A contrastive analysis of metaphor in english and vietnamese idioms relating to numbers = so sánh đối chiếu phép ẩn dụ trong thành ngữ anh việt liên quan đến con số

vinh university
foreign Languages department

hoàng thị hằng

a contrastive analysis of metaphor in english
and vietnamese idioms relating to numbers
(SO SÁNH ĐỐI CHIẾU PHÉP ẨN DỤ TRONG THÀNH NGỮ
ANH - VIỆT LIÊN QUAN ĐẾN CON SỐ)

GRADUATION THESIS
Field: Linguistics

Vinh - 2012


vinh university
foreign Languages department

a contrastive analysis of metaphor in english
and vietnamese idioms relating to numbers
(SO SÁNH ĐỐI CHIẾU PHÉP ẨN DỤ TRONG THÀNH NGỮ
ANH - VIỆT LIÊN QUAN ĐẾN CON SỐ)

GRADUATION THESIS
Field: Linguistics

Supervisor :
Student
:
Class

:

Trần Bá Tiến, M.A
Hoàng Thị Hằng
49A - English

Vinh - 2012


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For the completion of this thesis, I have been very fortunate to receive
the invaluable contributions from many people.
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor,
Mr. Tran Ba Tien, M.A.. With his profound knowledge and experience in
English, he gives me a lot of enthusiastic assistance,excellent suggestions as
well as detailed critical comments. But for him, this work would not have
been completed.
In addition, I am greatly indebted to all my teachers from the Foreign
Languages Department of Vinh University for their lectures and to my friends
for various kinds of help and encouragements.
My warmest thanks are due to my loving parents and my younger sister
who are always besides and support me to overcome difficulties during the
time of doing this thesis.
Finally, I am all too aware that despite all the advice and assistance,
I feel that the study is far from perfect; it is, therefore, my sole responsibility
for any inadequacies and shortcomings that the study may be considered
to have.

Vinh, May 10, 2012

Hoang Thi Hang

i


ABSTRACT
It can’t be denied that using idioms makes our conversation more vivid
and lively. However, it is not easy to master them at all. The meaning of
idioms is very complicated. As V.V. Vinogradov imaginatively expresses, the
meaning of an idiom is “ the special chemical mixture” of meaning of all
components. This means idioms always contain images, which resulted from
metaphors, in themselves. In other words, metaphor is the most important
device to build idioms. Being awareness of its importance and associating the
author’s interest, she decides to analyse the use of metaphors in English
number idioms and Vietnamese counterparts.
In this paper, some similarities and differences between metaphors in
English and Vietnamese idioms relating to numbers are pointed out. With the
hope of giving a practical way for the teachers and learners, the author also
recommends some solutions for teaching and learning idioms.

ii


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................. i
ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................... iii
ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................................... v
PART I: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 1

1.

Justification of the Study ...................................................................... 1

2.

Aims of the Study ................................................................................. 2

3.

Methods of the Study ............................................................................ 2

4.

Scope of the Study ................................................................................ 2

5.

Design of the Study ............................................................................... 2

PART II: DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................... 4
Chapter 1. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .................................................. 4

1.1.

An Overview of Contrastive Analysis .................................................. 4

1.2.

Words and Set Expressions................................................................... 4

1.2.1.

Words .................................................................................................... 4

1.2.2.

Set expressions ...................................................................................... 5

1.3.

Idioms.................................................................................................... 6

1.3.1.

Definition of Idioms .............................................................................. 6

1.3.2.

Characteristics of Idioms ...................................................................... 8

1.3.3.

Classifications of Idioms....................................................................... 9

1.3.4.

Distinction between Idioms and Free -Expressions............................ 10

1.3.5.

Distinction between Idioms and Proverbs .......................................... 10

1.4.

Metaphor ............................................................................................. 12

1.4.1.

Definition of Metaphor ....................................................................... 12

1.4.2.

Classification of Metaphor.................................................................. 13

1.4.3.

Metaphor and Simile ........................................................................... 14

1.4.4.

Metaphor versus Metonymy ............................................................... 14

1.4.5.

The Use of Metaphor in Vietnamese and English Idioms .................. 15
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Chapter 2. A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF METAPHOR IN ENGLISH

AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS RELATING TO NUMBERS .......................... 17

2.1.

The elements of Numbers in Idioms Relating to Numbers ................ 17

2.2.

Metaphor in Idioms relating to Numbers............................................ 18

2.3.

A Contrastive Analysis of Metaphor in English and Vietnamese
Idioms relating to Numbers ................................................................ 19

2.3.1.

Metaphors are Applicable in both English and Vietnamese
Idioms relating to Numbers ................................................................ 19

2.3.2.

Metaphors are only Applicable in Vietnamese Idioms relating
to Numbers .......................................................................................... 26

2.3.3.

Metaphors are only Applicable in English Idioms relating to
Numbers .............................................................................................. 33

Chapter 3. SOME SUGGUESTIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
ENGLISH IDIOMS .......................................................................................... 37

3.1.

Difficulties Faced by Learners in Learning Idioms ............................ 37

3.1.1.

Difficulties in Understanding.............................................................. 37

3.1.2.

Difficulties in Memorizing ................................................................. 39

3.2.

Some Suggestions for Teaching and Learning English Idioms .......... 40

3.2.1.

For the Teachers .................................................................................. 40

3.2.2.

For the Learners .................................................................................. 41

3.3.

Some Suggested Samples of Exercises with Idioms containing

Numbers .............................................................................................. 42

PART III: CONCLUSION ............................................................................ 47
1.

Recapitulation ..................................................................................... 47

2.

Suggestions for Further Studies .......................................................... 48

REFERENCES
APPENDIX

iv


ABBREVIATIONS
Ex:

For example

Etc:

et cetera

i.e.:

that is

st:

something

sb:

somebody

v


PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Justification of the Study
Every language has its own words and idioms. Idiom is a language
phenomenon and plays an important part in spiritual life of a country because
it reflects a vivid picture of a nation’s customs and cultural traditions and is
recollection of its part history as well as folklore.
Using idiom in communication is the most effective and interesting way. It
can carry not only literal meaning but also the figurative meaning, which makes
our observation, judgments and explanations be more lively and interesting.
Although idioms help people to communicate more successfully and
make languages more lively and smooth, it is not easy to master and use them
appropriately at all because the meaning of most idioms cannot be deduced
from their components. In other words, learners have to consider the
figurative senses. For instance, instead of saying “There were very many
things to do at the festival”, we can say “There were a million and one things
to do at the festival” because “million and one” means “very many”.
It is said that metaphor is the one of best devices to build idioms. It is
the effective means of creating images. Therefore, to understand the
metaphorical expressions of idioms, we can’t rely on literal meaning but their

figurative meaning.
Moreover, during the course of language, the author has many chances
to deal with different aspects of English language. And she is really
interested in idioms, especially their semantics. Also, she finds that idioms
relating to numbers take a large portion and they are used very frequently in
English and Vietnamese.
Up to now, idioms have interested many authors. They have carried out
many researches about idioms such as idioms relating to colour, to human’s

1


body parts, about love, etc, however, there is not any study about idioms
relating numbers.
For the reasons above, the author decides to choose the topic “A
Contrastive Analysis of Metaphor in English and Vietnamese Idioms
relating to Numbers” as the study of her graduation thesis with the hope that
it can make a small contribution in teaching and learning English idioms.
2. Aims of the Study
The aims and objectives of the study are as follow:
- To make a clear distinction of metaphor in English and Vietnamese
idioms relating to numbers.
- To provide learners with the fundamental understanding about words,
metaphor, idioms in general and idioms relating to numbers in particular and
also help them understand the cultural characteristics of English and
Vietnamese people via the idioms.
- To give some suggestions for teaching and studying idioms.
- To satisfy the author’s interest.
3. Methods of the Study
To finish this study, the author has used some methods.

- Statistic method
- Contrastive and comparative method
- Analytic and systematic method
4. Scope of the Study
In this study, we only take English and Vietnamese idioms relating to
numbers into consideration. The term “number” in “idioms relating to
numbers” indicates cardinal numbers. Also, we only analyze their semantic
feaures in terms of metaphorical meaning.
5. Design of the Study
Apart

from

Acknowledgement,

Abstract,

Table

of

Abbreviations and Appendix, the thesis consists of three main parts.
2

Contents,


Part I is “INTRODUCTION” which consists of the author’s reasons
for choosing the study, aims, method, scope and design of the study.
Part II entitled “DEVELOPMENT” includes three chapters. Chapter

1, “Theoretical Background”, provides some background knowledge
about words, idioms, metaphor and the use of metaphor in English and
Vietnamese idioms.
Chapter 2 is titled “ A Contrastive Analysis of Metaphor in English and
Vietnamese Idioms relating to Numbers”. This chapter mainly investigates the
metaphor in English and Vietnamese idioms containing numbers.
Chapter 3 entitled “Some Suggestions for Teaching and Learning
English Idioms” point out some difficulties faced by learners and provides
several suggestions for teaching and learning idioms.
Part III is “CONCLUSION” in which the author summarizes the main
points in the study and suggests some topics for further studies.

3


PART II: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1. An Overview of Contrastive Analysis
According to Nguyen Van Chien (1992), contrastive analysis is an
important subbranch of comparative linguistics. It is used to compare two or
more languages regardless of whether they are related to each other and of
course, to find out the differences and similarities between them. Thus, it is an
important part in translating, teaching and learning a foreign language.
Contrastive analysis, as in Nguyen Van Chien (1992) states, has its
usages which cannot be recognized if not compared as follows:
- In practice, contrastive analysis has the ability of discovering a great
number of structural features of contrasted languages and the new interesting
language phenomena.
- Especially, contrastive analysis has a considerably practical role in

the field of foreign language teaching and learning. By comparing two
languages, contrastive analysis can point out some solutions to pedagogical
problems as follows:
+ To solve difficulties in all aspects of languages that learners often
encounter when they learn a foreign language.
+ To collect and select materials for language teaching.
+ To establish an appropriate order of materials for learning foreign
languages.
+ To edit a system of suitable exercises and textbooks on foreign languages.
1.2. Words and Set Expressions
1.2.1. Words
1.2.1.1. Definition of a Word
The term “word” seems to be a single concept, but, in fact, it is
extremely difficult to define. Some linguists refer to semantics, some refer to
4


phonology. Thus, so far, there have been many definitions about word from
different aspects. Among them, the most common one is that “word” is the
smallest independent and meaningful unit of a language.
1.2.1.2. The Meaning of Word
Every word combines lexical and grammatical meanings. The
grammatical meaning reflects the ways in which the lexical meaning operates.
The same grammatical meaning may be shared by different words, for
example, love, like, hate,... are verbs. The lexical meaning is the realization of
concept or emotion. Similarly, the same lexical meaning is shared by different
grammatical forms of a words, for instance, warm-warmer- warmest.
Lexical meaning is classified into denotative and connotative meaning.
Denotative meaning is the explicit and literal meaning. It exists by
virtue of what it refers to.

Thus, denotation includes

conceptual and

referential meaning. It indicates or denotes things, concepts,etc. For example,
the word “dog” denote a common animal with four legs, often kept by human
beings as pet or trained for working, hunting, guarding,etc.
Connotation includes emotion, evaluation, intensity and stylistic
coloring. It shows us how things and concepts are indicated or denoted. It
conveys the speaker’s attitudes, emotions and so on. For instance, when we
talk about the “dog”, we sometimes mean “dirty”, “inferiority”.
1.2.2. Set expressions
Set expressions are ready-made units. According to Hoang Tat Truong
(1993,p.92), “ The set expression studied by phraseology may be completely
or partially fixed. In other words, they are either unchangeable or changeable
expressions.”
The grammatical structure and lexical components of a set expression
are stable. For instance, the components of “in high feather” cannot be
replaced with any other words. “High” cannot be replaced by “tall” nor

5


“feather” by “hair”. However, in semi-fixed expression or for a stylistic
effect, substitution is, of course, possible.
Proverbs, idioms quotations, clichés are set expressions.
1.3. Idioms
1.3.1. Definition of Idioms
1.3.1.1. In English

In English, “idiom” is defined differently by various authors. It can be
treated as a type of collocation involving two or more than words. According
to English Language Dictionary, “Idiom is a group of words which, when
they are used together in a particular combination, have a different meaning
from the one they would have if you look at the meaning of all the individual
words in the group”.
The viewpoint is supported in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
of current English. The author regards an idiom as “a group of words whose
meaning is different from the meaning of the individual word”.
For example: when we say “like a dogs with two tails”, we don’t refer
to a thing or a person with two tails. However, what we mean is that a person
feels very happy about something.
Similarly, when we say “to kick the bucket”, we don’t imply the action
of hitting a type of container, but we mean “to die”.
Such phrases as “like a dog with two tails” and “to kick the bucket” are
called idioms.
In the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied
Language, idiom is defined as “an expression which functions as a single unit
and those meaning cannot be worked out from the separate parts”. From
“Illustrated American Idioms”, Dean Curry (1995) offered another definition
of idiom “ An idiom is the assigning of a new meaning to a group of words
which already have their own meaning”.

6


In general, these linguists have similar opinions about the definition of
English idioms. We can understand that an English idiom is a phrase whose
meanings cannot be predicted from the individual meaning of the components
it includes.

1.3.1.2. In Vietnamese
According to Hoang Phe (1997), an idiom is considered to be “a set of
expression whose meaning is generally inexplicable simply through the
meanings of individual words it contains”.
Phan Van Que in “Ngữ Nghĩa của Thành Ngữ và Tục Ngữ chứa thành
tố chỉ Động Vật trong Tiếng Anh”(1996) considers “an idiom is a group of
words combined together to express something whose meaning is different
from its components”.
For example: The phrase “cứng đầu cứng cổ” (hard head and hard
neck) doesn’t mean to describe a person who has hard head and hard neck but
is used to refer a person that is very stubborn.
Hoang Van Hanh (1994) defines an idiom as “ a stable word group
with a solid formation and structure, and a complete and figurative meaning,
used in everyday communication, especially in spoken language”.
In English Basic Lexicology, Hoang Tat Truong (1993) states that
“Idioms are short sayings usually characterized by the fact that their meaning
cannot be usually deduced from their components and they are constructions
peculiar to a language.”
For instance:
“cá chậu chim lồng” (fish in a pod and birds in a cage) is used to
indicate the state of having no freedom.
“Một đời được mấy anh hùng
Bỏ chi cá chậu chim lồng mà chơi”
(Truyện Kiều - Nguyễn Du)
(How often have you lucked upon a man?
When bother will caged birds and fish in a pot?)
7


1.3.2. Characteristics of Idioms

1.3.2.1. Semantic Characteristics
The meaning of idioms is very complicated. As V.V. Vinogradov
imaginatively expresses, the meaning of an idiom is “the special chemical
mixture” of meaning of all components. This means idioms always contain
images, which resulted from metaphors, in themselves. Let’s consider this
example “forty winks” which means “a short sleep during the day”. As a
whole, it cannot be understood base on the component words of the idioms.
Idioms are embodied with metaphorical expressions and they must be
understood metaphorically. Therefore, the meaning of idioms can be
classified into three kinds: the clear meaning, the meaning that can be
guessed, the meaning that cannot be guessed.
Another semantic feature of idioms is that idioms are also abundant in
the nuances of meanings. They can convey positive(Ex: “a willing horse”
means “a keen worker”,etc), neutral (Ex:“in somebody’s shoes” means “be in
somebody’s position” etc), or negative (Ex: “ a fair-weathered friend” means
“somebody who is only a friend when it is pleasant for them and stops beings
a friend when you are in trouble” etc.) meaning.
1.3.2.2. Grammatical Characteristics
All idioms are very flexible in terms of grammar.
First, idioms can be very different at length from each other. Most of
idioms can be a group of two words such as “ quick one” (a single drink of
alcohol taken before one does something else) or more than two words such
as “six feet under” (to be dead and buried).Once for a while, idioms can be a
sentence’s length “two wrongs don’t make a right” (you cannot justify doing
something wrong or bad just because someone else did the same thing to
you),etc.
Obviously, most idioms are grammatically regular. Although the whole
idiom has a different meaning from the meaning of its component, at least
8

these component words are put in a good order. For example: “to get even
with” has the structure V-C, “to bleed somebody white” has the structure VO-C,etc. However, there are also ones in irregular forms, even incorrect
grammatical form such as “ I am good friends with him” or the idiom “ to be
at large”.
Another feature of idioms’ grammatical flexibility is their degree of
fixity. Idioms can be fixed or non-fixed.
In fact, the components in idioms are stable and cannot be substituted.
They cannot be changed or varied in the way that literal expressions are
normally varied. For example, the idiom “to go all out to do something”
means “to make a very great effort to obtain something or do something”. In
this idiom, every element is fixed. They cannot be replaced by other
prepositions.
Idioms, on the other hand, can be unfixed, in the sense that they allow a
rather large range of collocations in their word combinations such “to be/to
feel blue” or “to have/sing the blues”. All of them share the same idea: to get
sad,depressed, to feel gloomy.
1.3.3. Classifications of Idioms
Because idioms are very rich in number, they should be well classified
for learners’sake. In fact, there have been some ways to classify idioms given
out by many linguistics based on motivation, subjects, usage,etc. But in this
paper, we would like to focus only on one main of them: the classification
based on semantic features.
According to V.V.Vingradov, idioms include three kinds:
Phraseological fusions: are completely non-motivated idioms with
fixed form. They may be called “completely idiomatic” because the meaning
of whole unit is indivisible and is not a sum of the meaning of its components.
Phraseological unities: These idioms are the same as the first kind in
term of that its idiomatic meaning is not the sum of the meaning of its
9

components. The difference, however, is that they can be guessed based on
their components’ meaning.
Phraseological combinations: are clearly motivated idioms. They
contain one components used in its direct meaning, and the others’ meanings
change. In phraseological combinations, words being changed are main one.
1.3.4. Distinction between Idioms and Free -Expressions
1.3.4.1. Similarities
Both idioms and free-expressions are groups of more than two words
combined with each other to definite syntactic rule.
1.3.4.2. Differences
In terms of meaning, idioms differ from free-expressions. The meaning
of a free expression is the total of the meaning of its components. For
instance, “ beautiful girls” has the meaning of “beautiful” and “girls”, which
describes the appearance of the girls. Whereas, the meaning of an idiom is
invisible and it is not the sum of meaning of its components. Many idioms can
be substituted by one word such as “one at a time” is replaced by
“individually”.
Another difference between idioms and free-expressions is that idioms
are ready-made unit of a language collected in the native speakers’ mind and
reproduced in speech and free-expressions are created in speech due to
speakers’ communication intentions.
1.3.5. Distinction between Idioms and Proverbs
1.3.5.1. Similarities
According to Hornby (2005), in his Oxford Advanced Learner’s
Dictionary of current English, a proverb is defined as “a short well-known
sentence or phrase that states a general truth about life or gives advice”,
ex: “Better safe than sorry” or “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”.
More particularly, Vu Ngoc Phan (2000, 39) considered a proverb as “a

10


complete saying expresses one idea of comment, experience, morality,
justice or criticism”.
It is easy to find that idioms and proverbs have many in common.
The first one is that both idioms and proverbs are ready-made. They are
products of human’s thought, cultures and processes of hard working and
learning. They are mainly orally handed down from generation to generation
and naturally accepted in daily life.
Secondly, both idioms and proverbs are set-expressions with stable and
insubstituted components. Therefore, their meanings can not be deduced from
individual words but must be understood as a whole. It means that any
substitutions in any components of an idiom or a proverb may result in
unacceptable changes in the meaning of the whole group, which make them
nonsensical in metaphorical meaning.
Apart from this, most idioms and proverbs use language in a
metaphorical way. We can not usually discover their meanings by looking up
the individual words in a dictionary; their meaning must be understood
metaphorically.
1.3.5.2. Differences
Beside those similarities, both of them still own typical features that
distinguish one from the other.
The first and most obvious difference lies in their grammatical
structures. Idioms are mostly phrases which are parts of sentences; thus, they
are equivalent to words only. Proverbs are complete sentences or phrases
expressing the whole idea.

Moreover, idioms and proverbs are also

different in terms of their functions. Proverbs are short well-known sentences
or phrases that express a judgment, state a general truth about life or advice;
they are told to contain three main literature functions which are perceptive
function, aesthetic function and educational function. For example, the
proverb “Money makes the mare go” demonstrates a remark as well as a
11


criticism about the negative side of money. Its perceptive function is to make
people aware of the bad effect of money which can become the power
dominating the society, even the most inanimate things. The educational
function is to criticize the negative side of money and urge people to be aware
of that ill effect. And its aesthetic function is to exaggerate in a picturesque
way to help readers understand the proverb easily. In contrast, idioms do not
express judgments, give advice or state general truth about life, which means
they do not have functions of perception and education but only aesthetic
function. For example, the idiom “to eat like a horse” merely describes the
strong ability of eating because of great hunger in figurative and imaginary
way and does not point out any educational lesson or knowledge of life.
In conclusion, beside their common things, idioms are distinguished
from proverbs by their structures and functions.
1.4. Metaphor
1.4.1. Definition of Metaphor
Metaphor is one of rhetorical means used to make your speech or
writing more vivid,alive and convincing. Up to now, many linguists have paid
a great attention to the matter of metaphor.
In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of current English, metaphor
is defined as:“metaphor is the imaginative use of a word or phrase used to
describe somebody or something as another object in order to show that

they have the same qualities and to make the description more powerful”.
According to Nguyen Hoa (2004,105), “metaphor is the transference of
meaning from one subject to another based on similarity of these two
subjects, i.e. we call one subject by the name of another because we compare
these objects and find some common features between them.”
The view point is supported in Oxford Students Dictionary of English,
the author regards metaphor as “ metaphor is a word or a phrase that is used

12


in an imaginative way to show that some body/ something has the same
qualities as another thing”.
For example, “Bật đèn xanh” in the sentence “cô ấy bật đèn xanh cho
tôi” is a metaphor. It is figuratively used to describe another different concept
- “giving the encouragement”. In addition, it is obviously that this
metaphor created more power in the utterance.
In general, despite apparent differences in expressing, metaphor is
understood to be always the transference of name based on the association of
similarity.
1.4.2. Classification of Metaphor
Metaphor can be classified into different types according to their
degree of unexpectedness. Nguyen Hoa (2004) states that there are three kinds
of metaphor: living metaphor, fade metaphor and dead metaphor. Metaphors
which are absolutely unexpected are called living metaphor. Those which are
common used in speech and therefore are sometimes even fixed in dictionary
as expressive means of language are call dead and faded metaphor.
1.4.2.1. Living Metaphor
Living metaphor can be called active metaphor. It is created and used
by individual. According to Hoang Tat Truong (1993,p.81), living metaphor

occurs “when a word has an unusual metaphorical sense or the metaphor is
created and used by an individual”
For example: She has an acid tongue. She can raise laugh at other
people’s expense.
An acid fruit or drink has a sour at sharp taste, often in a way that
people find unpleasant. “Acid” is metaphorically used to describe speeches or
comments are cruel,unfriendly or critical.
“She is the apple of her parents’ eyes” should be interpreted that she
is her parents’ favorite child or they love her very much.

13


1.4.2.2. Fade Metaphor
According to Hoang Tat Truong (1993,p.81), “Fade metaphor is one
that is lost its freshness due to long and traditional use”.
For example, “to fall in love” can be hardly recognized any longer as
metaphor because they convey very little emotion. They are used so often that
their meanings have become familiar to speakers, they have lost the freshness,
strong and emotional associations they used to own. Presently, they are
sleeping and half-dead metaphors and only aroused again in some special
circumstances. It is also necessary to say that the meanings of fade metaphor
are registered in dictionary.
1.4.2.3. Dead Metaphor
Dead metaphor are the ones whose metaphoric senses are not felt. They
have lost their direct meanings and are used only figuratively. For example,
“to ponder” originally meant “ to weigh” but now it means “to mediate” (to
think or consider carefully). Obviously, the meanings of dead metaphors are
registered in dictionary.
1.4.3. Metaphor and Simile

Both metaphor and simile are forms of comparison. The former is
indirect and the later is direct. In simile, we make the comparison explicit by
using formal elements of comparison “ like” or “as”,whereas metaphor does
not use either. A simile states that A like B and metaphor states that A is B or
substitutes B for A. For example: Simile: She is like a fox.
Metaphor: She is a fox.
Therefore, a metaphor may be extended into a simile, and a simile may
be condensed into a metaphor.
Metaphor is a “hidden” comparison and simile is an “open” comparison.
1.4.4. Metaphor versus Metonymy
Metaphor and metonymy are two concepts that make people confused.
They still find it difficult to make a clear distinction between them. In fact,
14


both metaphor and metonymy are the transference of meaning from one
subject to another, however in metaphor, the transference is based on the
similarity between two subjects, but on the contiguity in metonymy. Thus,
metonymy works by contiguity, not similarity, i.e. instead of the name of one
subject or notion we use the same of another because these objects are
associated and closely related. For example: “the kettle boils” instead of “
The kettle of water boils”.
1.4.5. The Use of Metaphor in Vietnamese and English Idioms
As mentioned above, metaphor makes language alive, vivid and
convincing. It is one of the devices that contribute to the richness of language.
It is hardly possible to speak about idioms without mentioning the
metaphor. Here are some examples in English:
- It was clear from the expression on his face that the lecture ended
completely over his head.
- My father always worked at nine-to-five job.

The underlined words and phrases are used idiomatically and
metaphorically. “Over one’s head” means “too difficult for somebody to
understand”.Similarly, “nine-to-five job” is also idiomatic expression with the
use of metaphorical image. Idiomatically and metaphorically, it means “a
routine job in an office that involves standard office hours”. It is easy to
recognize that these expressions are fixed and figuratively used.
The same phenomenon can be seen in Vietnamese idioms. For
example, we usually come across such an expression as “gà trống nuôi con”.
Literally, this expression refers to the situation of a cock with his chicks. But
in fact this expression is used with figurative meaning. To make it clearer, we
can see the sentence “thật tội nghiệp cho anh ấy phải sống trong cảnh gà
trống nuôi con”. Here is the situation of a man, who has to bring up his
motherless children,compared with the state of a cock with his chicks. So this
idiom is metaphorically based. All the examples analyzed above prove one
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evident that in English and Vietnamese, metaphor is commonly used in
idioms or in other words, metaphor is the important device to create idioms.
However, not all of idioms created base on metaphor. So metaphor is
not only criteria to recognize an idiom. There are many idioms whose lexical
meanings are used in their direct meanings, such as “at least”, “all in one” in
English and “cười ngặt nghẽo”, “đen thui” in Vietnamese. These expressions
are used in their literal meanings and it is easy for leaners to understand.

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Chapter 2
A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF METAPHOR IN ENGLISH

AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS RELATING TO NUMBERS

2.1. The elements of Numbers in Idioms relating to Numbers
In deed, numbers are very similar and close to human beings. They have
a great influence on many aspects of human, especially, in language. Thanks to
the use of numbers, language tends to convey a full intellectual image.
Up to now, there haven’t been any data to calculate how many English
and Vietnamese idioms in general and those relating to numbers in particular.
But it is obviously, the English and Vietnamese idioms containing numbers
are very abundant.
Although numbers are unlimited and the number of idioms relating to
numbers has been creasing through the time, in this study, we list the numbers
that are widely used in idioms.
First of all, we take cardinal numbers into consideration. Cardinal
numbers are numbers normally used for counting, such as, one - một, two hai,three - ba,etc. Cardinal numbers is absolutely different from ordinal
numbers which refer to a position in the list, such as, 1st - thứ nhất, 2nd - thứ
hai, 3rd - thứ ba,and so on. So, when the phrase “idioms relating to numbers”,
“idioms containing numbers”, “number idioms” are used, they mean the
idioms containing cardinal numbers.
For example: one foot in the grave
On cloud nine
Một mất một còn
Kẻ tám lạng người nửa cân
Additionally, in English, “once” means “one time”, “twice” means
“two times” and “twelve” is sometimes called “dozen” and in Vietnamese,
“hai” is sometimes called “đôi”, “năm” is called “dăm”.So when talking
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about idioms relating to numbers, we mean some idioms as follow: “at once”,

“a dim a dozen”, “tại anh tại ả tại cả đôi bên”.
In conclusion, those numbers appear the most frequently in the
collection of Vietnamese and English idioms. They reflect a great deal of
conceptions, thoughts of Vietnamese and English people about world of
nature, human and society.
2.2. Metaphor in Idioms relating to Numbers
As mentioned in the previous part, metaphor is a stylistic device to
build any kind of idioms and idioms containing numbers is not an exception.
Words denoting numbers have figurative meanings in idioms. They don’t
keep their literal meaning but metaphorical ones. For example, the word “
two” is not merely a cardinal number to count something but it is used
variously in many idioms of numbers with different meanings. Here are
some examples:
+ like two peas in a pod
+ in two shakes of a lamb’s tail
+ two a penny
In the idioms above, it can be seen that the word “two” is
metaphorically used. Its literal meaning no longer exists in those idioms.
Instead, they have transferences in the meaning, “like two peas in a pod”
means “very similar in appearance”, “in two shakes of a lamb’s tail”
means “very quickly” and “two a penny” means “very cheap, numerous,
not valuable”.
However, when saying that words denoting numbers get new meaning
in the idioms, we don’t conclude that there is no connection between the
literal and figurative meaning because the metaphor, to some extent, is
created based on the similarities.

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