A STUDY OF IDIOMS RELATED TO RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY (ENGLISH VERSUS VIETNAMESE)

Abstract

Idioms in general and idioms related to religion and spirituality in particular are of language and culture-specific nature and differ from culture to culture. In this thesis, the researcher investigates the similarities and differences of idioms related to religion and spirituality in English and Vietnamese, in terms of syntactic, semantic and cultural features. Syntactically, English and Vietnamese idioms related to Religion and Spirituality are analyzed under phrasal structures. Semantically, the figurative meanings of English and Vietnamese idioms related to Religion and Spirituality in both languages are sorted into smaller fields such as powerful characters, objects of human’s faith, gratitude, human’s appearance, human’s personalities, human’s manners, human’s feelings, philosophies and teachings in Christianity and Buddhism and so on. In the field of culture, similarities and differences of RSIs in English and Vietnamese are revealed in consideration of the cultural features such as religious symbols, symbolic animals, symbolic plants, human body parts, historical facts and spirituality. The thesis also suggests some implications for teaching and learning idioms in general, and for translating idioms related to religion and spirituality from English into Vietnamese and vice versa in particular. Hopefully, results of the study will provide Vietnamese learners of English with the majesty of how to use idioms related to religion and spirituality in English and Vietnamese in correct and flexible and ways.