An investigation into into metaphorical meanings of the words eat and drink in english and vietnamese = (nghiên cứu nghĩa ẩn dụ của từ ăn và uống trong tiếng anh tiếng việt)

VINH UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
==== ====

UÔNG THỊ PHƯƠNG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO METAPHORICAL
MEANINGS OF THE WORDS “EAT” AND
“DRINK” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
(NGHIÊN CỨU NGHĨA ẨN DỤ CỦA TỪ “ĂN” VÀ “UỐNG”
TRONG TIẾNG ANH & TIẾNG VIỆT)

GRADUATION THESIS
FIELD: SEMANTICS

Vinh, May 2012


VINH UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
==== ====

AN INVESTIGATION INTO METAPHORICAL
MEANINGS OF THE WORDS “EAT” AND
“DRINK” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
(NGHIÊN CỨU NGHĨA ẨN DỤ CỦA TỪ “ĂN” VÀ “UỐNG”
TRONG TIẾNG ANH & TIẾNG VIỆT)

GRADUATION THESIS
FIELD: SEMANTICS

Student: UÔNG THỊ PHƯƠNG
Supervisor: PHAN THỊ HƯƠNG, M.A

Vinh, May 2012


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For the completion of the thesis, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable
contributions from many people.
Firstly, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Mrs. Phan Thi
Huong, M.A, my supervisor for her excellent suggestions, valuable materials, and
correction that help me to fulfill this study.
Secondly, I am grateful to my teachers in the Department of Foreign
Languages for their helpful suggestions and encouragements that help me overcome
difficulties in the process of my study.
Finally, I wish to thank my family and my friends who have encouraged and
supported me during the time I work on this study.
Though the study has been done with all my attempts, shortcomings are
unavoidable in the study. Therefore, I would like to welcome and appreciate any
comments and suggestions for improvement.

Vinh, May 2012

Uong Thi Phuong

i


ABSTRACT

For Vietnamese learners of English, particularly advanced learners, knowing
and understanding idiomatic expressions is a significant step to mastering this
language. It can be noticed that such short expressions contain numerous linguistic
features. Among these, metaphor is of great interest to the author. Although
metaphor has been studied and viewed by numerous scholars, no one has ever
reached totally persuasive answers to the questions of them. Thus, it is still a good
topic which attracts people’s interest. The aims of this graduation paper are to
investigate the ways in which metaphorical meaning is used in words and
expressions related to eacting and drinking in English and Vietnamese and to make
some comparisons between English and Vietnamese culture. In order to obtain these
aims, data and sources are collected and gathered through reading and selecting
numerous English and Vietnamese expressions related to the words “eat”, “drink”,
“ăn”, and “uống”. After that, data are categorized and metaphorical meanings in
idioms and expressions are analyzed. The contrastive analysis method is also
employed to make up the study on metaphorical meanings in English and
Vietnamese idioms related to eating and drinking with an attempt to provide a
clearer understanding of the aspect. The results show that there are both similarities
and differences between English and Vietnamese expressions related to the words
“eat” and “drink” through metaphorical meanings, which arespecifically
demonstrated in the thesis.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................... i
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... iii
LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................... v
PART I: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1

1. Reasons for Choosing the Study ............................................................................. 1
2. Aims and objectives of the Study ........................................................................... 2
3. Scope of the Study .................................................................................................. 2
4. Method of the Study ................................................................................................ 2
5. Design of the Study ................................................................................................. 3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT ....................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND..................................................... 4
1.1.The concept of metaphors ..................................................................................... 4
1.2. The concept of word............................................................................................. 5
1.2.1. The definition of word ...................................................................................... 5
1.2.2. Word meaning ................................................................................................... 6
1.2.3. Denotative and Connotative meaning ............................................................... 7
1.3. Collocation ........................................................................................................... 8
1.3.1. Definition of Collocation .................................................................................. 8
1.3.2. Types of Collocation ......................................................................................... 9
1.4. Transfernce of word meaning ............................................................................ 10
1.5. Concepts of Food ............................................................................................... 10
1.5.1. Definition of Food ........................................................................................... 10
1.5.2. Words Denoting Activities Related to Food: Eat and Drink .......................... 11
CHAPTER

2:

AN

INVESTIGATION

INTO

METAPHORICAL

MEANINGS OF THE WORDS “EAT” AND “DRINK” IN ENGLISH
AND VIETNAMESE ....................................................................................... 12
2.1. Meanings of the words "Eat", "Drink" in English and the words "Ăn",
"Uống" in Vietnamese ...................................................................................... 12

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2.1.1. Meanings of the words “Eat” in English and “Ăn” in Vietnamese ................ 12
2.1.2. Meanings of the word “Drink” in English and “Uống” in Vietnamese .......... 13
2.2. Comparision of the metaphorical meanings of the word “Eat” in English
and the word “Ăn” in Vietnamese .................................................................... 14
2.2.1. Metaphorical Meanings of the word “Eat” in English .................................... 14
2.2.2. Metaphorical meanings of the word “ĂN” in Vietnamese ............................. 18
2.2.3. Similarities of the metaphorical meanings of the word “Eat” in English
and the word “Ăn” in Vietnamese .................................................................... 25
2.2.4. Differences of the metaphorical meanings of the word “Eat” in English
and the word “Ăn” in Vietnamese .................................................................... 25
2.3. Comparison of the metaphorical meanings of the words “Drink” in
English and ‘Uống” in Vietnamese. ................................................................. 26
2.3.1 The metaphorical meanings of the word “Drink” in English ......................... 26
2.3.2. The metaphorical meanings of the word “Uống” in Vietnamese ................... 27
2.3.3. Similarities of metaphorical meanings of the word “DRINK” in
English and the word “UỐNG” in Vietnamese ................................................ 29
2.3.4. Differences of metaphorical meanings of the word “DRINK” in
English and the word “UỐNG” in Vietnamese. ............................................... 29
CHAPTER 3: SOME SUGGESTED EXERCISES FOR TEACHING AND
LEARNING METAPHORICAL MEANINGS OF THE WORDS
“EAT” AND “DRINK” IN ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS ................................. 30

3.1. Suggested exercises ............................................................................................ 31
3.2. Suggested Activity: ............................................................................................ 33
CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS ............................................ 34
4.1. Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 34
4.2. Implications for teaching and learning concerning the use of
metaphorical expressions .................................................................................. 34
4.3. Limitations of the study ..................................................................................... 35
4.4. Suggestion for Further Studies ........................................................................... 35
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 36

iv


LIST OF TABLES
1.3. Types of Collocation
2.1. Meanings of the word “eat”
2.2. Meanings of the word “drink
2.3. Summary of the metaphorical meanings of the word “eat” in English

and

Vietnamese
2.4. Summary of the metaphorical meanings of the word “drink” in English and
Vietnamese

v


PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Reasons for Choosing the Study

Nowadays, English is the most widely used in the world and plays an
important role together with the development of society and technology. English is
not only the effective means of communication but also show its progressive effects
in many aspects of life.
Practically, studying on the similarities and differences between the two
English and Vietnamese languages and cultures has been one of my concerns when
studying English at university. It is clear that there are many differences between
the two languages as those in grammar, lexicology, translation, phonetic and so on.
However there still exists plenty of similarities and differences between English and
Vietnamese that can be demonstrated through metaphorical meaning especially
metaphor in literature and idiomatic expressions, and in daily communication as well.
Although the study of metaphor has been traditionally associated with the
study of literature, the use of metaphor is not restricted to this kinds of language.
Metaphors reflect distinctive features of each language, so they can be the bridge
linking the soul of different nations. Thus, it should open doors to friendly
atmosphere on the part of both native and non-native speakers, which leads to
global mutual understanding in cultures, customs, traditions and behaviors as well –
the key factor to avoid culture shocks during international communication.
The author thinks that it is very interesting to study the metaphoric meanings
of the expressions related to eating and drinking in English and Vietnamese. This
study not only helps the researchers to master more about the meanings of the
words related to eating and drinking but also helps us to learn more about culture of
English and Vietnamese people.

1


For the above mentioned reasons, the author has made a decision to carry out a
study entitled “An investigation into metaphorical meanings of the words ‘eat’
and ‘drink’ in English and Vietnamese”.

Hopefully, the result of this study may give us a new look at the
metaphorical meanings of the expressions related to eating and drinking.
2. Aims and objectives of the Study
The study aims at helping the language users understand some metaphorical
meanings of the expressions related to “eat” and “drink” and learn some similarities
and differences in the way these words are used.
To meet the aims, the study has the following specific objectives:
- To describe the concept of metaphor
- To analyze metaphorical meanings of the words “eat”, “drink”, “ăn”, “uống”
in the expressions in English and Vietnamese.
- To find out the similarities and differences in the use of the verb "eat",
"drink", "ăn", "uống".
- To suggest some ideas for teaching, learning and translating metaphorical
meanings in expressions.
3. Scope of the Study
Within the scope of a graduation thesis, it is out of question to cover all
expressions related to eating and drinking in English and Vietnamese. The
investigation will focus on metaphorical meanings in the expressions related to
“EAT”, “DRINK” in English and “ĂN”, “UỐNG” in Vietnamese. The expressions
under investigation are collected from dictionaries, short stories and newspapers of
English and Vietnamese. Some of semantic features in the thesis are based on “The
study on metaphoric meaning of words related to food in English and Vietnamese”
of Hoang, N. T. K. M.A (2011)
4. Method of the Study
To carry out this research, some methods have been combined. First and
foremost, a review of existing study results on metaphors is necessary to provide a

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better understanding of the topic. Collecting data and gathering sources is done
through selecting and reading English and Vietnamese expressions related to eating
and drinking. After that, data are categorized and metaphors are analyzed with an
attempt to provide a better understanding of the aspect.
5. Design of the Study
The study is divided into three main parts. Part I “INTRODUCTION”
consists of the author’s reasons for choosing the study, aims, scope, methods, and
design of the study.
Part II entitled “DEVELOPMENT” includes three chapters. Chapter 1,
“Theoretical Background”, provides some background knowledge about
metaphor, source domain and target domain, characteristics of metaphor and
classifications of metaphor. Chapter 2 is entitled “An investigation into
metaphorical meanings of the words ‘eat’ and ‘drink’

in English and

Vietnamese”. In chapter 2, the author mentions about some metaphorical meanings
of the words “eat”, “drink”, “ăn”, “uống” in expressions and words related to eating
and drinking in English and Vietnamese. Chapter 3 entitled “Some Suggested
Exercises for Teaching and Learning metaphorical meanings of the words
“eat” and “drink” in English” presents some suggested activities and exercises to
give learners chances to practice using these metaphorical meanings.
In part III “CONCLUSION”, the author summarizes the main points in the
study and suggests some topics for further studies.
The study ends with the “REFERENCES” which lists all the materials and
sources of information used in this study.

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PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
In the first chapter of this study, the author would like to briefly present some
general knowledge about metaphor, source domain and target domain, characteristic
features and classification of metaphor.

1.1.The concept of metaphors
When we refer to the study of metaphor, there have been many different
approaches in the western countries. Aristotelian approach studies metaphor as a
transference of names; the traditional linguistic approach studies metaphor as a
deviant phenomenon in language which produces either a false statement or an
ungrammatical sentence; the pragmatic approach takes metaphor as a special speech
act and metaphorical understanding as the interplay between knowledge of the
language system, knowledge of the context, and background schematic knowledge
about the world and the society.
In the traditional way, we always regard metaphor as a figure of speech, in
which one thing is compared to another by saying that one is another. For example,
She is a cat, “she” in the sentence is the target, which is the described element
while “cat” is called source, which is the describing element.
The interactionist approach begins to recognize the cognitive value of
metaphor, thus paving the way for the emergence of the cognitive theory. The
cognitive view of metaphor can provide new insights into how certain linguistic
phenomena work. It can also shed new light on how metaphorical meaning
emerges. The work which marks the establishment of the cognitive approach to
metaphor is Lakoff ＆Johnson’s Metaphor We Live By (1980): "metaphor means
metaphorical concept". The definition then is explained in the way: "Metaphor
refers to understanding one conceptual domain in terms of another conceptual
domain". It claims that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language

4

but in thought and action and our ordinary conceptual system in terms of the fact
that what we both think and act is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. We often
talk about life in terms of journey, about time in terms of money, about love also in
terms of journey and many others. The reason why concept A can be understood in
terms of concept B is that there is a set of systematic correspondences between the
source and target domain, in the sense that constituent conceptual elements of B
correspond to those of A.
Another viewpoint on metaphor belongs to Dinh, T.L. According to him,
“metaphor is the transference of meaning from one object to another based on
similarity between these two objects.” (1995:194). This viewpoint is supported by
Do, H.C as he defins metaphor as “the symbolic name of one object, which is based
on the similarity, realistic or imaginary, between the identified object called “A”
and the object called “B” of which the name is transferred to “A” (1996:87).
Although these two authors expressed their ideas in different ways, both of them see
the transference of meaning from A to B and their similarity of these two objects.
It might be noteworthy to mention also the definition of metaphor from
dictionaries for better clarity and neatness. In Oxford Student’s dictionary of
English (2001:140), “metaphor is a word or phrase that is used in an imaginative
way to show that somebody/ something has the same qualities as another thing.”
Despite apparent differences in expressing, all of these aforementioned
definitions intersect at one point, which is that metaphor always is the transference
of name based on the association of similarity.

1.2. The concept of word
1.2.1. The definition of word
According to Wikipedia, in language, a word is the smallest element that may
be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content (with literal or practical
meaning). This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning

but will not necessarily stand on its own. A word may consist of a single morpheme
(for example: oh!, rock, red, quick, run, expect), or several (rocks, redness, quickly,

5


running, unexpected), whereas a morpheme may not be able to stand on its own as a
word (in the words just mentioned, these are -s, -ness, -ly, -ing, un-, -ed).
A complex word will typically include a root and one or more affixes (rock-s,
red-ness, quick-ly, run-ning, un-expect-ed), or more than one root in a compound
(black-board, rat-race). Words can be put together to build larger elements of
language, such as phrases (a red rock), clauses (I threw a rock), and sentences (He
threw a rock too but he missed).
The term word may refer to a spoken word or to a written word, or sometimes
to the abstract concept behind either. Spoken words are made up of units of sound
called phonemes, and written words of symbols called graphemes, such as the
letters of the English alphabet.
1.2.2. Word meaning
It is said that “Language without meaning is meaningless” to emphasize the
importance of the meaning of language.
Words can be divided into two types: function words and content words.
Function words belong to the closed system which consist of articles,
preposition, conjunctions, interjections. Content words belong to the opened system
which consists of parts of speech such as nouns, verb, adjective.
The meaning of function words and content words, therefore, are classified
into grammatical meaning and lexical meaning.
In the scope of the study, the thesis only introduce about the lexical meaning.
Lexical meaning can be perceived through the understanding of content words.
According to Richarchs, I.C Platt, J and H (1992:81);
“Content words are words which refer to thing, quality, sate or action and

which have meaning (lexical meaning) when the words are used alone”.
Or according to Hoang Tat Truong: “Lexical meaning is the realization of
concept or emotion. When we hear or see the word ‘table’, for example, our concept
is realized and the picture or image of a ‘table’ occurs to our mind. Therefore, this
realization called lexical meaning”.

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1.2.3. Denotative and Connotative meaning
There arre two types of semantic components of the word, they are denotative
and connotative.
According to Catchword glossary, denotative component or denotation is the
intrinsic, literal sense of a word, excluding its overtones and shades of
meaning while connotative component or connotation is a word’s extrinsic,
figurative sense, which includes its overtones and shades of meaning.
Denotation is when you mean what you say, literally. Connotation is created
when you mean something else, something that might be initially hidden. The
connotative meaning of a word is based on implication, or shared emotional
association with a word. "Greasy" is a completely innocent word: Some things, like
car engines, need to be greasy. But "greasy" contains negative associations for
most people, whether they are talking about food or about people. Often there are
many words that denote approximately the same thing, but their connotations are
very different. "Innocent" and "genuine" both denote an absence of corruption, but
the connotations of the two words are different: "innocent" is often associated with
a lack of experience, whereas "genuine" is not.
Connotations are important in poetry because poets use them to further
develop or complicate a poem's meaning. "You may live in a house, but we live in a
home". If you were to look up the words "house" and "home" in a dictionary, you
would find that both words have approximately the same meaning- "a dwelling

place.". However, the speaker in the sentence above suggests that home has an
additional meaning. Aside from the strict dictionary definition, or denotation, many
people associate such things as comfort, love, security, or privacy with a home but
do not necessarily make the same associations with a house. What is the first thing
that comes to your mind when you think of a home? of a house? Why do you think
that real-estate advertisers use the word home more frequently than house? The
various feelings, images, and memories that surround a word make up its

7


connotation. Although both "house" and "home" have the same denotation, or
dictionary meaning, "home" also has many connotations.

1.3. Collocation
1.3.1. Definition of Collocation
Collocation constitues a very importance and complicated part in English.
Particularly interesting are the subtle and not-easily-explainable patterns of word
usage that native speakers all know: why we say "a stiff breeze" not "a stiff wind"
(while etheir "a strong breeze" and "a strong wind" is okay), or why we speak of
"broad daylight" not "bright daylight" or narrow darkness. (Christopher Manning
& Hinrich Schutze, 1999). The reason is collocation. It is not easy to find the easiest
-to- understand definition of collocation because how to define it still differs from
authors to authors.
A collocation is an expression consisting of two or more words that
correspond to some conventional way of saying somethings. Or in the word if Firth
(1957: 181): "Collocation of a given word are statements of habitual or customary
places of that word".
A collocation can be defined as the retrictions on how words can be used
together, for example, which preposition and verb are used together, or which nouns

appear with particular verbs (Richard, Platt and Platt, 1992). As Sinclair (1991)
points out, it is obvious that word do not appear at random in text, and people could
not produce natural sentences simply by operating on the principle of grammar.
Rather, words seem to be selected in pairs or groups in language users are
considered to have available to them "a large of semi-preconstructed phrases that
constitue single choices (Sinclair, 1991, cited in Kasuya, 2008).
Another definition is :"Collocation is the way words combine in language to
produce natural sounding speech and writing". (Margaret et al., 2002).
According to C. Fernando in "Idioms and Idiomacity" (1996), there is the shortest
way to define collocation: "Collocation is defined the company words keep".
From the view point of H. Jackson in "Grammar and Vocabulary" (2002),
"collocation is a lexical relationship of mutual expectancy, the presence of
particular lexical item give rise to the greatest chance to likelihood that other lexical

8


items belonging to the same area of meaning will also occur". This definition focus
on the lexical aspect of collocation.
From the corpus linguistics perpective, collocation is defined as "a sequence of
words or term which co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. They
form syntactic and semantic unit whose meaning can not be derived
compositionally" (Wikipedia, 2010).
According to the reseachers, collocations are groups of words going together
in typical cases.
In conclusion, though there are many different definition of collocation, all of
them share a common feature that collocations are collections of word that "fit
together", or in a figurative way, collocation is said "to be a marriage contract
between words, and some words are more firmly married to each other than others".
(Mc Carthy).

1.3.2. Types of Collocation
According to Oxford Collocations Dictionay for students of English, in
general, collocations canbe divided into 10 types as following.
Table 1.3. Types of Collocation
Types

Example

Adj + Noun

Beautiful girl

Quantifier + Noun

Little sugar

Verb + Noun

Have a look

Noun + Noun

A bar of chocolate

Prep + Noun

In astonishment

Verb + Prep

Look for

Verb + Adverb

Get well

Adverb + Adj

Extremely beautiful

Adj + Prep

Good at

(Oxford Collocations Dictionay for students of English, 2002)

9


1.4. Transfernce of word meaning
The transfer of words meanings implies that the words indicating the objective
things have changed in meanings, that is to say, the meaning has changed from one
to another.
Accordingly, we can see that the original meanings and the present meanings
cannot coexist in the transfer of words meanings. Once the new indication is
recognized and used by the general public, the original one will disappear. But there
are some relationships between them, maybe related or similar. The transfer is the
result of the change in sememe. The reason is complicated to explain but what we
know is that the contradictions between the two meanings developed constantly and
lead to the transfer finally.

In specific, there are many types of transfer in words meanings. The first one is
the ordinary transfer from meaning A to meaning B. For example, Vietnamese
people call “lưỡi” to show a part of human body. However, “lưỡi” in the compound
word “lưỡi dao” is transferred to head of a knife. Another kind of transfer is to
change from the specific things to describe the nature, forming the abstract
meaning. It is the result of the development in people’s thinking ways.
The transfer of word meanings is related to the polysemy of the words.
Therefore, for the words having several meanings, we can analyze from the aspect
of semantic change as well as the ambiguity. Due to the long process of words
evolution, the new meanings are losing the relationship with the original ones,
forming the differentiation of words meanings.
Metaphorical meaning is also one case of tranference of word meaning in
language.
1.5. Concepts of Food
1.5.1. Definition of Food
According to Wikipedia, Food is any substance consumed to provide
nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains
essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The

10


substance is ingested by an organism and assimilated by the organism's cells in an
effort to produce energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth.
As in dictionary, “food” has five meanings as following:
Firstly, food is any nourishing substance that is eaten, drunk, or otherwise
taken into the body to sustain life, provide energy, promote growth. Secondly, food
is more or less solid nourishment, as distinguished from liquids. Thirdly, food is a
particular kind of solid nourishment. Forthly, food is whatever supplies nourishment
to organisms. The last, is anything serving for consumption or use.

1.5.2. Words Denoting Activities Related to Food: Eat and Drink
The words that denote “eating” in English are :
+ eat, have, swallow, finish,… (these words all mean to put food into your
stomach through your mouth) + dine, lunch, feast, snack, breakfast (these words
mean to eat food at meal). Those in Vietnamese are : ăn, dùng, xơi, nuốt
The words that denote “drinking” in English are: drink, sip, suck, drain, booze,
swig … Those in Vietnamese are: uống, ngậm, hớp, xơi, nhấp, húp, nhâm, uống
cạn...
In this study, the author just focuses on the verbs: “eat”, “drink” in English
and “ăn”, “uống” in Vietnamese.

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CHAPTER 2: AN INVESTIGATION INTO
METAPHORICAL MEANINGS OF THE WORDS “EAT”
AND “DRINK” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

2.1. Meanings of the words "Eat", "Drink" in English and the words
"Ăn", "Uống" in Vietnamese
2.1.1. Meanings of the words “Eat” in English and “Ăn” in Vietnamese
The word “eat” means “ăn” in Vietnamese. However, in some expressions,
meanings of the word “eat” are transfered to other meanings in Vietnamese
equivalents.
We can see the meanings of the word “eat” present in English and in
Vietnamese in the below table.
Table 2.1. Meanings of the word “eat”
Meaning of “eat” in English

Meaning of “eat” in Vietnamese

1. to put food into the mouth, chew and

1. Đưa thức ăn vào miệng, nhai và

swallow it

nuốt

2. to have a meal

2. ăn một bữa ăn

3. to attend a feast on an occasion

3. ăn tiệc, ăn mừng

4. to feel very unhappy

4. cảm thấy đau khổ, buồn bã
5. có khả năng chinh phục hay lợi

5. to be able to dominate or exploit sb

dụng ai đó

6. To be willing to be controlled or guided

6. quy phục và phục tùng đối với ai

by sb

đó

7. to reduce or destroy sth gradually, to

7. ăn dần, ăn mòn

erode sth
8. to penetrate and destroy sth gradually; to

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8. hao mòn, phá hủy, phân hủy


dissolve or corrode
9. to use up or waste a part of the availabe

9. tiêu phí một phần thời gian, tiền

money, time…

bạc

10. to dominate sb’s thoughts

10. ám ảnh, lo âu

11. to consume energy; to use sth in large

11. tiêu tốn năng lượng; dùng hết số

quantities

lượng lớn

12. to cause to worry; make anxious

12. làm phiền, gây lo lắng

13. to win

13. chiến thắng

14. to correspond

14. ăn khớp

15. to absorb

15. hấp thu

16. to believe without question

16. tin tưởng

17. To defeat thoroughly

17. thất bại

18. tạo ra 1 lối đi bằng cách gặm

18. to make a way by gnawing

mòn

19. to be forced to accept a humiliating

19. nhẫn nhục

defeat

2.1.2. Meanings of the word “Drink” in English and “Uống” in Vietnamese
To be similar to the word “eat”, there are a lot of lexical meanings of the
word “drink”. It is also transfered to different meanings in Vietnames. We can see
in the table 2.2.

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Table 2.2. Meanings of the word “drink”
Meaning of “drink” in English

Meaning of “drink” in Vietnamese

1- to take liquid into the mouth and
swallow

1. uống

2. to consume alcohol

2. uống rượu

3. to toast (a person or an occasion)

3. nâng cốc chúc mừng

4. to watch or listen to sth with great
pleasure or interest
5. to take in or soak up; absorb

4. nhìn hoặc nghe say sưa
5. hấp thu, ngấm

6. to take in eagerly through the senses or
intellect

6. cảm thấy hào hứng, háo hức

7. to put oneself into a particluar state by 7. đưa bản thân đến một trạng thái
drinking alcoholic liquors

nào đó do uống rượu

8. To imbibe alcoholic liquors

8. uống rượu xã giao (ngậm, hít)

9. to inhale

9. hít vào

2.2. Comparision of the metaphorical meanings of the word “Eat” in
English and the word “Ăn” in Vietnamese
2.2.1. Metaphorical Meanings of the word “Eat” in English

2.2.1.1. Celebrating and attending the feast:
One metaphorical meaning of the word “eat” is celebrating and attending the
feast when “eat” goes with “a feast”, “eat Christmas”.
Eg: On New Year Eve’s, families gather to eat a large feast and reflect on the
past year
2.2.1.2. Bothering, worrying or annoying
In other aspect, “eat” connotes bothering, worrying and annoying. In this
semantic feature, the word “eat” often goes with you, father, life…

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Eg: what's eating you?
2.2.1.3. Suffering unhappiness
The word “eat” in the collocation “eat one’s heart out” is transferred to
feeling very unhappy, especially because one wants somebody or something but he
cannot have.
Eg: Since he left, she has been sitting at home eating her heart out
2.2.1.4. To take advantage of
An other metaphorical meaning of the word “eat” is to be able to dominate or
exploit somebody when “eat” appeared in the idiom “eat sb alive”
Eg: That woman will eat him
2.2.1.5. Obeying

When we want to talk about someone who has controllability or power, we
often use the verb “eat” in the collocation “eat out of one’s hand”.
Eg: She soon had the class eating out of her hand
2.2.1.6. Pocessing
The word “eat” express the pocessing in the following expression: eat +
ATM card, salary…
Eg: The ATM will keep or eat your card after putting in your Personal
Identification Number (PIN) pin incorrectly after three times.
2.2.1.7. Consuming goods
In this field, people borrow the process of eating act to denote consuming
goods when “eat” collocates with goods or a kind of goods. We look at the
example:
Eg Nowadays people eat a lot of junk food and do not think about the
consequences this food has upon the heart.
2.2.1.8. Destroying and corroding
“Eat” is in cases used to mention that something is destroyed or corroded by
the impact of something. This feature we have the collocation “eat into something”
Eg: Acid rain eats into the stone walls.

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2.2.1.9. Consuming energy
In the collocation “eat petrol/gas/oil/ fuel up”, the word “eat” is used with the
metaphorical meaning of consuming energy.
Eg: It's true that driving fast eats up your fuel, and for every five miles that
you drive over 60mph, you reduce your fuel economy by 10%
2.2.1.10. Repenting or apologizing
To say someone is very sorry for a mistake that he has made, people sometime
use the word “eat” in the expression “eat humble pie”.

Eg: When he realizes that I am telling the truth, he will have to eat humble pie.
2.2.1.11. Disbelieving
The expression “I’ll eat my hat” is used by somebody who believes that
something is extremely unlikely to happen. This is another metaphoric meaning of
the verb “eat”.
Eg: If this car gives you any trouble, I'll eat my hat
2.2.1.12. Believing without question
Another metaphorical meaning of the word “eat” is believing when “eat”
goes with “up” in the phrasal verb “eat up”.
Eg: He'll eat up whatever the broker tells him.
2.2.1.13. Reducing or Eroding
In this field, the meaning of the word “eat” in the collocation “eat something
away/ eat away at something” is transferred another meaning of reducing and
destroying something gradually.
Eg: The river is eating away at the bank
2.2.1.14. Retracting words
In addition to this, one more metaphorical meaning of the word “eat” is used to
express retracting words. It means admitting that what you said was wrong. To have this
metaphorical meaning feature, the word “eat” collocates with the noun “words”.

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Eg: Tom said Nancy would never succeed in her business, but after seeing her
business grow, he had to eat his words.
2.2.1.14. Being humility
The meaning of the word “eat” is transferred to another one. The idiom
“eating

crow” is a U.S. colloquial idiom, meaning humiliation by admitting

wrongness or having been proved wrong after taking a strong position.
Eg: I was forced to eat crow and had to apologize for the mistake that I made
about the restructuring of our company.
2.2.1.15. Winning
The word “eat” connotes winning in this case. In terms of this feature, the
word “eat” is followed by a sport team, a person (a competitor)
Eg: If Besiktas come back from this, I’ll eat Europe. That’s promise.
2.2.1.16. Costing money or time
When the word “eat” in the phrasal verb “eat into something” goes with the
money or specific number of money, budget, time…, it expresses the meaning of
costing money or time or using up a part of the availble money, time.
Eg: Paying for the new carpet has eaten into my saving 450$
2.2.1.17. Occupying
“Eat” can also be used to show the meaning of using something in large
quantities in the expression “eat something up”.
Eg: The project is eating up a third of the organization’s entire research budget.
2.2.1.18. Dominating
People also use the word “eat” with the phrase “eat somebody up” to denote a
feeling to dominate someone’s thoughts so that his attitude to life is affected.
Eg: Jealously was eating him up
2.2.1.19. Doing Corruption
And the word “eat” in this is used to express the meaning of acting humble,
accept another’s insult or bad treatment. In this case, the word “eat” collocates with
money, dirt or some other nouns denoting material value.

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Eg: We made him eat dirt after he accused us of lying about the salary cut

2.2.2. Metaphorical meanings of the word “ĂN” in Vietnamese
2.2.2.1. Currency exchange
One of metaphorical meaning of the word “ăn” in Vietnamese is currency
exchange when the exchange rate between one currency and another currency is in
equlibrium.
Eg: Một đô la Mỹ ăn 21.000 đồng Việt Nam
2.2.2.2. Receiving goods:
The word “ăn” can be used with the connotative meaning of receiving goods.
We can see the example:
Eg: Tàu vào cảng để nhận 45 ngàn tấn gỗ băm dăm của Công ty VIJACHIP
VUNGANG, đóng tại Khu kinh tế Vũng Áng. Dự kiến tàu sẽ “ăn hàng” tại cảng
Vũng Áng từ ngày 11/12 đến ngày 21/12
2.2.2.3. Attracting
Another metaphorical meaning of this verb is attracting when “ăn” goes with
the word “khách”.
Eg: “Transformers 3” là bộ phim ăn khách nhất trong hè 2011.
2.2.2.4. Consuming energy
People often use the word “ăn” to denote excessive state of consuming
gasoline of car or motor. With this meaning feature, the word ăn + xăng, dầu, gas…
Eg: Loại xe này rất ăn xăng
Thợ đang cho máy ăn dầu mỡ
2.2.2.5. Doing corruption
The verb “ăn” is used when a person (especially an offical) receives money or
other material values illegally from the others to help them to get some purposes.
We often see this meaning in the phrases: ăn hối lộ, ăn tiền
Eg: Ba quan chức Trung Quốc vừa bị trừng phạt do ăn hối lộ và tắc trách làm
509 người dân thuộc thành phố Liuyang, tỉnh Hồ Nam nhiễm độc kim loại nặng.
2.2.2.6. Suffering punishment

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