STRATEGIES APPLIED IN ENGLISH VIETNAMESE TRANSLATION OF IDIOMS IN “THE GREAT GATSBY” BY TRỊNH lữ = CHIẾN lược DỊCH ANH VIỆT các THÀNH NGỮ TRONG tác PHẨM “đại GIA GATSBY” của DỊCH GIẢ TRỊNH lữ

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

STRATEGIES APPLIED IN ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE
TRANSLATION OF IDIOMS IN
“THE GREAT GATSBY” BY TRỊNH LỮ

Supervisor: Ms. Vuong Thu Hang (M.A.)
Student: Nguyen Thi Tuyet
Course: QH2017. F1. E21

HANOI - 2021


ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

CHIẾN LƯỢC DỊCH ANH-VIỆT CÁC THÀNH NGỮ
TRONG TÁC PHẨM “ĐẠI GIA GATSBY”
CỦA DỊCH GIẢ TRỊNH LỮ

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Vương Thu Hằng
Sinh viên: Nguyễn Thị Tuyết
Khóa: QH2017. F1. E21

HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2021


ACCEPTANCE PAGE
I hereby state that I: Nguyen Thi Tuyet, class QH2017.F1.E21, being a
candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, accept the requirements of the University
relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the
library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in
the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance
with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or
reproduction of the paper.
Signature

Nguyen Thi Tuyet
Hanoi, May 2021


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Ms.
Vuong Thu Hang, M.A, the lecturer of Translation and Interpretation at the Faculty
of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages and International
Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. She gave me a source of great
motivation throughout the period of the study. Thanks to her detailed instructions and
feedback, I could finally complete this thesis according to the timeline.
Besides, I also would like to thank all the lecturers in Translator and Interpreter
Training Division, especially Ms. Vuong Thi Thanh Nhan who enthusiastically
recommended plenty of research topics through online meetings or discussions and
strongly inspired not only me but also other senior students majoring in Translation
and Interpretation to conduct the study.

Finally, I am deeply grateful to my classmates, namely Dam Le Thi Tra Giang,
Nguyen Thu Hien, Hoang Thao Hien and Nguyen Huy Hoang for their support and
enthusiasm as they spent their little valuable time for my questionnaires through
emails. In particular, I greatly appreciate my family members who offered me all their
motivation during the progress of my research.

i


ABSTRACT
Translation of idioms has been regarded as one of the most hard-to-solve tasks
in the field of translation. For this reason, this paper came up with a detailed
investigation into Trịnh Lữ’s translation “Đại gia Gatsby” in order to find out his
strategies applied for translating English idioms in “The Great Gatsby”. Additionally,
the most and least common strategies employed by Trịnh Lữ to translate English
idioms to Vietnamese were detected. Concurrently, the research also provided the
detailed assessment made by target language readers on Vietnamese translations. In
order to achieve objectives of the study, both qualitative and quantitative methods
were utilized. The study adopted the framework of Mona Baker (1992) for
identification of idiom translation strategies and theory of Larson (1984) for
translation testing. After the process of data collection and analysis, it was discovered
that among four main strategies of translation idioms given by Baker (1992) including
Using an idiom with the same meaning and form, Using an idiom with the similar
meaning but dissimilar form, Paraphrase, Omission, and one strategy offered by Peter
Newmark (1988) known as Literal translation, the strategy Paraphrase overtook
others to become the most frequently-used strategy in Trịnh Lữ’s “Đại gia Gatsby”.
Furthermore, the translations rendered from the application of these strategies were
highly evaluated in terms of accuracy and naturalness by target language readers.
Although the study showed some limitations, it was expected that this paper could be
a source of useful references for idiom translation in literary works.

ii


LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Frequency of each type of English idioms in “The Great Gatsby” ........... 32
Table 2. Frequency and Percentage of English-Vietnamese translation strategies in
“Đại gia Gatsby” given by Trịnh Lữ ....................................................................... 34
Table 3. Frequency and Percentage of translation strategies in the type of idioms
formed Verb + Object/Complement (and/or Adverbials) ......................................... 39
Table 4. Frequency and Percentage of translation strategies in the type of idioms
formed Compound/Noun phrase ............................................................................... 39
Table 5. Frequency and Percentage of translation strategies in the type of idioms
formed Prepositional phrase..................................................................................... 40
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Percentage of each type of English idioms in “The Great Gatsby” ......... 32
Figure 2. Percentage of English-Vietnamese translation strategies in “Đại gia
Gatsby” given by Trịnh Lữ ....................................................................................... 35
Figure 3. Participants’ translation assessment on accuracy of English-Vietnamese
translation of idioms rendered by the strategy Paraphrase ...................................... 42
Figure 4. Participants’ translation assessment on naturalness of English-Vietnamese
translation of idioms rendered by the strategy Paraphrase ...................................... 43
Figure 5. Participants’ translation assessment on accuracy of English-Vietnamese
translation of idioms rendered by the strategy Omission ......................................... 44
Figure 6. Participants’ translation assessment on naturalness of English-Vietnamese
translation of idioms rendered by the strategy Omission ......................................... 45
Figure 7. Participants’ translation assessment on the level of accuracy of EnglishVietnamese translation of idioms rendered by the strategy Literal translation ....... 46
Figure 8. Participants’ translation assessment on the level of naturalness of EnglishVietnamese translation of idioms rendered by the strategy Literal translation ....... 47

iii


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
SL ………………………………………………………………… Source Language
TL …………………………………………………………………. Target Language
ST ………………………………………………………………………. Source Text
TT ……………………………………………………………………….. Target Text

iv


TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ......................................................................................... i
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... ii
LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS ................................... iii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1
1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study ...................................... 1
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study ..................................................................... 3
1.3. Significance of the study .................................................................................. 4
1.4. Scope of the study ............................................................................................ 4
1.5. Organization ..................................................................................................... 5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................ 6
2.1. English idioms .................................................................................................. 6
2.1.1. Concepts of idioms .................................................................................... 6
2.1.2. Features ...................................................................................................... 9
2.1.3. Classification ........................................................................................... 12
2.2. Translation ...................................................................................................... 15
2.2.1. Concept of translation .............................................................................. 15
2.2.2. Translation testing ................................................................................... 18

2.3. Idiom translation ............................................................................................. 19
2.3.1. Difficulties in idiom translation ............................................................... 19
2.3.2. Strategies in idiom translation ................................................................. 20
2.3.3. Review of the previous studies ................................................................ 24
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ......................................................................... 26
3.1. Research design .............................................................................................. 26
3.2. Research subjects............................................................................................ 26
3.3. Data collection instruments ............................................................................ 28
3.3.1. Data collection instrument for Research question 1 ................................ 28
3.3.2. Data collection instrument for Research question 2 ................................ 28
3.4. Procedure of data collection ........................................................................... 28
3.4.1. Procedure of data collection for Research question 1 ............................. 28
v


3.4.2. Procedure of data collection for Research question 2 ............................. 29
3.5. Procedure of data analysis .............................................................................. 30
3.5.1. Data analysis procedure for Research question 1 .................................... 30
3.5.2. Data analysis procedure for Research question 2 .................................... 30
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .................................................... 31
4.1. Findings .......................................................................................................... 31
4.2. Implication ...................................................................................................... 47
4.3. Application ..................................................................................................... 48
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ............................................................................... 50
5.1. Summary of findings ...................................................................................... 50
5.2. Limitations ...................................................................................................... 52
5.3. Suggestion for further research ...................................................................... 53
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 55
APPENDIX 1. .......................................................................................................... 59
APPENDIX 2 ........................................................................................................... 76

vi


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the statements involving idiom translation problems are given.
Coupled with this, it briefly introduces the rationale that the researcher decided to carry out
this work. An overview of the aims or objectives, scope, and significance of the research is
also provided.

1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study
Since time immemorial, communication has been seen as one of the most
fundamental human needs (Patience, 2016). It is believed that human beings
essentially have two-way communication for the transmission and reception of ideas
and thoughts from one person to another. Therefore, the strong need to communicate
with each other is conducive to both the appearance and the development of language.
It is the tool that the mutual understanding and relations at both individual and
collective levels are fostered. However, to some extent, the mutual understanding is
partly curtailed as the surrounding world abounds in different languages with
multifarious cultural frameworks and belief systems, leading to a breakdown in the
communication process with each other. Accordingly, translation has essentially
emerged to satisfy the need of people who come from all corners of the globe to cross
language barriers and well communicate with others.
In the context of the ever-changing globalization and integration, it is a widely
held view that translation plays a significant role in various areas and becomes one of
the most crucial jobs as well as studies in modern society. Translation, it is believed,
enables effective communication between people with different languages and
cultures across the globe. Notably, the translation task is not merely a straightforward
transference from one source language to the other target language but involves the
socio-cultural and pragmatic competence of the two languages and extensive

knowledge of linguistic elements, especially idioms. Many linguistic professionals
emphasize that idiomatic expressions are one of the most challenging tasks to translate
1


as the meaning of these idioms cannot be predicted by the literal definitions of the
words they contain. In other words, it is stated that “idioms are frozen patterns of
language which allow little or no variation in form and often carry meanings which
cannot be deduced from their individual components” (Baker 1992, p. 63). For this
reason, it is essential for idiom translation to be further studied, which considerably
contributes to translation studies.
Generally, translating idioms, occurring frequently in all languages, is
considered a challenging and problematic task for both translators. In definition, the
idiom is seen as “a string of words whose meaning is different from the meaning
conveyed by the individual words” (Larson, 1984, p. 20). For instance, the idiom to
have a bee in one’s bonnet is meant to keep talking about something again and again
because you think it is very important (Walter, 1999). As can be noticed, this meaning
of the aforementioned idiom bears no resemblance to the meanings of its constituents,
known as separate words. Idioms are not simply translated word for word but require
a good knowledge of both the original language and the target one to find the
equivalence. Additionally, as a matter of fact, idioms are untranslatable because they
are entwined with cultural-specific items (Baker, 1992). Hence, it is problematic for
translators to find equivalents of idioms with cultural differences. In order to translate
them, translators usually fix their form and render messages from certain words
included in the whole idioms themselves.
In the light of difficulties that translators or students majoring in translation
encounter in translating idioms, the researcher has come to a decision with doing
research Strategies applied in English - Vietnamese translation of idioms in "The
Great Gatsby" by Trịnh Lữ with a view to finding out the strategies most used by the
translator Trịnh Lữ, who translated this novel into Vietnamese. Accordingly,

translators, students studying translation, or even people in need considerably utilize
this research as a source of valuable suggestions to well translate English - Vietnamese
idioms. “Đại gia Gatsby” translated by Trịnh Lữ serves as a case for this study
2


because its English version qualifies as the Greatest American Novel and a great book
of the world literature (Churchwell, 2013) and Trịnh Lữ’s translation grabbed
numerous readers’ attention as it got more than three million ratings on the goodreads,
which is one of the underlying reasons for this work to be investigated. What’s more,
the previous research, known as Domestication and Foreignization of Trịnh Lữ’s
translation of the novel “The Great Gatsby” (La, 2015), was not much centered on
making clear strategies to translate types of English idioms in this novel. Henceforth,
the researcher plans to highlight Trịnh Lữ’s strategies of idiom translation in“Đại gia
Gatsby”.
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study
With respect to research objectives, this research aimed at discovering how the
translator Trịnh Lữ dealt with idioms in the novel “The Great Gatsby” and in addition,
finding out whether the translation theory proposed by Mona Baker (1992) worked
with the English-Vietnamese translation of idioms. By thoroughly studying this case,
the researcher discovered what Baker’s idiom translation strategies were
predominantly utilized as a whole. In a broader perspective, this research helpfully
offered translators certain suggestions concerning strategies of translating English
idioms to Vietnamese.
In order to attain the previously-mentioned objectives, the research focused on
the following questions:
Research question 1: Which strategies are adopted by the translator Trịnh Lữ
to translate English idioms in the novel “The Great Gatsby” into Vietnamese? What
is the most common strategy used by the translator Trịnh Lữ?
Research question 2: To what extent do these strategies affect the accuracy,

and naturalness of the Vietnamese translations of the English idioms in “Đại gia
Gatsby” as perceived by TL readers?

3


1.3. Significance of the study
In the first place, along with the preceding studies, this research is expected to
give translators and students who are majoring in translation a great source of
reference in the frequently-used strategies of translating English-Vietnamese idioms.
In particular, the researcher also expects to provide them with an overall look into the
usage of idiom translation strategies in “Đại gia Gatsby” based on Baker (1992)’s
framework and assessment of Trịnh Lữ’s idiom translation following Larson (1984)’s
theory, which considerably helps the researcher reach some conclusions of the
application of Baker’s idiom translation strategies in English-Vietnamese literary
translation. Through the analysis of this case, translators and students can gain more
information about the would-be obstacles encountered during the process of idiom
translation so as to choose the most appropriate strategies to render English idioms
into Vietnamese ones.
In the second place, the researcher hopes the findings of the study can give a
contribution to translation studies. Whereby, in all likelihood, other researchers who
express their interest in idiom translation carry out further research so as to dig deeper
into the field and other related issues.
1.4. Scope of the study
Due to the limitation of time, the foregoing research partially covered all
translation strategies of idioms in the novel “Đại gia Gatsby”. Therefore, this study
targeted idioms and strategies to translate English into Vietnamese idioms. For that
reason, the outstanding literary work written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, known as “The
Great Gatsby” and its Vietnamese version translated by Trịnh Lữ was opted as a case
study in terms of idiom translation strategies. Moreover, the researcher examined

whether Baker’s system of strategies to translate idioms (1992) was applied to Trịnh
Lữ’s translation or not by testing Trịnh Lữ’s translation. The study adopted Larson
(1984)’s theory of translation assessment to investigate the English-Vietnamese
translation quality of idioms.
4


1.5. Organization
The study consists of 5 chapters as below:
Chapter 1 - Introduction gives the statement of the research problem, the
rationale of the study, the aims of the study, its significance, and organization
Chapter 2 - Literature review contains the theoretical background of the study.
Chapter 3 - Methodology includes research subjects, procedures of data
collection, and procedures of data analysis.
Chapter 4 - Results and discussion present the findings of the study, their
implications, and application.
Chapter 5 - Conclusion restates the key results of the study and gives
suggestions for further research.

5


CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provides a theoretical background and key concepts that
frequently appear in this study. The section covers outstanding concepts, such as
English idioms, types of idioms, translation, idiom translation, difficulties in idiom
translation, and strategies to translate idioms. Besides, the theories of the area will
be displayed, especially Mona Baker’s idiom translation strategies along with lots of
discrete frameworks created by numerous linguists and scholars as well.
2.1. English idioms

2.1.1. Concepts of idioms
English encompasses a wide diversity of idioms that appear in both spoken and
written English, making the language imbued with stunning favor and color.
However, idioms are among the hardest things for a person to learn in the process of
learning this language. That reason becomes leverage for linguists as well as people
who express their interest in English to launch extensive investigations in idioms.
Notably, one of the most considerable concerns in each academic study about this
field has been the question of how to define idiom. Before discussing their different
definitions given by multitudinous linguists, it is worth knowing the origin of the
idiom. According to Dadyan, its origin is simplified as shown below:
[...] the English word “idiom” was borrowed from Middle French idiome in the 16th
century, though its ultimate source is Greek idioma, signifying a peculiarity, peculiar
phraseology. The root of the word is Greek idios (personal, private). In classical Latin,
according to the Oxford English Dictionary, idioma meant a “special term or phrase
used by an individual or group”. In post-classical Latin (from the 7th to 13th centuries),
idiom came to mean “a language, a peculiarity, a special property, a dialect, or a
spoken form of language”- the OED says. (Dadyan, 2015, p. 174)

Many English dictionaries are reliable sources of the definitions of the idiom.
When identifying an idiom as a countable noun, these dictionaries also share the
following clarification of this term. First and foremost, in Oxford Advanced Learner’s
Dictionary, the idiom is by definition a group of words whose meaning is different
from the meanings of the individual words (Hornby, 1948). It is manifested in the
6


following example like the idiom to have a change of heart, which does not refer to
someone experiencing a change of his/her heart, an organ of the body. Instead, it
means to change one’s opinion about something or decide not to do something you
were planning to do. In this case, there is no correlation between the meaning of

separate words and that of the whole idiom. Besides, Noah Webster (1843), on the
public domain Merriam Webster, underlines that idiom is an “expression in the usage
of a language that is peculiar to itself either in having a meaning that cannot be derived
from the conjoined meanings of its elements”, such as up in the air for undecided. In
the same way, it is highlighted in the Longman English Dictionary that an idiom is “a
group of words that has a special meaning that is different from the ordinary meaning
of each separate word” (Summers, 1978). As can be seen, all aforesaid definitions
cited from some typical dictionaries also denote that there is a discrepancy between
the meaning extracted from each element constituting the idioms and their figurative
meaning.
Throughout the time, many linguists and scholars have given a proliferation of
concepts of idiom based on its common difficulties and features. Thus, several
perspectives to comprehend the nature of idioms are also offered. Some explanations
suggested by the following linguists have similarities with the mentioned above ones
but also give several additional aspects.
To begin with, Adkins (1968) names the term idiom as modes of expressions
or phrases which are peculiar to a given language. Additionally, “they are rarely
translated literally and often the dictionary is of little aid in the determination of the
meaning of the particular expression” (Adkins, 1968, p. 149). Like the above
statements, he comments that idioms have inferred meanings, not the customary
meanings understood from their grammatical construction.
Moreover, there is another noteworthy identification of idioms given out by
Seidl and McMordie (1988). In the fifth edition of English Idioms and How to Use
7


Them, idioms that appear in the formal style, in slang, and in poetry are not only
colloquial expressions as many people believe. Also, they share the definition of an
idiom that is “a number of words which, when taken together, have different meanings
from the individual meanings of each word”. Like Adkins (1968), they also underline

the difference between the meaning inferred from each word and the idioms’ hidden
meaning. For Seidl and McMordie (1988), it is added that idioms take many distinct
forms or structures, leading learners to difficulties in knowing when it is correct to
use an idiom or whether an idiom is natural or appropriate in a certain situation or
where to use fixed idioms and idioms with variants.
What’s more, several years later, idioms are discussed as “a constituent or a
series of constituents for which the semantic interpretation is not a compositional
function of the formatives of which it is composed” (Fraser 1970, p. 22). In this
respect, he emphasizes that idioms are multi-word phraseological units, whose
meaning is unpredictable from their elements. From a broader perspective, he further
discusses that “every word in the lexicon of a language meets the above definition of
an idiom and single morphemic words (eg. sing, throw and book) are the simplest
examples of idioms”. In A Course in Modern Linguistics, it gives the same point that
the term “Y” is momentarily used for any grammatical form “the meaning of which
is not deducible from its structure. Any Y, in any occurrence in which it is not
constituent of a larger Y, is an idiom. A vast number of composite forms in any
language are idioms” (Hockett, 1958, p.172). Giving the above definition, he
highlights the term idiom as a cover term for certain lexicographic and syntactic
phenomena, which refer to the same fact that the meaning is not extracted from the
composition (Makkai, 1966, p. 28).
In a dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, idiom, as Crystal (2008) states, is
the term used in grammar and lexicology to refer to a sequence of words which is
semantically and often syntactically restricted, so that they function as a single unit.
To make this definition more detailed, he also explained as below:
8


From a semantic viewpoint, the meanings of the separate words cannot be summed
to produce the meaning of the idiomatic expression. From a syntactic viewpoint, the
words often do not permit the usual variability they display in other contexts, e.g. it’s

raining cats and dogs does not permit *it’s raining a cat and a dog/dogs and cats,
etc. Because of their lack of internal contrastivity, some linguists refer to idioms as
‘ready-made utterances’. An alternative terminology refers to idioms as ‘habitual
collocations’. (Crystal, 2008)

Furthermore, it is stated that there is no definition of idiom, which is understood
fully clear-cut (Langlotz, 2006). Based on the preliminary definition of idiom,
Langlotz (2006, p.18) describes an idiom as “an institutionalized construction that is
composed of two or more lexical items and has the composite structure of a phrase or
semi-clause, which may feature constructional idiosyncrasy”. This interpretation
includes the following constructions, for example, red herring, buy the farm, take the
bull by the horns or fall flat. In the introduction part of his book Idiomatic Creativity
(2006), idioms are peculiar linguistic constructions confusing newcomers to a
language and also serve as the colorful linguistic spectrum of expressions that cause
difficulties to linguists during the process of defining and explaining their
grammatical behavior (Langlotz, 2006).
In short, although idioms are defined from perspectives and deciphered by
discrete explanations, they are largely considered to be expressions with meanings
that cannot be interpreted from the meaning of their constituents. The study would
ground on this most common definition to identify English idioms in “Đại gia
Gatsby”.
2.1.2. Features of idioms
It is a long-established view taken by linguists that idioms have been dead and
frozen metaphors (Mäntylä, 2004). From the statement above, Mäntylä (2004) further
discusses that “dead” refers to idioms with arbitrary meanings which have
metaphorical nature while “frozen” is, in turn, the word describing the fixedness of
idioms’ form. Hence, in her opinion, rigor mortis refers to the nature of not only
meanings but also forms of an idiom.
9

Many peculiar characteristics of a language are included in idioms that show
“cultural and linguistic specificity” and the “idiosyncrasies of a particular language”
(Brădeanu, 2012, p. 239). Linguists mainly utilize the analysis of idioms’
characteristics to define them. Specifically, for each definition, Langlotz (2006)
underlines their features along the dimensions of form, meaning, and grammatical
status in the following table:
Table 1.1. Parameters for the definition of idioms
Semiotic dimension
GRAMMATICAL
STATUS
FORM

MEANING

Feature
Degree of conventionalization or
familiarity
Formal complexity of construction:
multi-word unit
Lexicogrammatical behaviour:
restricted syntactic,
morphosyntactic and lexical
variability
Meaning cannot be derived from
constituent
words
but
is
extended/figurative

Term
institutionalization
compositeness
frozenness

non-compositionality

(Langlotz, 2006, p. 3)
Correspondingly, Brădeanu (2012) also notes that there are four main features
of idioms, such as semantic non-compositionality (lack of correlation between syntax
and sense), lexical integrity (in various degrees), institutionalization, and
compositeness. The properties of idioms are embarked on below.
(Semantic) Non-compositionality
As noted by Langlotz (2006), semantic non-compositionality is primarily seen
as a definitory feature of idioms. The meaning of the idiomatic constructions is not
the entire meaning of their constituents (Langlotz, 2006). Similarly, semantic noncompositionality characterizes idioms as “the meaning of an idiom is not the result of
the compositional function of its constituent parts, i.e. its syntax is non-correlative and
the resultant signification non-literal in terms of the references denoted by these parts”
10


(Fernando & Flavell, 1981, p. 22). In other words, the meaning of an idiom is a
semantic extension from the based meanings of its lexical constituents.
Compositeness
This feature refers to the nature of idioms (multi-word units) that are made up
of two or more lexical constituents (Langlotz, 2006). In this matter, he also cited an
example grasp the nettle to illustrate this characteristic.
[...] ‘grasp the nettle’ consists of the constituents grasp and nettle, with nettle being
conventionally used with the definite article ‘the’. While idioms typically have the

composite structure of phrases or semi-clauses, idiomatic compounds (blackbird,
chatterbox), phrasal verbs (stand by, see through, come across), and proverbs (Birds
of a feather flock together) also belong to the group of composite idiomatic
constructions. (Langlotz, 2006, p. 3)

Compositeness means that “the individual lexical units of these expressions are
usually set and cannot easily be replaced or substituted for.” Idioms such as off the
deep end, odds and ends, and making out like bandits are all examples of such
characteristics (Simpson & Mendis, 2003, p. 423).
Frozenness
Langlotz (2006) argues that frozenness partially poses an influence on “the
variability of the lexical constituents and the grammatical behavior”. Cited in his
work, it is pointed out that Barkema (1996) uses the notion of fixedness to imply
syntactic and morphosyntactic restrictions. In other words, Fernando & Flavell (1981)
further notice that this feature is known as lexical integrity. To explain frozenness
more detailed, Langlotz (2006) illustrate an instance trip the light fantastic as follow:
[...] It features fixedness because it cannot be passivized for instance. Moreover, it is
collocationally restricted because the constituents cannot be replaced by other lexical
items: *trip the heavy fantastic, *walk the light fantastic. (Langlotz, 2006, p. 4)

Institutionalization

11


Institutionalization pertains to “the degree of conventionality and familiarity
of an expression, meaning that it is approved by the usage of the language” (Brădeanu,
2012, p. 247). Additionally, Fernando (1996) discusses that institutionalization relates
to “the conventionalization of what was initially an ad hoc, novel expression, resulting
in its currency and acceptance among the wider discourse community rather than by

a small sub-community” (Simpson & Mendis, 2003, p. 423). Langlotz (2006)
postulates that an idiom is an institutionalized construction with two or more lexical
items and the combination of a phrase and semi-clause, for example, red herring (a
fact, idea, or subject that takes people's attention away from the central point being
considered, according to Cambridge Online Dictionary) and take the bull by the horns
(to deal with a difficult situation in a very direct or confident way, according to
Merriam Webster) respectively.
2.1.3. Classification
Along with the numerous views on the interpretation of idioms, a number of
different approaches are employed for the categorization of idioms such as
semantically based, structurally motivated, and functionally governed (Liu, 2008).
From very early on, separation of idioms has been addressed in English Idiom, first
Oxford edited by McMordie (1909). As explained by Seidl and McMordie (1988) in
the fifth edition, a regular structure, an irregular or even grammatically incorrect
structure can be included in an idiom. On the ground that the clarity of meaning is not
based on the “grammatical correctness”, they introduce the following kinds of idioms:
1. Form irregular, meaning clear, as in give someone to understand, do someone proud,
do the dirty on someone.
2. Form regular, meaning unclear, as in have a bee in one’s bonnet, cut no ice, bring the
house down.
3. Form irregular, meaning unclear, as in be at large, go great guns, be at daggers
drawn.

(Seidl and McMordie, 1988, p. 13)
In their aforementioned book, they find out that most idioms feature the second
group, where the form is regular but the meaning is unclear. The majority of them
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have no association with the original meaning of the individual elements.

Notwithstanding, according to Seidl and McMordie (1988), there are some idioms in
a certain group, which offer clearer meaning than others. One example to illustrate
this point is to give someone the green light that can be predicted as “to give someone
permission to do something” (Seidl and McMordie, 1988, p.13).
In Semantic: A New Outline, there are three common types of idioms which
are phrasal verb, prepositional verb, and partial idiom (Palmer, 1976). Firstly, in
detail, phrasal verbs refer to the combination of verb plus adverb, for example, take
back, play up and give in. The meaning of these combinations cannot be inferred from
the individual verb and adverb. According to Palmer (1976), there are also sequences
of verb plus preposition, such as look after and go for, and sequences of a verb, an
adverb plus a preposition, such as put up with (‘tolerate’) and do away with (‘kill’),
which may be idiomatic. Secondly, partial idioms are idioms in which “one of the
words has its usual meaning, the other has a meaning that is peculiar to the particular
sequence.” (Palmer, 1976).
Similarly, with the approach to semantic features, idioms are distinguished
following four classes including pure idioms, figurative idioms, restricted collocations
(semi-idioms), and open collocations (Cowie et al, 1993). In detail, pure idioms are
“non-compositional expressions that are impervious to any lexical, semantic or
morphological changes as it results in a loss of their unitary meaning” (Mulhall, 2010,
p. 4), for example, to kick the bucket and to blow the gaff. Figurative idioms are
identified as ones that are “on the border of idioms, and hardly allow any variation”
(Dumitrașcu, 2007, p. 3). The phrases such as to break one’s leg or to burn the candle
at the end are also illustrations for this type of idiom. Based on Cowie (1993)’s
categorization, Dumitrașcu (2007) defined restricted collocations as idioms
comprising one non-literal meaning and one literal meaning, for instance, the
collocation a cardinal error/sin/virtue.

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As mentioned in Idioms: Description, Comprehension, Acquisition, and
Pedagogy, in terms of meaning, idioms may be divided into three subcategories,
namely pure, semi-literal, and literal idioms. Sorted by structure or form, two systems
may be selected for the classification of idioms: “firstly, they can be dichotomized as
idioms of invariance and those of restricted variation; secondly, they can be divided
into lexemic (phrasal) idioms, which include phrasal verbs, and semantic (sentential)
idioms, which include sayings and proverbs.” (Liu, 2008).
Followed by O’Dell and McCarthy (2010), idioms are classified into certain
types as follow:
Verb + Object/ Complement (and/or Adverbials)
Under the above arrangement, the idiom to add the fuel to the fire can be seen
as an instance. It basically describes an action in which someone makes an argument
or bad situation worse (Walter, 1999).
Prepositional phrase
It is a phrase consisting of a preposition, its object, which is usually a noun or
a pronoun, and any modifiers of the object (Fierro, 1995). For example, in donkey’s
years is synonymous with an extremely long time. The idiom contains a preposition
“in” and a noun phrase donkey’s years.
Compound/Noun phrase
Compound/Noun phrase is defined as a group of words in a sentence that
together behave like a noun. A typical illustration for this kind of idiom is a couch
potato, referring to someone who spends plenty of time sitting at home watching
television. It is constituted by the two nouns “couch” and “potato”.
Similes
Similes are a figure of speech that involves a comparison (Barnwell, 1980).
Then, Larson (1984) adds that similes grammatical forms which represent two
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propositions in the semantic structure. As bold as brass is an expression that describes

someone with extreme confidence or without the respect or politeness people usually
show (Walter, 1999).
Binomials
This type of idiom is units in which a pair of words are joined by a conjunction,
mainly “and”, “or” (O’Dell & McCarthy, 2010) (e.g. black and white, plain and
simple, more or less).
Trinomials
O’Dell & McCarthy (2010) defines trinomial as a similar type of idiom of
binomial, in which three words are joined. (e.g. hook, line and sinker; lock, stock and
barrel)
Proverbs
Proverbs are simple, concrete, traditional sayings that are constituted by
phrases and at least one main clause. They can be used to express either negative or
positive statements. To clarify this idea, the proverb A storm is a teacup is given (a
small event that has been exaggerated out of proportion).
Euphemisms
In Cambridge Online Dictionary, euphemisms are words or phrases used to
avoid saying an unpleasant or offensive word. For instance, Senior citizen is a
euphemism for an old person.
2.2. Translation
2.2.1. Concept of translation
It is a widely held viewpoint that many definitions or understandings of
translation are proposed by theorists. Translation is rendering the meaning of a text
into another language in the way that the author intended the text (Newmark, 1988,
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p.5). In his opinion, translating a text should begin with a detailed analysis of a text,
such as the intention of the text and of the translator, its readership, attitude. Another
marked point in his work A textbook of Translation is that translation is mentioned as

“a two-edged instrument: it has the special purpose of demonstrating the learner's
knowledge of the foreign language, either as a form of control or to exercise his
intelligence in order to develop his competence” (Newmark, 1988, p. 7) Besides,
Newmark (1988) has drawn a conclusion that translation does not merely serve as an
instrument for transmitting the culture but also the truth, a force for progress.
With regard to specific linguistic theory, Catford (1965) believes that
translation is concerned with a relation between languages. In his book A linguistic
Theory of Translation, translation is basically “the replacement of textual material in
one language (SL) by equivalent textual material in another language (TL)” (Catford,
1965, p.20). Put simply, translation may be understood as a process of substituting a
text in one specific language for a text in one another. He further notices that two
keywords in the above notion are textual material (a part or some parts of the source
text) and equivalent. The term “textual material” implies the fact that the SL text is
not entirely translated but normally replaced by TL equivalents. For the term
“equivalent”, also known as translation equivalence, Catford (1965) uses it for
distinguishing discrete types of translation in terms of extent (a), levels (b), and ranks
(c).
a. Full vs. Partial translation. [...] In a full translation the entire text is submitted to the
translation process: that is, every part of the SL text is replaced by TL text material.
In a partial translation, some part or parts of the SL text are left untranslated: they
are simply transferred to and incorporated in the TL text. [...]
b. Total vs. Restricted translation. [...] Total Translation may best be defined as:
replacement of SL grammar and lexis by equivalent TL grammar and lexis with
consequential replacement of SL phonology/graphology by (non-equivalent) TL
phonology/graphology. By restricted translation we mean: replacement of SL
textual material by equivalent TL textual material, at only one level. [...]
c. Free, literal, and word-for-word translation [...]The popular terms free, literal, and
word-for-word translation [...] Word' for-word translation generally means what it
says: i.e. is essentially rank-bound at word-rank [...] Literal translation lies between
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