An Analysis of Recently Created and Disappearing Vietnamese Idioms

Huong Do Thi Thu^1, and William H.Salazar²

¹Faculty of Philology, Hanoi Pedagogical University #2, Xuan Hoa town, Vinh Phuc Province, Vietnam

²Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hanoi Pedagogical University #2, Xuan Hoa town, Vinh Phuc Province, Vietnam

Cite this paper:
Huong Do Thi Thu and William H.Salazar. An Analysis of Recently Created and Disappearing Vietnamese Idioms. American Journal of Educational Research. 2020; 8(2):66-70. doi: 10.12691/education-8-2-1

Abstract

An Idiom is a unit in the lexical system, it is like an uninterrupted river, always flowing, moving, changing and developing. During significant socio-cultural changes in society, people add idioms and eliminated old idioms almost simultaneously. This paper analyzed some popular Vietnamese idioms. This analysis utilized a survey questionnaire that was administered to two groups: Older adults (over the age of 30) and younger people. This paper analyzed three main idiom groups, and is divided into three categories: Recently created Vietnamese - of which did not have American English equivalent - idioms, and idioms that are disappearing and idioms that have disappeared idioms from current communication. Based on survey findings from these three idiom groups, this paper illustrated “rules” of how recently created idioms and archaic Vietnamese idioms were formed. This paper also briefly discusses the socio-cultural nuances in which idioms became standard use. Furthermore this paper offers timely recommendations on how to collect new idioms and why it is important to preserve old idioms.

Keywords:
idioms new idioms old idioms Vietnamese idioms American idioms translation of idioms

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