A STUDY OF LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF PROVERBS DENOTING FRIENDSHIP IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

Abstract

Proverbs are part of the oral tradition of a cultural group. Although they share some common ground, English proverbs and Vietnamese proverbs differ greatly due to cultural differences. This thesis is to study the syntactic and semantic features of English and Vietnamese proverbs denoting friendship. In the thesis, 100 English proverb samples and 100 Vietnamese proverb samples denoting friendship are investigated. Both qualitative and quantitative research instruments is used and 200 proverbs in two languages together with numerous of examples from various linguistics books, dictionaries, short stories and from the internet are taken into consideration and full study. The findings show that proverbs denoting friendship have remarkable syntactic and semantic features and there are interesting similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese in some features. This thesis also deals with the implications for teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam for teachers and students of English as well as for further study