HA NOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2
FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY
= = == = =

VU THI HANH

COMMON ENGLISH BUSINESS IDIOMS AND WAYS TO
TRANSLATE THEM INTO VIETNAMESE

(THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH THÔNG DỤNG TRONG
KINH DOANH VÀ CÁCH DỊCH RA TIẾNG VIỆT)
Field: English Linguistics

XUAN HOA, 2018


HA NOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2
FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY
= = == = =

VU THI HANH

COMMON ENGLISH BUSINESS IDIOMS AND WAYS TO
TRANSLATE THEM INTO VIETNAMESE

(THÀNH NGỮ TIẾNG ANH THÔNG DỤNG TRONG
KINH DOANH VÀ CÁCH DỊCH RA TIẾNG VIỆT)
Field: English Linguistics
Supervisor: Do Tien Duc

XUAN HOA, 2018

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Mr. Do Tien Duc for his
continuous support during my study, for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm and
immense knowledge in four years at my college. He had instructed me through all
obstacles and adversities when I got lost and stuck in creating ideas for this study. I
appreciate all his efforts and time to read and comment on my research so I can improve
my work. I wish to thank him for all contribution and encouragement, so I had a deep
insight of doing research. I feel fortunate to have chances to learn great lessons from his
hard work and practical experiences. I know that I would never accomplish this thesis
without his help.
Beside my supervisor, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for Mr. Reeg who
has patiently explained, given me so much knowledge and understanding in business as
well as English linguistics. Sometimes, he did not agree with my perception but
continuously provide me insight and awareness that greatly assisted my research.
I would like to express my deep love and appreciation to my parents, bothers who always
encouraged me with unconditional love, unflinching sacrifice and spiritually support
through my hardship.
Finally, I am thankful to all my classmates for their kindness and support.

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify that the graduation paper entitled:
Common English business idioms and ways to translate them into Vietnamese
(Thành ngữ tiếng Anh thông dụng trong kinh doanh và cách dịch sang tiếng Việt)

has not been copied from any other person’s work without acknowledgments and that
the study is originally done by myself under my supervisor’s instructions.
Date submitted: May 2018

Student

Vu Thi Hanh

Supervisor

Do Tien Duc

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ABSTRACT
English business idioms have become prevalent these days. They are not only holding
cultural identities but also narrow the gap in the international communication of business
affairs. As can be seen, understanding and translating business idioms from English to
Vietnamese are necessary for the promotion of international cooperation. The study
would like to point out some challenges in business idiom translation before it comes up
with some techniques and strategies. Among numerous translation methods and
techniques, there are only some of them which can be applicable and useful to transfer
the meaning of business idiom from English to Vietnamese efficiently. As a result, the
thesis author adopted description and analysis research methods to investigate some
common English business idioms. Then, the thesis author applies some strategies and
communicative translation as a constructive and practical method to render them into
Vietnamese.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1
1. Rationale ............................................................................................................. 1
2. Aims of the study................................................................................................ 3
3. Scope of the study .............................................................................................. 3
4. Methods of the study .......................................................................................... 4
5. Design of the study ............................................................................................. 4
DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................................... 6
CHAPTER 1: THEORIES OF IDIOMS AND BUSINESS IDIOMS IN ENGLISH
1.1. Historical studies ............................................................................................. 6
1. 2 Definition of idioms ........................................................................................ 7
1.3 Characteristics of Idioms .................................................................................. 10
1.3.1. Semantic features.......................................................................................... 10
1.3.2. Syntactic features.......................................................................................... 12
1.3.3. Classifications of idioms .............................................................................. 15
1.4. Business idioms in English .............................................................................. 19
1.4.1 What are business idioms? ............................................................................ 19
1.4.2. Features of business idioms .......................................................................... 25
1.4.3. Classifications of business idioms ................................................................ 26
CHAPTER 2: GENERALIZATION ABOUT TRANSLATION METHODS
AND ENGLISH BUSINESS IDIOM TRANSLATION ....................................... 33
2.1. Definition of translation .................................................................................. 33
2.2. Translation process ......................................................................................... 36
2.3. Equivalence in translation ............................................................................... 39
2.4. Methods of translation ..................................................................................... 41
2.4.1. Some approaches to translation .................................................................... 41
2.4.2. Translation methods ..................................................................................... 43

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2.4.3. Communicative translation ........................................................................... 46
2.4.3.1. What does communicative translation mean? ........................................... 46
2.4.3.2. Merits of the communicative translation ................................................... 47
2.4.3.3. Communicative and Semantic translation ................................................. 49
2.5. English business idioms translation................................................................. 51
2.5.1. Nature of English business idioms translation ............................................. 51
2.5.2. Challenges in translating English business idioms....................................... 52
2.5.3. Satisfactory requirements of the translation of English business idioms and
some methods for translating them into Vietnamese ............................................. 56
2.5.3.1. Requirements for translating English business idioms.............................. 56
2.5.3.2. Suggested methods for translating English business idioms into
Vietnamese ............................................................................................................. 59
CHAPTER 3: APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE TRANSLATION IN
TRANSLATING COMMON ENGLISH BUSINESS IDIOMS INTO VIETNAMESE
3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 62
3.2. Scope of the investigation ............................................................................... 63
3.3. Analysis of the translation of business idioms in some examples .................. 64
3.3.1. Analyzing the translation of business idioms at sentence- level .................. 65
3.3.2. Analyzing the translation of business idiom at context- level...................... 66
3. 4. Reasons for applying communicative translation in translating English
business idioms ....................................................................................................... 72
3.5. Application of communicative translation in translating some common
English business idiom into Vietnamese ................................................................ 74
3.5.1. Money-related English business idiom translation ...................................... 76
3.5.2. Sport-related English business idiom translation ......................................... 78
3.5.3. Color-related English business idiom translation ......................................... 81
3.5.4. Food-related English business idiom translation.......................................... 83

3.5.5. Number-related English business idiom translation ..................................... 84
3.5.6. Market- related English business idiom translation ..................................... 85
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3.6. Strategies in translating English business idioms............................................ 87
CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 94
1. Summary of the study ......................................................................................... 94
2. Suggestion for further studies ............................................................................. 95
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 96

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INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages
open every door along the way.”
(Frank Smith)
Smith’s statement has led us to the feeling that language is known as the indispensable
source and a great tool to open opportunities for human life. Notably, we are living in
the era of integration when people from different countries communicate with each
other. Therefore, knowing an international language can not only be used for studies
but also broaden opportunities in business.
English is shining as the first international language people choose to learn. It does
wonder for breaking boundaries between people, and it is easy acquiring. English
seems has the fewest complicated pronouns, grammatical rules, and distinctions
amongst genders in words. Therefore, learners can easily acquire this language.
Learning to use English freely and entirely, however, is a lengthy and effortful
process. Especially, English includes a variety of figurative expressions. In many

situations, idioms step in and become a stumbling block even for professional
translators. The reason for that phenomenon is that English idioms can hardly be
understood by gathering meanings of individual words. Moreover, idioms are
continually adding over time as well as the changes in culture. Every language learner,
if he wishes to develop the ability to translate English and to improve his language
competence, should be fully aware of idiomatic expressions always included in native
speakers’ speech.
The thesis author interests in that aspect came from some conversations with American
people in business. The conversation was pretty hard as two American people
continuously used idioms in their speech. At the beginning of a negotiation, an
American said: “Let’s put everything on the table.” The interpreter almost became
speechless until the American paraphrased “I mean discussing our ideas together.” In
addition to that, the conversation between them filled with various phrases such as
“win-win situation,” “opened the door,” “went through it,” “the cream of the crop.”
The researcher realized that American English phrases are frequently used in business
conversations. However, it was surprising when most of K40 English linguistic
students who major in translation did not have much knowledge about that field. It got
1


the researcher to wonder why native speakers use these expressions. Where do these
phrases come from? How could translator acquire these idioms and translate them into
Vietnamese? The thesis author will find out the answers to all these questions in this
thesis by investigating and searching information from different sources.
There have been some writers who have investigated numerous translation strategies
to cope with the complexity involved in the translation of idioms. According to Mona
Baker (1992), there are four most common strategies used to translate idioms while
Vinay and Darbelnet (1995) classify into seven methods by analyzing stylistic in both
French and English texts. To systematize this concept, they divided seven translation
strategies into two procedures with distinct categories: direct translation and oblique

translation. Nguyen Thi Kim Lan and a group of lectures (2011) in their studies of
common negotiation idioms have published one hundred eighteen translated English
business idioms into Vietnamese. They have also explained the origins and give
examples of these idioms.
On the one hand, there may be good reasons why learners of English might find
business idioms are a useful and essential contribution to grasp their linguistic
acquisition. First of all, this aspect of linguistic belongs to the new linguistic branch
which has recently appealed considerable attention to English researchers in particular
how learners remember and use in their contexts (Tran, 2013). Secondly, ambiguity
may easily be a lack of awareness of knowledge in idiom branch as well as their
usages. English idioms in business do not always make sense. As a result, learners
should familiarize themselves with the meanings of each one. It is not easy tasks,
especially for non-native speakers who wish to make good use of common idioms in
business and translate them as precisely as possible what speakers try to convey. If
English idioms in business can efficiently transfer, then the boundaries between
speakers will narrow down, which have positive impacts on many business
conversations.
On the other hand, Vietnam has been attracting numerous oversea companies and
organizations to come and invest. There are more and more foreigners using English as
means of communication at work. Hence; It is economically essential for Vietnamese
translators in general and students who major in English linguistics, in particular, to
understand and interpret some common business idioms in English into Vietnamese
equivalently at most.
2


Those reasons above are most important ones that have encouraged me to conduct the
study as an attempt to help students of English at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2 with
tackling some problems in transferring some common English idioms in business into
Vietnamese”. The thesis author ultimately wishes the readers to find something of

relevant and practical use to their study and work with this material.
2. Aims of the study
Base on the detailed classification of translation methods of Peter Newmark (1988)
Catford (1965) and other scholars, this study provides the brief theories about
translation as well as categories of translation methods into eight different types in
general. This paper also presents the definitions of idioms in general and then focuses
on some common English idioms used in business in which the research will providing
some features and classifications of this particular idioms.
Furthermore, this material aims to suggest some translation strategies that translators
use in transferring from English text to its Vietnamese translation. Many idioms may
pose enormous difficulties and problems because of the non-equivalences between the
two languages.
To achieve the aim of the study, the following research questions are raised:
- What are challenges in translating English business idioms?
- What are the possible strategies adopted in translation to tackle some problems in
translating English business idiom process?
- What are some suggested translation methods to translate English business idioms
into Vietnamese so that their meanings in original text are the most equivalent to those
translated?
3. Scope of the study
Within the scope of our study, the thesis author discusses only one type of idiom
namely business idioms in English. Hopefully, this field of study will provide learners
of English as a foreign language with some theoretical base and fundamental
background clarifying the different types of translations. Then, the thesis author has a
close look at communicative translation that can be used in transferring business
idioms.
Due to a shortage of reference materials as well as the limited time, the study is
somewhat restricted to a discussion of business idioms features and their usages
context. To make my thesis manageable, I will mainly focus on the study of some of
3



the most common English idioms used in business as well as the use of communicative
translation to translate them into Vietnamese.
The approach to the study of some common English idioms in business and applying
a communicative translation to transfer them into Vietnamese bases on the
communicative language learning. Therefore, thesis author attempted to accomplish
the work through a descriptive and comparative analysis with the expectation that it
will help English learners to their knowledge of business idioms and to avoid
misunderstandings in communication because of the vast differences between two
languages. As the study requires data collection, the thesis author has chosen example
of English business idioms from several newspapers, magazines, even from some
selected business movies.
4. Methods of the study
To achieve the aims of the study, the following methods have intended to be used:
➢ Study the materials and sources related to English business idioms and their
usages in communication.
➢ Applying descriptive and comparative analysis the ways of using these idioms
to convey business people’ ideas in negotiation.
5. Design of the study
Apart from the acknowledgments, the introduction, my study consists of the
following three chapters:
Chapter I directs some theoretical background leading to the study of some
common English idioms in business for translations in English. The chapter begins
discussion on English idioms in general and English idioms in business
particularly, where some familiar business idioms are taken into account. The study
will also categorize idioms into a different classifications based on various criteria.
The most appealing section of chapter I is the findings of business idioms, which is
the primary objective of the study. Before defining business idioms, the thesis
author attempts to have a close look at business discourse and how it distincts from

others. By doing that, it is determined that idioms used in business context is called
business idioms. Following this, business idioms are also investigated to set down
some specific features like social and stylistic. At the same time, the study
classifies business idioms into five main groups based on their lexicon.

4


Chapter II the research paper continues to present some fundamental theories in
translation, which are the foundation to build up various methods and strategies.
The thesis author acquires that translation is rendering equivalence in SL to TL as
long as the translation results convey the central message and meet other demands
from different angles. Besides understanding some equivalence, the study has
looked for the translation process. After going through translation conducting, the
thesis author took into account the communicative translation to examine and apply
in the next chapter. Furthermore, the study also makes every effort to understand
the nature as well as challenges in business idiom translation. As a result,
translators need to continually learn other culture and improve their language
competence in both languages. Together, requirements of satisfied translation and
practical methods are established to orient the research papers. The thesis author
has collected some feasible and useful ways to adopt in translating business idioms.
Chapter III is the core chapter of my study which is designed for more detailed
presentation of the meanings of some common English business idioms and how
these particular idioms are used in business journals, new and movies. From a brief
survey of understanding business idioms and ways to translate them, the thesis
author proceeds to describe them, analyze them and classify them according to
lexical features. Here, the research comes up with the idea of using communicative
translation in transferring business idioms in English toward Vietnamese.

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DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1
THEORIES OF IDIOMS AND BUSINESS IDIOMS IN ENGLISH
1.1. Historical studies
The first section in the theoretical background will line down some previous findings
in English business idioms and ways to translate them into Vietnamese. After
collecting preliminary data in this field, the thesis author would like to divide the
materials into two main groups (one comes from Vietnamese experts, and another
arises from international scholars).
There are several materials and research in English business idioms, but it is difficult
to find some reliable papers in this field. Kathy (2000) is the author of the book
“TOEIC Business idioms from Silicon Valley.” In her study, she has collected and
categorized 100 business idioms into nine chapters based on functions of
conversations and stories including negotiations, meetings, challenges, sales and
marketing, communication problems, a new accountant, start-up, a bad- decision, and
the speech. The scope of the book focuses on English business adopted in high- tech
business professionals. Besides providing the context, her book also gives learners
numerous exercises and quizzes to acquire meanings of business idioms efficiently.
Even though her studies have contributed significantly to the understanding of English
business idioms, her scope is narrowed down in high tech. As a result, it will not be
enough for business communication when it comes to some business idioms in the
stock market.
Together with Kathy, Bruce (2013) also publishes another book named “Business
idioms in America.” One of appealing factors of this book is that the writer presents
business idioms by telling the day- in- the life of Joan Auten. By proposing twenty
lessons, the author narrates Joan’s challenges which are comprised of over 2000
business idioms and phrases. The book has recommended many practical businesses
spoken in real-world business offices. Moreover, it suggests some context usages for

learners and translators. However, these situation functions in the book are not
classified apparently so that they will cause tremendous obstacles for learners and
translators to remember and used these business idioms.
In addition to that, Stecova (2016) submits her studies on English business idioms. In
her research, she has pointed out some origins of business idiom and given their
6


semantic meanings. Her classifications in business idioms are four groups which are
derived from lexical aspects. Therefore, readers have no problems to acquire these new
findings she suggested. Nevertheless, other scholars still found out some missing
pieces in her general picture. Besides lacking a fundamental background in business
idioms, the research only analyzes English business idioms in sentences from some
economic books. Therefore there are many features of English business idioms are not
covered in this field.
Similarly, there are some previous studies which concern about English business
idioms in Vietnam. One of recent research is “118 common negotiation idioms”
conducted by Nguyen (2011) and a group of teachers. In her investigation, she has not
only proposed over a hundred popular negotiation idioms in business but also
presented their usages as well as origins. Furthermore, she delivers other expressions
which are conveyed the same meanings in each idiom analysis. Despite these
contributions to translation business idioms from English to Vietnamese, her study still
limits in sentences. In other words, she gave the business idioms translation out of
context. As a result, the meaning of some business idioms will be changed their
meanings in another context.
Therefore, this thesis will attempt to give some descriptions in English business idioms
(how they are recognized, what their characteristics and how they can be classified
into different groups). Later on, the thesis author will present some challenges in
translating English business idioms. Before suggesting some strategies to deal with
these issues, the study will offer some business idiom translation and how they are

analyzed in different levels.
1. 2 Definition of idioms
According to some dictionaries, idioms are defined in various ways. The following are
four examples of definitions.
The group of professional dictionary editors and writers in Merriam- Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary defines idioms as “the language peculiar to people or
community with specific syntactic pattern and grammar so that the meanings of each
idiom cannot be derived from literal transferring each component.”. The reason for
that is the style of the idioms is artistic and flexible for each one. The interpretation of
idioms is crucial because different types of idiom are used in different fields in our
society. Oxford dictionary offers the same definition that idiom “is a group of words
established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those individual words.”
7


For instance, the expression of “costs an arm and a leg” forms an idiom which means
expensive. It is certain that the example above cannot be understood by collecting the
component meaning of each word. Cambridge dictionary states idiom as “a group of
words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the
meanings of each word on its own.” There is a central aspect that all definitions agree.
That is, the meaning of an idiom cannot be understood by transferring its separated
components. This distinguishes idioms from other linguistic expressions.
The researcher in this field admitted that they did not believe in a specific definition of
idioms. Lipka (2013) points out, in his public book “In the idiomatic world of animalsidiom comprehension in a foreign language,” that it is hard to give an accurate
definition of idioms. These definitions above are not different from S.Irujo’statement
(1986) in which he agreed that an idiom is a conventionalized expression whose
meaning cannot be determined from the meaning of its parts.
Cruse (2011) divided idioms into two main branches including non-compositional
expressions and compositional expressions whose meanings can be predicted from its
components. He supposed that some complex expression does not have a relation

between grammatical elements and semantical ones. Like other researchers, the three
Vietnamese linguists Mai Ngọc Chừ, Vũ Đức Nghiệu và Hoàng Trọng Phiến (1997)
also provide their definition of the idiom. In their viewpoint, idioms are fixed phrases
which complete in structure so that the overall meaning cannot be deduced from the
meaning of the constituents. It is evident that there is no difference between this
definition and the ones above of idioms.
Most of the assumptions of idioms share several similarities. Mona Baker (1992)
claims that there is little or no variation in the form of idioms. She considered them
“frozen patterns of language.”
From these conceptions above, five common aspects in the definition of idioms can be
drawn out as follows.
1. Idioms contain numerous figurative meanings and cannot be interpreted literally by
a collection of its components.
2. Users should avoid taking idiom’s meaning directly. Otherwise, they may easily
misunderstand the overall implication of idioms.
3. Idioms have their syntax which is locked and cannot be added, deleted or replaced.
Many of them are considered ungrammatical.
8


4. Idioms reflect the culture of each country. Therefore, their meanings and their
syntactic forms are inconstant and flexible.
5. Idioms are natural to their native speakers, and they are often used in their informal
conversations.
It will be challenging for learners and linguists to acquire and utilize idioms correctly
when English is not their mother tongue. Nevertheless, there is a definite opinion in
the relation between idioms’ ages and their contexts produced by Nunberg (Nunberg,
1978). If the context is informative enough, some strange phrase can be interpreted.
Moreover, there are many unfamiliar expressions presented in idioms. For example,
the idiom of “the writing is on the wall” can be misunderstood by listeners if it is used

out of context. This idiom means to predict the dangers and the risks. However, it can
be translated as its direct meaning in the sentence “the writing is on the wall, which
makes me surprised.” The sentence does not include implication. It simply means
“how someone feels when he sees the writing on the wall.” An expression can be
defined in term of phrases. Conversely, idioms mention something which might be
unrelated to the literal meaning of the groups of words. Therefore, it can be
demonstrated that idioms and phrases are primarily connected to one another but
contrasting when they are put under the language analysis. This example also shows
that meanings of idioms are varied so that users should be aware of this to avoid
misunderstanding them in conversations.
Twenty- five thousand idioms are the statistic conducted by Wikipedia about the
number of English idioms. This is a significant number to show the important role of
idioms to native speakers in communication. It denotes things and connects people’s
thoughts. Idioms are flexible and vivid because they are holding cultures and history,
which results in the fact that the meaning of those figurative expressions cannot be
deductible from words that make them up. Those conceptions are accepted by many
researchers and linguists and become the initial elements to distinguish between
idioms and other expressions in language learning.
To sum up, even though scholars give tremendous definitions of idioms from a variety
of criteria, the study still realized that they all have the same cognition about the nature
of idiom. Therefore, figurative expressions contain meanings cannot be interpreted by
its separated components are idioms.

9


1.3 Characteristics of idioms
Indeed, idioms are very abusive as pointed out by almost all the scholars who are
researching for this field. It is difficult to characterize idioms accurately.
According to Cacciari and Tabossi (1993) “if the natural language had been designed

by a logician, idioms would not exist. They are a feature of discourse that frustrates
any simple logical account of how meanings of utterances depend on the meanings of
their parts and the syntactic relationships among those parts.”
It is clear that there are two mains characteristics included in the idiom. Even though
many aspects remain controversial and many questions perhaps have not been
answered yet. In this study, the thesis author has attempted to shed light on two aspects
which are the semantic and syntactic features to point out the main characteristics of
the idiom.
1.3.1. Semantic features
In the deep-rooted and continuous tradition, idiomatic expressions have typically been
seen as a relatively homogenous topic. The purposes of idioms are eventually to
transfer information. However, the meanings of the idioms are understood as whole
units according to the definitions above. While constituents give direct access to
listeners, all of the idioms are rarely share their figurative meanings. There are two
ways to categorize idiom comprehension. On the one hand, reflecting characteristics of
such idioms as beat about the bush and kick the bucket, this idiom class is designed
specially. Learners cannot guess the meaning of the words they consist. Therefore,
their meanings can only retrieve the meaning of an idiom as a whole. On the other
hands, the second class reflects idioms which can guess through its components such
as open the door and go off the rails. The meaning of the idioms can be taken by
interpreting its parts. The relation of the verb “open” and the word “door” mention
positive things expanding like opportunities. The idiom “go off the rails” presents
something gone wrong because it does not follow the rails. Idioms’ meanings are
retrieved from its ordinary linguistic processing combined with realistic interpretation
is non- arbitrary. In this scenario, the capture of semantic is easier than arbitrary
idioms.
Gibbs (1989) separated idioms into two main types including compositional and
noncompositional. “Spill the beans” and “kick the bucket” are typically two examples
of these types. In this case, the direct look-up for compositional is usually faster than
entirely linguistic analysis.

10


Canonical form in idioms is varied in their usages so the variance between original and
new wordings may form the newly created idiom meanings. If, for example, someone
said “crack the ice” instead of “break the ice” to refer to a change in the social
situation, there would be no particular communicative intent would be inferred. Crack
and would be seen as mere stylistic variants of one other. On the other hand, if
someone says “shatter the ice,” then this would not be interpreted as a mere stylistic
variant. Instead, the difference between the meaning of break and the meaning of
shatter creates a new idiomatic meaning, something like “breaks down an
uncomfortable and stiff social situation.” This example above is not merely an
example of lexical flexibility; it is an example of semantic productivity.
Semantic productivity process in idioms is creating every day in conversation and the
media. One striking example appeared in a New York Times article on the rise and fall
of the Wall Street. The firm Drexel Burnham Lambert had lost their money on junk
bonds and then found themselves on the edge of bankruptcy. In the distribution of
firm’ assets among the executives, Drexel’s cash reserve was depleted, forcing the
company into bankruptcy. In this context, there was a familiar idiom to express
“Drexel’s senior executives, not content with collecting one golden egg after another,
seem to have insisted then on eating the goose.” Similarly, Donald Barthelme’ s title
for an essay on contemporary literature “convicted Minimalist Spills Bean” made
precisely sense to readers who knew of his reputation as a minimalist writer. Even
young children spontaneously use idioms productively in discourse, once the original
idioms have been learned. When children learned the expression spill the beans as
meaning “tell a secret.” Later on, she would tell her father “don’t throw the beans to
Rebecca! She is not supposed to know!”(Greenberg- Concool,1990).
In addition to that, another dominant characteristic of idiom in semantic feature is that
it contains metaphorical meaning. Idioms are allusive expressions whose meaning is
different from the straightforward interpretation like in: Let’s call it a day means let’s

stop work now. The reason for that feature is communicative demands. People never
satisfied with their expressions. Instead of using tedious phrases and “plain” words,
people prefer figurative expressions which are more vivid, emotional and flexible.
With these purposes, there are numerous new idioms born to meet the expectation
from speakers such as opportunity knocked at his door or time is money. Two
examples indicate that language users want to be creative and witty in their sayings.
Such ready-made phrases are produced a human’s thought, cultures, and processes of
hard working and learning. They are mainly handed down from generation to
11


generation and naturally accepted in daily life. They compare things which have
similar aspects together instead of using adjective adverbs and nouns. It explains the
reason why many idioms exist in the form of metaphors or similes, by which, they
appear more expressive and figurative.
In conclusion, idioms are characterized semantically by composition, noncomposition, semantic productivities and figurative meanings. These features of
idioms make the language more flexible, and colorful in communication. Eventually, it
will result in efficient and expressive conversations.
1.3.2. Syntactic features
Antoine de Saint Exupery said, “Language is a source of misunderstanding.” People
express and share their thoughts and emotions by using language. Syntax with its
functions is used to tie words in phrases and sentences. In terms of idioms, the syntax
is varied concerning the degree of frozenness. Even though many linguists argue that
they are fixed-phrases which cannot be transformed, the study is to seek out ways of
possible transformation for these ready-used phrases. There are many differences in
authors’ viewpoints in a variety of scientific publications. They all conclude that the
agreement of syntax and semantics helps to understand and analyze idioms efficiently.
This part aims to discover the relation between the form and the meaning and seek out
some possible changes in idiomatic expression.
If listeners did not acquire their messages from speakers by analyzing constituents, it

means the different grammar form from language rules which are established in a
sentence. In this case, idioms should be acquired and investigated as a whole
construction. The study, as a result, should mark the coordinated system of form and
meaning. Any messages and ideas in the language can be expressed in different forms.
An example of “spill the beans” has the connection of form and meaning in syntax.
According to Gunel (2013)

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Syntax

Form

Spill the beans

Verbs (predicate)

Verb

Idiom

meaning

spill the beans

spill

the


spill the beans

beans

article

lexical units

reveal the secret

spill the beans

to slop

grain

noun

idiom

lexical unit

The phrases become lexical units. The function of an idiom was taken just the same
function of a word in a sentence. It is hard to break idioms into parts or change. Some
of the phrases can be broken into parts, but idioms usually cannot be changed or
established new combination. Words always bring their meanings in the substitution
with other elements. However, words may lose their independent meanings in idioms.
They cannot make sense in given separated- taken words. The meaning of a word can
be understood literally, but an idiom is its figurative expression. The study highlights
the whole idiomatic construction must be analyzed and question to the whole as a

single word during general analysis of sentences.
Moreover, the investigation of syntactic features should be aware of the impossibility
of separated parts in idioms. In many cases, the syntactic characterization of idioms
has been a controversial topic. Chomsky (1980) believes that idioms consist of
combination constructions and contained logical units. He wondered the relation
between human’ thoughts and the idioms used. Additionally, grammar in idioms could
always be analyzed in sentences. His perception violated the distribution of grammar
morphemes. In contrast, Fraser (1970) states that only specified idioms can undergo all
the grammatical changes and there are those which cannot undergo the smallest
grammar changes at all.

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Idioms have developed rapidly; it increases usages process. In contrary, these
expressions are rarely accepted changes in them. Therefore, if the idioms which are
easily subjected to syntactic changes, they are more flexible. The usage of different
grammar tense within the idioms as well as moods of the verb. Some idioms can
change the word order, the inclusion of additional word or reduction of their parts
within the constructions. For example, the idiom “It may well be ahead of time”
changes the words places instead of It may be well ahead of time (regular word order).
Besides, there are additional words like the very long and short of it instead of the
short and long of it. When tense changes within idioms, it would help to identify the
animation of the actions in speaker's mind.
In VOA program, the reporter supposed that a nephew accidentally revealed the secret
to his aunt about her birthday party. She still answered, “even though he spilled the
beans, I told him I would pretend to be surprised.” In the same article, VOA also gave
another example about an idiom “beat a dead horse” in another situation with the
changes in the form of the word “beat” became “beating” to describe the uselessness
of reminding a boy to be tidy in his room.

In terms of singular and plural form changes within idioms, the study found out other
figurative expressions such as smell a rat, spill a bean, kick the bucket, chew the flat.
The plural form of buckets, rats, and fats are disappeared. It is ages since we met
(using singular with a plural noun) is another example of the plural form in idioms
transformation. Besides, countable nouns can become uncountable ones and viceversa. For instance, wear the deck – wear the decks, go into detail – go into details, in
deep wood – in deep woods, kid stuff – kids’stuff, etc. Gunel (2013).
Beside the changes in plural and tense form, some particular idioms can change into
passive voice as non-idiomatic expressions while other cannot. The idiom “kick the
bucket,” for example, cannot turn into “the bucket was kicked.” It indicates that idiom
is fixed-expression. On the other hand, other “break the ice” can change to the passive
form with the expression “the ice is broken.”
In Gunel’ research, she reveals that there are two group of verbal idioms. The one that
can be separate as to constituent parts (such as making someone’s blood boil, spill the
beans, put on the air, etc.) can be subjected to another syntactic variation. It means
they can substitute, added and replace in their form. She also added the relationship
between syntax and semantic when she gave many demonstrated cases. In her study,
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she pointed out when the noun phrase in idiom related to the meaning of the idiom,
then they can also undergo syntactic analysis. She gave an example from Painted Veil
novel with saying “Oh, yes. Charlie Townsend will get to the top of the tree all right”.
The noun phrase “top of the tree” in the idiom “get to the top of the tree” makes the
reader imagine the highest place. That imagine closes to the meaning of the idiom
“reach the highest rank,” so that idiom can be subjected to another syntactic variation.
However, any changes in the case should be considered whether not it will affect the
meaning of the idiom.
To sum up, there are no features of being subjected to any changes in the form of the
idiom. It is true that some idioms cannot be transformed, but the existence of lexical
and grammatical changed idioms can even more complexity than another one.

Therefore, the syntactic feature of idioms should not merely be carried out in the
grammatical aspect; we should regard them as psychology sides and contain the
images.
I. 1.3. Classifications of idioms
The different functions of idiom have distributed a great number of English language
to communicate and to exchange people' thoughts in the expressive and more
emotional ways. Like searching for features of idioms, there are many lines has been
done to approach classification; however, this issue still becomes a controversial topic
in present-day linguistics. In the different periods, scholars have various ways to
categorize idioms based on tremendous criteria and aspects. In this part, the study will
line down some of the findings and analyze them.
A study in this field, Fernando (1996) also published his study to separate idioms and
in- habitual collocations into three categories.
• Pure idioms: they are conventionalized, non-literal multiword expressions'(2009).
Pure idioms are always non-literal, they may be either invariable or may have a little
variation, e.g., devil-may-care; red herring; spick and span; smell a rat; the coast is
clear. Fernando also calls them opaque idioms to show that the meaning of these
idioms has nothing to do with their literal components.
• Semi-idioms: has "one or more literal constituent and at least one with nonliteral
subsense, usually special to that co-occurrence relation and no other." He means semiidioms are expressions have at least one non-literal subsense component. For example,
foot the bill to say pay the bill or catch fire to say start burning, chequered career
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instead of chequered history. This kind of idiomatic expression is either allow
restricted variances in their structure or invariant in their form.
• Literal idioms: they are also either invariable or restrictedly variant. Literal idioms
are also called transparent idioms as they can be interpreted based on of their parts.
Therefore, they are less semantically complicated than pure and semi- idioms. For
example, of course, in any case, for certain, on foot and the contrary is a literal idiom.

In three types of idiom, Fernando continuously divides them into twelve different
degrees of lexical variance as well as presents a function of the idioms. He had groups
of idiom in terms of ideational, interpersonal and relational function. However, it is
clear that even Fernando admitted that his classifications were still complicated. The
study understands it is unnecessary to put all the important characteristics of idioms
into one single system.
Based on the requirement of this investigation, the study is going to focus on two
criteria. They are lexical features and syntactic features to categorize idiom in different
groups.
From linguist viewpoints, the contribution of an academician Vinogradov (1977) has a
big influence on the classification of idioms. His outstanding classifications provides
based on lexicological aspect. His study had foundation on the degree of semantic
cohesion among the constituents of set expressions (idioms or phraseological units).
On the other words, it means he characterized the main features of semantic of
phraseological combination and phraseological unity in their motivated meanings. He
emphasized the realization of lexical structure and the relationship between
components and the whole meanings of the unit. According to him, there are three
main types of phraseological units: phraseological fusions, phraseological unity, and
phraseological combinations.
• Phraseological combinations are the groups of words which meanings are easily
inferred from their parts. It is motivated. The readers and hearers can base on the direct
meanings of one component to guess the general meaning behind the units. In this kind
of idioms' structure, the unit usually consists of two main parts (one giving the literal
meaning and another providing metaphorical meaning). The meaning of the unit can
partially transfer from their constituents. The idiom “draw the line” in saying “this is
where I draw the line, let them seek services elsewhere,” for example, it contains two
main parts (“draw” holding the direct meaning and “the line” giving the figurative
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meaning). Besides that, English also create the great number of phraseological
combinations such as the impossible dream, pipe dreams, I am all ears, and enough is
enough. Accordingly, phraseological combinations belong to the traditional wordforming. It is clear that the idioms are combined from words with original meanings,
putting in another way; the components of the whole unit retain their semantic
independence. It is difficult to explain their logical order as well as the limitation of
the combination. It means some components can only combine with certain words. For
example, it is comprehensive to say “to deliver the lecture,” is contrary “to read the
lecture” does not make sense.
• Phraseological unities are indivisible phraseological units which the meaning from
their components motivates expressions meanings. Sometimes, the meaning of the
whole unit can be perceived through metaphoric meaning of its constituent, e.g. "to
bend the knee”- to submit to a stronger force, “to show one’s teeth” – to be unfriendly,
“to stand to one’s guns”- to refuse to change one’s opinion. In general, the
phraseological unity is not the sum of the meaning of its components, but based on
them and perceived the meaning through the components. Some of the main words are
not changed the ordinary meaning even they appear in the whole units, e.g. “to come
to one’s sense”- to change one’s mind, “to fall into a rage”- to get angry. That
characteristic lead to the possible substitution by a synonym in the phraseological
unities, e.g., “to have your feet on the ground” and “to keep your feet on the ground."
The metaphoric meanings are significant features of phraseological unities and should
not ignore, e.g. “a pain in the ass”- someone or something that is very annoying,
“close a deal”- to make a successful business arrangement with someone. The
individual words in this example above can be inferred literally, but the figurative
meaning can only be interpreted through the implication of the unit as a whole.
Therefore, the translation of phraseological unities should come up with both the direct
and metaphoric meanings exacted from the phrases.
• Phraseological fusions are the most idiomatic of all the kinds of phraseological units.
They are considered the highest blending words together. In other words, they have
not perceived from its constituent meanings instead leaners and listeners must
understand the phrases as the whole unit. They are highly idiomatic and cannot

translate word- for- word into other languages. Therefore, it is difficult to grasp the
clues from its parts. Playing hardball, cut to the chase, blindsided are examples of this
type. Any attempt to understand the meaning of these set expressions will result in
misinterpretation of the intended implication of the idiom because they are
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