, parts of clauses

- independent units

- dependent units

denoting judgments

Denoting concepts

Literacy

-

aesthetics

- aesthetics

function

-

apprehension

-

education

1.1.5 Proverbs and sayings
The distinction between proverbs and sayings can be summarized in the table 2 below:
PROVERBS

SAYINGS

Repeated sentences with rhythm
Independent units of communication

Similarities
Structure - fixed form

-modified form

- popular statements by unknown -

Differences
Meaning

well-known

or

wise

author

statements by famous people

- informing or denoting a judgment

- denoting advice or obvious

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truth
- experiential didactic content or a rule of conduct

observative

statements

without didactic force

1.2. Some features of proverbs
As suggested in the theory about proverbs given by Mieder (1989: 64) “a proverb has been
defined as a short, repeated, witty statement or set of statements of wisdom, truth and
experience which is used to further a social end”. The most frequently mentioned features of
proverbs are:
- Proverbs are often used metaphorically and we can understand them in the metaphorical
nature meaning (lies have short legs).
- Proverbs often make use of grammatical and theoretical devices that help to make them
memorable, including alliteration, rhyme, parallel structure, repetition of key words or phrases,
and strong imagery.
- Proverbs are able to transcend the situation of its origins to illuminate situations in the lives of
contemporary hearers.
1.2.1. Semantic features
The meaning of proverbs is the main concern mentioned in this part. According to Taylor
(1994), it is very hard to work out the meaning of a proverb based on the separate word’s
meaning in dictionary, even when the meaning of the word is clear, the meaning of a proverb
can be a secret. In terms of semantic peculiarities, this part focuses on listing some stylistic
devices often used in proverbs namely simile, antithesis, metaphors, and hyperbole and they
will be analysed in detail in chapter 3.
- Simile as defined in the Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary (1995) is a figure of speech
involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a

description more emphatic or vivid. In English simile can be recognized via connective words
such as “like”, “as”, “such as”, “as if”, “seem”, “than”. In Vietnamese, comparative markers are
introduced by the words “như”, “bằng”, “hệt”, “tựa”, “giống như”, “tày”…

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- “Antithesis is a rhetorical or literary device in which an opposition or contrast of ideas is
expressed”. (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary -1995). Characteristic of antithesis in
proverbs is that antithesis is generally formed by the objective antonyms in parallel form (“A
misery father makes a prodigal son” and “cha hà tiện, con hoang phí”)
- According to metaphor is a literary figure of
speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as
another otherwise unrelated object. Metaphor is a useful means of creating figurative images so
English and Vietnamese people prefer using it in proverbs to other stylistic devices. (“A wife is
the key to the house”and “vợ là tay hịm chìa khóa”)
- Galperin (2001) states that hyperbole

is

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be

taken literally. One of the common figures of speech in English and Vietnamese proverbs is
hyperbole. It is often confused with a simile or a metaphor because it often compares two
objects. An exaggeration is one different feature between a hyperbole and simile or a metaphor.
It may be used to evoke strong feelings or creat a strong impression, but not to be taken
literally. (“A woman’s work is never done” and “Đang khi lửa bốc cơm sơi, lợn kêu con khóc,
chồng địi tịm tem”)

1.2.2. Syntactic features

As suggested in the theory about proverbs given by Mieder (2004), a proverb is always
articulated as a complete and comprehensive grammatically accurate statement. This feature is
discussed more in the next chapter. Due to their simple sentence structure and metaphorical
language, in which rhetorical figures or symbolic characteristics such as alliterations, rhythm,
rhyme, parallelism etc. frequently occur, proverbs are fairly easy to memorize and easily
retrievable from memory.
- Alliteration is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or
closely connected words (). Apart from only a few rare initial
sounds, all English and Vietnamese consonants present themselves in proverbs with great
frequency. (“Choose a wife by your ears rather than by your eyes” or “Chồng tới vợ lui, chồng
hòa vợ thuận”)

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- A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used
in poetry and songs ( Rhyme is also another important
stylistic device in English and Vietnamese proverbs. (“A good wife is a good prize” or “Đói
bụng chồng, hồng má vợ”)
-

/>
states parallelism is a way of writing that is balanced and rhythmical. It gives structure and
flow. It is the use of words which are of equal strength in sound, to express ideas which are of
equal importance in thought.(“Such carpenter, such chips” or “Liệu cơm gắp mắm, liệu con gả
chồng”)

1.3. Some characteristics of British and Vietnamese people and culture
1. 3.1. Culture and cultural values
There have been various notions of culture, but to make it simple to get the ideas of culture,

according to Goodenough (1957, 167), the term culture is used in the sense of whatever a
person must know in order to function in a particular society. It is believed that the nature of
culture has been compared to an iceberg which is mostly hidden under water. The part of
culture which is exposed is not always that which creates cross- cultural difficulties, but the
hidden part of culture has significant effects on behavior and on interactions with others.
According to Porter and Samovar (1994; 12), culture does not naturally come into the people’s
mind, members of the culture adapt the patterns of behavior, ways of thingking and build their
attitude, beliefs etc fully part of their personality by absorbing them through repeated
experience or exposure. The power and influence of these perceptions can be seen in the ways
in which people acquire culture. Culture is transmitted from generation to generation; people
use various forms of communication: spoken words, written words, non verbal actions to pass
on the content and patterns of the culture in order to spread culture. As with communication,
culture has been evolving and thus can produce changes in the process of invention. Also,
every culture presents a limited choice of behavior patterns from the infinite patterns of human
experience. This selection is made according to the basic assumptions and values that are
meaningful to each culture. In other words, culture defines the boundaries of different cultural

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groups. Apparently, culture has been proved to be a complex system because the particular
parts of the culture are always interrelated. It is significantly noted that every culture has the
tendency to appreciate their own culture and society and from this perceptual view, people
interprete and judge all other cultures in the world (Porter and Samovar 1994, 13).
Every culture owns its cultural values that are global and abstract. The cultural values identify
what should be judged as good or evil in order to give rules for behaviors in specific situations.
Different cultures reflect different values and cultural values seem to have changed, affecting
the beliefs, and attitudes of most members of a culture and society. Cultural values have been
characterised in different ways but they often include: historical value, social value, spiritual
value, symbolic value and aesthetic value. Specifically, historical value is a concept resting on

particular viewpoints of history and presents a special relationship with the past; social value
concerns different places or things that tend to make connections between people and to
reinforce a sense of unity and identity; symbolic value is simply understood as the repositories
of meaning; aesthetic value is considered a highly problematic area of enquiry involving
dispute not only about what is beautiful but also about who has the power and authority to
make decisions about what is beautiful and spiritual value addresses aspects of the religious,
the numinous and the sublime (www.demos.co.uk 2004).
In conclusion, culture and cultural values, in anthropology, are the patterns of behavior, beliefs,
languages, rituals, art, religion and attitude etc that people living in social groups have created,
shared and experienced. Culture distinguishes one human group from others and also
distinguishes humans from other animals. Cultural value is generated and exists in a culture and
society as a measure for all social and cultural activities. Thus, cultural value is an important
determinant of a nation and society.

1.3.2. The relationship between language and culture
The relationship between language and culture has been interrelated in the sense that language
is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties. In the book “Language and Culture”
Kramsch (1998; 3) states “language is the principle means whereby we conduct our social
lives. When it is used in contexts of communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and

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complex ways.” According to the author, the language people use in communication express
facts, ideas or events and reflect the people’s attitude and beliefs, their point of view, which
share the same cultural and social features. Also, through language, the experience of a social
community is variously created and presented. The members of a social community make a
great contribution to the language through the medium they choose to communicate. The way
in which people use different forms of communication: written or verbal and non-verbal
medium creates meanings for the language of the community. Consequently, thanks to all the

verbal and nonverbal aspects of the language, it is found that language embodies and represents
cultural reality. In addition, language possesses cultural values and consists of a complex
system of sign through which people use language as a symbol of the social community and
culture to identify themselves in the communication. Thus, it can be said that language
expresses the cultural identity.
In general, language and culture have always been in existence together and reinforced each
other. The relationship between them is so closely linked that separation is impossible, in other
words, it is difficult to master the language without the knowledge of the culture.
1.3.3. Characteristics of Vietnamese people and culture
Originated from the Southeast Asian culture, the Vietnamese river- imprinted culture deeply
affects the whole spiritual as well as material life of Vietnamese people. This culture has
existed and developed in close interaction with other cultures in Asia, particularly with Chinese
culture. As a result, the Vietnamese once chose Chinese as their official writing system and
employed a range of Chinese routines and customs in their thinking and acting. In the 16th
century, together with the appearance of European culture are the birth of the National Roman
Alphabet and the adaptation of Western lifestyle as well as technology, though still
underdeveloped, in Vietnam. This turning point led to changes in their awareness, habits,
lifestyle, living standards, and accordingly, to advanced and revolutionary changes in value and
standard systems. More importantly, those changes helped to set a new system of behaviours,
standards and outlook of the whole community.

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The Vietnamese culture is said to be an agricultural one with the most distinguishing products
as rice, vegetables and fish. Living mostly on farm created democracy and hierarchy, unity,
collective spirit and independent spirit in Vietnamese people. They are also greatly affected by
Yin and Yang philosophy, clearly expressed in harmony tendency between people with people
and with the nature. In their social and communicative relationship, the Vietnamese prefer
feelings to reasons, spirit to material, subtlety and reserve to rough and violence. In their

spiritual life, they idolize fertility- a belief praises multiply with the genital as its symbol.
Though at any development period, to every Vietnamese person, Motherland is the most
miraculous and nothing can compare to it. They have fought for centuries, against a lot of
enemies, to protect and hand it down to their ancestors. The second distinguished feature when
talking about Vietnamese cultural identity is the durable relationship between individuals and
their family, between families and village, and to a broader term, the Motherland. Generally
speaking, Vietnamese people are those of duty and responsibility; and we can frequently hear
of such phrases as “sáng lua tối đèn có nhau” , “lá lành đùm lá rách”, “bán anh em xa mua láng
giềng gần”. Another feature of no less importance is the personalism in Vietnamese culture,
which is opposite with individualism in Western culture. Vietnamese people are those of
various and diversified relationship and strongly controlled by such complicated relationships.
In the Viet community, to a person’s children, he is a father, to his wife, he is a husband; to his
grandparents, he is a nephew; and to his neighbours, he is also a family’s child and a member
of a large family.
In general, Vietnamese culture is an undetachable part of Southeast Asian cultural space with
typical features of a wet- rice civilization and Vietnamese people are said to be very hardworking, brave and faithful in their living and behaviours.
1.3.4. Characteristics of British people and culture
The United Kingdom, constitutional monarchy in northwestern Europe, is officially the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain is the largest island in the cluster
of islands, or archipelago, known as the British Isles. England is the largest and most populous
divisions of the islands of Great Britain , making up the south and east. Wales is on the west
and Scotland is to the north. Northern Ireland is located in the northeast corner of Ireland, the
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second largest island in the Brtish Isles. Among these four cultural regions, the English culture
is considered a representative and often used to refer to the entire country’s culture.
To other Europeans, the best known quality of the British, and especially of the English, is
“reserved”. They are people who often keep certain distance to strangers, do not talk much
about themselves, do not show much emotion and seldom get excited. This fact tends to give

their communicators the impression of coldness.
Apart from “reserved”, a typical English man is expected to be modest and humorous. Any
self- praise is felt to be ill- bred and it is ideal to laugh at oneself- at one’s own faults, one’s
own failures and embarrassment. He also tends to expect those characters in others and
distrusts exaggerated promises and shows of affection, especially if they are expressed in
flowery language.
Politeness is a hallmark of British society though their habits of politeness are on the whole
very informal. There are no complicated greetings, for instance, a simple “good morning” or a
cheery wave of the hands across the street is quite satisfactory; handshakes are only exchanged
on a first introduction, or on special occations, or as a token of agreement or congratulation. All
politeness is based on the elementary rules showing consideration they show to you. “Excuse
me”, “sorry”, “thank you” or a politeness request like “Will you please…?”, or “Would you
mind…?” are commonly used in Britain.
Moreover, sportsmanship is highly valued in Britain with rules showing generosity to one’s
opponent and good temper in defeat. It is also an ideal that is applied to life in general. This is
proved by the number of sporting terms used in ordinary speech. One of the most elementary
rules of life is “never hit a man when he’s down.”- in other words, never take advantage of
another’s misfortune. And of course, everybody talks of “fair play” and “playing the game” or
“playing fair”.
In conclusion, we can say that although the United Kingdom covers only a small area of the
earth surface, the British, on the one hand, represent people of many different origins and
cultures; but on the other hand, they are very different in some way from people of other
continents.

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II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Proverbs have been a various sources for the research on the language and cultures so a variety
of studies on the field have been carried out. Among the studies on English and Vietnamese

idioms as seen from cultural perspective, the following ones have been referred to as the
reference materials.
A Study on Family- Related English and Vietnamese Proverbs from Linguistic and Cultural
Perspective- Tran The Khoa (2009, VNU- ULIS). The study focused on the background of
proverbs and made some distinction with the other concepts such as idioms, sayings,
conventional phrases and phrasal verbs. In the main part, the author carried out the contrastive
analysis of English and Vietnamese proverbs relating to family, thus the similarities and
differences are drawn. With the findings, the author stated some difficulties of learning English
proverbs in general and raised the awareness of cultural related factors that should be taken into
consideration in the teaching and learning process.
A Cross- Cultural Study on Weather Proverbs in English and Vietnamese- Do Thi Minh Ngoc
(2010, VNU- ULIS). Her study as entitled, focused on weather proverbs in English and
Vietnamese. The author presented some theoretical background on proverbs and the
relationship between language and culture. The study aimed at working out the similarities and
differences in the culture of the both countries that are reflected through their weather proverbs.
A Study on English and Vietnamese Proverbs about Educating Moral Qualities from Cultural
Perspective- Pham Thi Minh (2009, VNU- ULIS). The study aimed at investigating the general
syntactic, semantic and especially cultural features of English and Vietnamese proverbs about
educating moral qualities. Her study also focused on exploring the similarities and differences
between English and Vietnamese proverbs about educating moral qualities. The author
provided some suggestions for the teaching, learning and translation of the English proverbs
about educating moral qualities in particular.
Although the different aspects of proverbs were previously carried out, this study besides
giving the theoretical background on proverbs and culture focuses on proverbs relating to
marriage, one of the very topics connected to the culture and originated from the deep root in
cultures. It is confirmed that proverbs in this study is not only the belonging of the language

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but also it is a part of culture, the thing that links to the everyday life of people and enrich the
spiritual and cultural life of English and Vietnamese. To make it more specific and easy to
comprehend, the marriage- related proverbs in British English and Vietnamese will be
thoroughly mentioned and analyzed.

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CHAPTER TWO: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1. Research method
The major methods applied in the study are comparative and contrastive. This qualitative study
is conducted by carefully collecting and referring to materials from various sources to have
full-blown information of proverbs and its cultural background in general. The good choice of
two hundred proverbs in Vietnamese and two hundred proverbs in British English will be
carefully analysed and examined to see the similarities and differences between the two
cultures and languages. The author’s own experience in communication and cultural awareness
will be referred to as way of viewing the field.
2.2. Data collection procedure
The data collection procedure is comprised of two steps:
Step 1 is collection of marriage- related proverbs in both English and Vietnamese. In this step,
the researcher refers to a number of English and Vietnamese proverbs dictionaries, books as
well as some linguistic websites which contain a list of proverbs in order to pick out all the
marriage- related proverbs needed for the study.
Step 2 is carried out with the aim of collecting necessary background knowledge for the
research. A large amount of academic articles are consulted so that the researcher can obtain a
full concept of all the item she is studying. Added to this, the researcher studies several
available cultural books to detect the cultural values and beliefs of the two countries. Last but
not least, many of the previously conducted researches are referred to so that the researcher can
find out what has been studied, what results have been drawn, and what is more she can
contribute in her own research.

2.3. Data analysis
Marriage – related proverbs in English and Vietnamese are analyzed in terms of syntactic and
semantic features, then a comparison of these proverbs in terms of syntactics, semantics and
cultural aspects is also given. After all the necessary data has been fully collected, next comes
the data analysis process which applies comparative and contrastive analytical stratergies.
In order to successfully achieve all the aims of data analysis process, the three folloing stages
are implemented.

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Stage 1: Classification – The researcher reads all the data and then divides them into smaller
units.
In this stage, an effort is made to classify the marriage- related proverbs into three categories.
The first is the faithfulness between husband and wife; the second is the solidarity between
husband and wife; the third is the roles of husband and wife.
Stage 2: Comparison
This is the main analytic stage. First, the researcher counts up the total number of marriagerelated proverbs in English and Vietnamese, demonstred it to make a pure comparison on the
quantity. Next, the researcher sifts through the materials to identify the similarities and
differences between English proverbs and Vietnamese proverbs in terms of images that are
frequently used. For example, in the category of marriage- related proverbs pertaining to the
faithfulness, the researcher will list out all the common images used in English proverbs and
Vietnamese provebs to see what features are shared between the two countries and what
features are typical of each culture.
Stage 3: Synthesis and generalization
After analyzing the remarkable features of both English and Vietnamese marriage proverbs, the
researcher synthesizes all similarities and differences to make a generalization about the
similarities and differences that reflect the cultural values and beliefs. Similarities express the
intersection of two cultures whereas differences represent the cultural uniqueness and
distintiveness. Therefore, the researcher’s task does not stop at pointing out what is different. A

further step is required to study the factors that lead to such similarities and differences and
investigating how these factors are influnced by cultural perspectives.

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CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
I. COMPARISON AND CONTRAST OF ENGLISH AND
VIETNAMESE PROVERBS ABOUT MARRIAGE IN
TERMS OF SYNTACTICS
1.1. Overview
This part mainly discusses syntactic features of proverbs relating to marriage in English and
Vietnamese. The researcher has referred to nearly 200 Vietnamese proverbs and nearly 200
English proverbs from two sources: the world wide web and book; they are:
/> />Based on the quantity of marriage proverbs that the researcher is able to collect, it is seen that
in this study there are more marriage proverbs in Vietnamese than in English. To illustrate the
findings, a detailed discussion with examples is presented.
1.2. Syntactic features of English and Vietnamese proverbs about marriage
1.2.1. Phrase structures
1.2.1.1. Proverbs with Noun Phrase Structures
a. In English
[1] (Art) + Adj + N// + Adj + N

A harmonious marriage.

[2] Num + N// Num + N

One father is enough to govern one hundred sons,
but not a hundred sons one father.

[3] N + N // N + N

Niggard father, spendthrift son.

[4]Noun’s + Noun

Mother’s darlings.

[5] NP + prep + NP

A man without a wife is but half a man.

[6] NP + and + NP

Children to bed and the goose the fire.

[7] NP + [S + V + C]

The mother-in-law remembers not that she was a
daughter- in-law

a. In Vietnamese

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[1] Noun + Noun// Noun + Noun

Công cha, nghĩa mẹ, ơn thầy

[2]Nooun + Adj/ AP // Noun + Adj / AP

Vợ hiền hòa, nhà hướng nam.

[3] N + (nào) + N + (nấy)

Mẹ đỏ con đào, cha nào con nấy.

[4] N/ NP + NP// N/ NP + NP

Anh em gạo, đạo nghĩa tình.

[5] Num + NP/ N + NP

Một con so bằng mười con rạ.

[6] N + V/ N + V

Con hát mẹ khen hay.

Based on the examples above, we can summarize the noun phrase structures of English and
Vietnamese proverbs relating to marriage in the table as follow:

Noun
Phrase

Table 3: Noun phrase structures
English
Vietnamese
[1] (Art) + Adj + N// + Adj + N

None
[2] Num + N// Num + N
[1] Num + NP/ N + NP
[3] N + N // N + N
[2] N + N// N + N
[4] Noun’s + Noun
None
[5] NP + prep + NP
[3] N + (nào) + N + (nấy)
[6] NP + and + NP
None
[7] NP + [S + V + C]
None
None
[4] N/ NP + NP// N/ NP + NP
None
[5]N + Adj/ AP // N+ Adj / AP
None
[6] N + V/ N + V

1.2.1.2. Proverbs with Verb Phrase Structures
a. In English
[8] V + N/ NP// V + N/NP

Spare the rod and spoil the child.

[9] V + Noun/ NP

Choose a wife by your ear rather by your eye.

[10] Verb + prep.Phrase

Train up a child in the way he should go.

[11] VP + prep + VP

To have a good sentiment to a girl’s inferiors of her
relatives when falling in love with her.

b. In Vietnamese
[7] V + N/ Np // V + N/ NP

Mẹ đánh một trăm không bằng cha ngăm một tiếng.

[8] V/ VP + VP // V / VP + V

Sinh con ai nỡ sinh lòng, sinh con ai chẳng vun
trồng cho con.

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