Tài liệu A contrastive analysis of proverbs and idioms relating to animals in english and vietnamese equivalents

i UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -------------------------------------- A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF PROVERBS AND IDIOMS RELATING TO ANIMALS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS (Phân tích đối chiếu các câu tục ngữ, thành ngữ liên quan đến các động vật trong tiếng Anh và cách biểu đạt tương đương trong tiếng Việt) M.A. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60 22 15 HANOI - 2011 ii Acknowledgements My minor thesis has been successfully completed thanks to the assistance and guidance of my teachers, classmates and relatives. First of all, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs. Đào Thu Trang, MA for her enthusiastic assistance, academic guidance, good suggestions and critical comments on my study. Secondly, I would also like to show my gratitude to all the teachers of the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi whose lectures and guidance have helped me much while carrying out this study. Thirdly, my deepest thanks are for my beloved colleagues and my friends who have always stood by my side, have helped and encouraged me during my preparation till the completion of the study. Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge the considerate support and indispensable assistance of my parents, my wife and my children while the work was being done. One more thing I would like to say is that in spite of all the efforts I have made and the advice and assistance I have received, I am sure my minor thesis is far from perfect. Therefore, it is my responsibility for any inadequacies and shortcomings that arise in my minor thesis. iii DECLARATION I hereby certify that all work in this thesis is my original work and the substance of this thesis has not been submitted to any other university or institution. Also, I claim full responsibility for the contents of the thesis. The research reported in this thesis was approved by University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Hanoi, September 30th, 2011 iv ABSTRACT One of the most typical elements of the implication of culture in language is the use of proverbs and idioms. In communicative English, there is a huge number of idioms and proverbs, and they are used very often in everyday conversation. The use of proverbs and idioms causes many troubles for English learners because sometimes they are very confusing. Therefore, English teachers have to teach the students not only the knowledge about the language but also the knowledge about English culture so that the students can communicate well. Animals play a very important role in many cultures including English culture and Vietnamese culture. A large portion of proverbs and idioms in English as well as in Vietnamese contain the images of animals. There are some outstanding similarities and differences between them. Within understanding this, English teachers and English learners can deal with proverbs and idioms much more easily. However, there are so few works focusing on this issue. For this reason, this paper aims at categorizing the similarities and differences of proverbs and idioms relating to animals in English and Vietnamese as well as giving out some explanation. On this basis, it also offers some educational implications for English teachers and learners to make their teaching and learning more effective. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale 1 2. Aims of the study 3 3. Scope of the study 3 4. Methodology 3 5. Design of the study 4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 : THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Relationship between language and culture 5 1.2 Literal meanings and idiomatic meanings 7 1.2.1 Literal meaning 7 1.2.2 Idiomatic meaning 7 1.2.2.1 Definitions of idiom 7 1.2.2.2 Some features of idiom 10 1.2.2.3 Types of Idiom 12 1.3 Proverb in relation to idiom 13 1.3.1 Definitions of proverb 13 1.3.2 Proverb versus Idiom 13 CHAPTER 2 SOME FEATURES OF ENGLISH –VIETNAMESE PROVERB AND IDIOM 2.1 Proverb and Idiom relation to Language and Culture 15 2.2 Comparison between English and Vietnamese proverbs and 16 idioms viewed from cultural identities . vi 2.2.1 Based on principles of cultural types 16 2.2.2 Based on cognitive culture 22 2.3 Animal images in proverbs and idioms 2.3.1. Animal images in Vietnamese proverbs and idioms 25 2.3.2 Animal images in English proverbs and idioms 27 CHAPTER 3 A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH PROVERB AND IDIOM RELATED TO ANIMALS VERSUS THE ONES IN VIETNAMESE 3.1 The cognitive similarities 31 3.1.1. Same expressions same meaning 32 3.1.2. Different expressions close meaning 32 3.2 The cross-cultural differences 33 3.2.1 View from Customs 33 3.2.2 View from Religions 36 3.3. Similarities and differences of English and Vietnamese 38 idioms about human characteristics through the images of animals PART C: CONCLUSION 42 REFERENCES 44 1 PART A INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Nowadays, English has been widely used in Vietnam. It is also a compulsory subject in high schools. In Vietnam, English has long been regarded as a tool of international communication, and together with its rising importance, the need of learning English is becoming more and more urgent. It can’t be denied that all foreign learners in general and Vietnamese learners in particular desire to master English as the native speakers. However, they usually face a lot of difficulties that prevent them from gaining successful conversations. One of the reasons for these problems lies in the way people perceive and use idioms and proverbs. English and Vietnamese are two different languages, that is, each of them embodies in itself the cultural factors which characterize one culture from the others. Therefore, it is unquestionable that to learn a foreign language also means to gain benefits from its great stock of proverbs and idioms in which most cultural values are reflected. However, most Vietnamese learners are taught English mainly with the knowledge of language, not culturally appropriate factors embedded in the teaching language. They speak English without the understanding of English communication manner. They write English with little knowledge misunderstanding or of even English cultural communicative background. breakdown. Consequently, Clearly, without it causes cultural appropriateness, learning English in general and learning English proverbs and idioms in particular seem to be a challenging process. It is really a risky road for learners to understand and translate English proverbs and idioms into Vietnamese. Each nation’s language has its own similar and different concepts on many fields of life such as humane values, ways of thinking, behavior standards, religious beliefs, customs and traditions, social convention, etc. Words and expressions including idioms and proverbs have formed the vocabulary system of a language. Idioms and proverbs are regarded as special factors of a language’s vocabulary system because they reflect cultural specific 2 characteristics of each nation, including material and spiritual values. Therefore, many researchers have long shown their concerns for idioms and proverbs. Idioms and proverbs are used to express ideas in figurative styles. They bring the vividness and richness to the speakers’ speeches. This is the reason why the more skillfully a person use idioms and proverbs in his conversations, the more effectively he can establish his communicative relationship. One more important thing is that the general present tendencies are towards proverbial and idiomatic usage; therefore, knowing how to use idioms and proverbs effectively in the right situations is becoming essential. Moreover, the most distinguished advantage of idioms and proverbs is that they do provide users with a whole new way of expressing concepts linguistically. It can be said that idioms and proverbs are the color and vitality of a language. We all know that language is the most important means of communication in the world. However, only when both the speakers and the listeners have a common understanding about each other , can they communicate effectively. Actually, the culture and the language are considered the two sides of a paper; both are inseparable from each other and from the social context. In communication as well as in language teaching, the culture elements are getting more and more important. Knowing the target language’s culture helps second language learners comprehend the knowledge of that language more effectively. It can be seen that proverbs and idioms are the windows on a nation’s identities. If the window tightly closed, we would fail to decode the real message of a language in particular and of a culture in general. This idea offers me a strong impetus to study proverbs and idioms of English and Vietnamese equivalents in the view of cultural identities of each nation. Being interested in idioms and proverbs for long time, I choose idioms and proverbs as my thesis topic. Due to the limited time and knowledge, I just focus on a very small part of the huge idiomatic and proverbial treasure, ‘ A contrastive analysis of proverbs and idioms relating to animals in English and Vietnamese equivalents’. With the aim of presenting an overview of proverbs and idioms in general and a contrastive analysis of proverbs and idioms relating to animals in English and Vietnamese in particular, I hope it will partly help learners 3 and translators avoid difficulties in realizing and translating English proverbs and idioms into Vietnamese and vice versa. 2. Aims of the study The aims of the study are: - To discover cultural values through proverbs and idioms - To investigate the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese idioms denoting human characteristics through images animals. - To help the Vietnamese learner of English be more aware of English and Vietnamese proverbs and idioms and how to use them in appropriate and interesting way. - Provide some suggestions for the teaching/learning and translation of the English proverbs and idioms relating to animals. 3. Scope of the study - Proverbs and idioms are large parts in both English and Vietnamese; thus it is impossible for the author to carry out a comprehensive study on them; thus, he just focuses on some proverbs and idioms relating to animals. - In this study, the cross-cultural differences view from customs, religion are extensively discussed; English idioms denoting human characteristics through the images of animals are compared with Vietnamese ones. - All English and Vietnamese proverbs and idioms are collected from dictionaries; hence, this research may not cover all proverbs and idioms relating to animals, just those of common use 4. Methodology To achieve these aims, the author has discussed with supervisor, teachers, friends and consulted many dictionaries and books of languages, idioms, proverbs, metaphor , magazines, newspapers, etc. in both English and Vietnamese in which whatever relating to idiomatic and proverbial expression containing ‘animals’ is taken into consideration. Then a comparative 4 analysis is designed to point out the similarities and differences between English proverbs and idioms relating to animals and Vietnamese ones. 5. Design of the study The study consists of three parts. The first part “Introduction” outlines the background of the study. In this part, a brief account of relevant information is provided such as rationale, aims, scopes, methods, and design of the study. The main part of the study comprises three chapters. Chapter one, as implied by the title ‘ theoretical background’ for the study. It consists of relationship between language and culture, the literal meanings and idiomatic meanings, proverbs in relation to idioms. Chapter two is concerned with “Comparison of cultural features between English-Vietnamese proverbs and idioms” , whereas chapter three deals with “A contrastive analysis of Vietnamese proverbs and idioms relating to animals versus the ones in English” The final part is “Conclusion” , which provides the recapitulation, implications for the EFL teaching and learning and for the translation, and suggestions for the further studies. The study ends with the “References” 5 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.4 Relationship between language and culture It is said that language is the highest and the most amazing achievement of human mind. Most linguists currently regard the faculty of language as “ a defining characteristic of being human” because it is what best distinguishes man from ogres and other animals. Language is a creative product of human kind that helps to distinguish them from other creatures on the earth and that serves the main purpose of communication. Language is not occurring in isolation because human beings are not separate islands in the world of social activities. It is shown that the word ‘culture’ is used frequently in our daily life but ‘culture’ is not easily defined, nor is there a consensus among scholars, philosophers and politicians (nor, probably, among a rest of us) as to what exactly the concept should include. Despite a century of efforts to define culture adequately, there was in the early 1990’s no agreement among anthropologists regarding its nature. Another common way of understanding culture is seeing it as consisting of three elements: values, norms, artifacts. Values comprise ideas about what in life seems important. They guide the rest of the culture. Norms consist of expectations of how people will behave in different situations. Each culture has different methods, called sanctions, of enforcing its norms. Sanctions vary with the importance of the norm; norms that a society enforces formally have the status of laws. Artifacts-things or material culture-derive from the culture’s values and norms. Culture, in this study, like in Nguyen Quang (1998:3), is not “high culture” (traditionally the milieu of arts, music or sciences and so on) but “refers to the informal and often hidden patterns of human interactions, expressions, and viewpoints that people in one culture share”. 6 “No culture is good or bad, just different!”. And there is a famous quote of Mahatma Gandhi “No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive”. Nguyen Quang (1998:3) also emphasizes “it is best not to overemphasize either culture differences or cultural similarities. Those who says, “We are all alike; we’re all human” deny the shape and flavor that cultures contributes to individual development. Those who say, “We’re so different that we must stay separate” create harmful barriers by closing their eyes to what is common to every human being” . Culture does not belong to any single person but to all people. Nguyen Quang in “Intercultural Communication” (1998:3) describes “culture’ as “ a share background (for example, national, ethnic, religious) resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes, and values”. What we can derive from these points of view is that the language of a community is a part or a manifestation of its culture as Goodenogh’s word “ the relationship of language to culture is that of part to whole”. Language and communication modality (verbal, gesture, written) are examples of elements that form and shape a culture. Kramch-Troike (1998:3) clarifies the correlation between language and culture by emphasizing three functions of language related to culture. They are “expressing cultural reality, embodying cultural reality and symbolizing cultural reality”. In its turns, culture influences the way in which language is used. Culture is the final arbiter of meaning or linguistic meaning is entirely determined by the cultural context in which the language occurs. In conclusion, there is a close relationship between language and culture; knowledge of the target culture remains an important part of language learning, especially at higher levels. That is the reason why culture learning should always go hand in hand with language learning though it may take a longer time and make language teaching and learning more challenging than ever. 7 1.5 Literal meanings and idiomatic meanings According to Dr. Duong Ky Duc (2003), the meanings of a word are not only the literal meaning, but also the figurative meaning. These meanings of the word do not exist separately but together as a perfect whole. In this sense, the literal meaning is the center and the figurative meaning is the extension, which shows the cultural distinction of using the word between this commodity and others. However, we focus much on idioms relating to animals, therefore, besides the literal meanings of the words containing ‘animals’, we mainly study the figurative meanings of these idioms which are, in the study, called the idiomatic meanings. 1.5.1 Literal meaning The literal meaning of a word is the strict dictionary meaning of a word, the ‘dictionary definition’. For example, if you look up the word ‘snake’ in a dictionary, you will discover that one of its literal meanings is ‘any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venous reptiles having a long, tapering cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions’. Obviously, idiom has its idiomatic meaning. Many idioms, however, can also have both the literal and idiomatic meanings. In the study, the author does not focus on the literal meanings of all the idiomatic expressions containing the words relating to ‘animals’ but ones of the words relating to ‘animals’, which are, somehow, related to the idiomatic meanings of the idiomatic expressions containing the words relating to ‘animals’. 1.2.2 Idiomatic meaning 1.2.2.1 Definitions of idiom English idiom In Cambridge International Dictionary of idioms, idiom is defined as a colorful and interesting aspect of English. They are used generally in all types of language, informal and formal, spoken and written. Idiom regularly has a stronger meaning than non-idiomatic phrases. For instance, “look daggers at someone” has more highlighting meaning than look angrily at someone, although they signify the similar thing. 8 Idiom may also imply a particular attitude of the person using them, for example, disapproval, humor, irritation or admiration. Words do not just come individually; they also come in expressions – in-group. Idioms are among the most common of these expressions (Wright, 2002). Idioms itself have grammar. Some idiomatic expressions are fixed and cannot be changed such as : Two head are better than one. (Ba anh thợ gia bằng Gia Cát Lượng) However, in most cases, we can change the tense and the pronoun such as I am/She is/We are all at sixes and sevens. According to Wright, idiom is an expression with following features. Firstly, idiom is fixed and is recognized by native speakers. We cannot make up our own idioms. The second feature is that idiom uses language in a non-literal-metaphor-way. Take these idioms as examples. Tin is up to his eyes in work now At the meeting, I felt a bit out of my depth. I was over the moon when I heard she’d had twins. It broke my mother’s heart to see her home burnt to the ground. If you are up to your eyes, you are very busy. When a person is out of her or his depth, he/she might be in the sea but he/she is more likely to be in a circumstance that he/she cannot comprehend for some reasons. If you are over the moon, you are extremely joyful about something. If something breaks your heart, you are very gloomy about it. In these examples, it is clear that the idiom is a whole expression. This is the traditional view of idioms. We are familiar with the idea of heavy rain causing a stream to overflow and flood the surrounding area; crowds are often described as water and the same verb flood is used. The literal meaning of a hot potato, it is not for eating; it means a controversial issue. Idioms are very important because they are commonly used in daily life. It is nearly impossible to speak, read or listen to English without meeting idioms. The next reason is the metaphorical 9 use of a word is more common today than its literal meaning. However, it is important to know its literal meaning because it creates a picture in our mind and this picture enables us to understand other meanings more easily. The last reason why idioms are so important is that they are fun to learn and to use. If the language you want to learn is more colorful and interesting, there is more chance that we will remember it clearly. Our English will sound more natural. Vietnamese idioms According to Hung, in Vietnamese, idioms frequently use fixed expressions; grammatically, they are not complete sentences, which mean they are only words or phrases. Idioms do not show any comments, experiences, ethnical lesson or critics, so they often have figurative function, not educational function. For example, in Vietnamese we say “mặt hoa da phấn”. This idiom only brings us a picture of a beautiful and charming woman but not lesson about ethnics or critics. Most of idioms are formed from incomplete meaning words; they cannot stand alone but in a sentence. Vietnamese idioms are often used in proverbs, folk songs, or literature works. That makes idioms meaningful only when they are in sentences. Take this as an example, “công dã tràng”, at least, it has to be in sentence: “đúng là công dã tràng” or “chuyện anh làm chỉ là công dã tràng”. Instead of expressing an idea literally, people tend to use idiom to make their speech more beautifully or funnier. For example, to express the idea of a person who sometimes works, sometime does not, we use this idiom “hắn ta đi làm bữa đực bữa cái”. Idioms use brief expressions based on stories, folk tales, or classic references, which happened a long time ago. Now we encounter similar situation, thus by hearing those idioms, the listener knows exactly what the speaker means. Many Vietnamese idioms are borrowed from Chinese idioms; however, Vietnamese cleverly transformed those Chinese idioms into Vietnamese way of talking. For example, “huynh đệ thủ túc”, in Vietnamese, we have this equivalence “anh em như thể tay chân”. 10 1.2.2.2 Some features of idiom It is asserted that language follows rules. If it did not, its users would not be able to make sense of the random utterances they read or heard and they would not be able to communicate meaningfully themselves. Idiom, however, breaks the normal rules. The word ‘idiom’ comes from the Greek ‘idiot’, ‘one’s own, peculiar, strange’. Hence, idiom is considered anomalies of language, mavericks of the linguistic world; and most of the linguists when studying features of idiom have focused on these animalities of idiom. Idiom may be characterized by several features; but they may be summarized under two main headings: semantic and syntactic peculiarities. In terms of semantic peculiarities, Jackson and Amvela (2000:67) indicate that idiom has “ambiguity”, it means that idiom may have either a literal or an idiomatic meaning. For example, If someone “beats a dead horse”, they may in fact be in the process of striking the carcass of an animal (literal meaning); or they may be wasting time discussing a matter that has already been closed (idiomatic meaning). Similarly, “To sit on the fence” can literally mean that one is sitting on a fence “I sat on the fence and watched the game”; whereas its idiomatic meaning that one is not making clear choice regarding some issue “The politician sat on the fence and would not give his opinion about the tax issue”. However, once a reader or hearer realizes that a given expression is idiom, even if they are not sure of its exact meaning, they will automatically discard the literal meaning of the expression, and seek an idiomatic meaning. Furthermore, the context in which the idiom occurs also play an important role in the reduction of this potential ambiguity. Another noticeable semantic feature of idiom is affirmed by Cruse (1986: 37-38): “although idiom consists of more than one word, it displays to some extent the sort of internal cohesion that we expect of single words”. In order words, idiom may be characterized as “a lexical complex, which is semantically simplex”. And this semantic integrity of idiom leads to its lexical integrity. It means that idiom has a number of syntactic (grammatical) constraints:  The first constraints are on replacements or substitutions. Fernando (1996:43-45) shows that an idiom may be varied in terms of number and tense (inflectional changes) 11 or the replacement of one structure word like an article by another or by zero. He gives some examples: + “ He smelt a rat and he kept mum” (past tense, past time) ( The Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English 1983) “Everybody smells a rat in a doctored obituary, even the window” (Present tense indicating a timeless truth) ( The Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English 1983) However, these replacements can be only applied to a small number of idioms. In general, most idioms are indivisible units whose components can’t be varied. Some do not permit pluralization like in “kick the buckets” (kick the bucket) or “smell the rats” (smell a rat); some do not permit singularization such as “twiddle one’s thumb” (twiddle one’s thumbs) or “ raining a cat and a dog” (raining cats and dogs). In addition, replacement of characteristic lexis in idiom isn’t possible even synonymous words. For example, in “we look forward to meeting you”, “look” can not be replaced by “see” or “watch”. Hence, “we see/watch forward to meeting you” is not idiomatic. Similarly, in “wash one’s dirty linen in public”, ‘linen’ can not be replaced by ‘socks’, neither can ‘thought’ be replaced by ‘idea’ in ‘have second thoughts’ .  Idiom also resists re-ordering of its parts. We consider “ John kicked the bucket”. In the literal sense, this expression has a passive variant, “ The bucket was kicked by John” . But in its idiomatic use, i.e. when “kicked the bucket” means “died”, the expression does not allow the use of the corresponding passive alternative. Other changes of the order of the words like in “The short and the long of it” (The long and the short) or in “What Peter pulled was his sister’s leg” (What Peter did was pull his sister’s leg) are impossible.  Additions and deletions are also not normally permitted within idiom. Thus, we can’t say “To pull someone’s left leg” and “To kick the large bucket” , they have no normal idiomatic interpretation because of the addition of ‘left’ and ‘large’ , whereas ‘straight from horse’s mouth’ and ‘turn a new leaf’ are both unacceptable because ‘the’ and ‘over’ have been omitted. 12 Such constraints make idiom fixed or invariant and separate them from non-idiom. Cruse (1986:38) recognizes another feature of idiom which shows its status as phrases in a way that “if idiom may be inflected, the inflectional affixes are carried by the grammatically appropriate elements within the idiom, whether or not they are semantic constituents; that is to say, the elements of idiom retain at least some of their grammatical identity: “ John has a bee in his bonnet about many things” (John luôn bận tâm về mọi thứ) (*John has bees-in-his bonnets about many things)”; this expression is wrong because the grammatical appropriate elements “ have a bee in one’s about something” is invariant, it does not permit pluralization. 1.2.2.3 Types of Idiom Fernando (1996:35-36) states that idiom can be divided into three sub-classes: pure idiom, semi-idiom, and literal idiom. A pure idiom is “a type of conventionalized, non-literal multiword expression”; that is to say the meaning of a pure idiom has nothing to do with the meaning of its constituents. Hence, “spill the beans” has nothing to do with ‘beans’ . In contrast to its literal counterpart meaning, “letting fall leguminous seeds”, a non-literal meaning is imposed on the idiom as a whole: “commit an indiscretion”. A semi-idiom “has one or more literal constituents and at least one with a non-literal sub sense, usually special to that co-occurrence relation and no other”. Examples of semi-idiom are “catch one’s breath” (check one’s breath) or “foot the bill” (pay the bill) in which “catch” and “foot” are non-literal constituents . Literal idiom (on foot, waste not, want not, on the contrary, a happy birthday, a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, etc.) “meet the salient criterion for idiom: invariance or restricted variation. They are, however, less semantically complex than pure and semi-idiom”. 13 1.6 Proverb in relation to idiom 1.6.1 Definitions of proverb There have been many definitions of a proverb but there is no standard one that can be used to study all aspects of proverb. Let’s consider some definitions of proverb that Vietnamese and foreign researchers have made. - Proverbs can be defined as “a short saying or sentence that is generally known by many people. The saying usually contains words of wisdom, truth or morals that are based on common sense or practical experience.”(www.Theidiomconnection.com) - A short saying that everyone knows, expressing a truth, an experience or giving advice. (English version by Bach Anh Hong/Viện ngôn ngữ học, 1992) Although the above definitions are different in some ways, they still have similarities: a saying expressing a truth, moral instruction or giving advice. 1.6.2 Proverb versus Idiom According to Hornby (1995), in his Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, proverb is defined as “a short well-known sentence or phrase that states a general truth about life or giving advice, ex. Better safe than sorry or Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. More particularly, Vu Ngoc Phan (2000:39) considered proverb as “a complete saying expressing one idea of comment, experience, morality, justice or criticism”. It is easy to find that idiom and proverb have much in common and it comes as no surprise that they are traditionally studied together. The first one is that both idiom and proverb are ready –made. They are products of human’s thought, cultures and processes of hard working and learning. They are mainly orally handed down from generation to generation and naturally accepted in daily life. Secondly, both idiom and proverb are set-expressions with stable and components are not substituted . Therefore, their meanings can not be deduced from individual words but must be understood as a whole. It means that any substitutions in any components of idiom or proverb may result in unacceptable changes in the meaning of whole group, which make them nonsensical in metaphorical meaning. Apart from this, most idiom and proverb use language in metaphorical way. We cannot usually discover their meanings by 14 looking up the individual words in a dictionary; their meanings must be understood metaphorically. Beside those similarities, both of them still own typical features that distinguish one from the other. The first and most obvious difference lies in their grammatical structures. Idiom is a phrase which is a part of sentence; thus, it is equivalent to words only. Proverb is a complete sentence or a phrase expressing the whole idea. Moreover, idiom and proverb are also different in terms of their functions. Proverb is a short well-known sentence or phrase that expresses a judgment, state a general truth about life or advice; it is told to contain three main literature functions which are perceptive function, aesthetic function, and educational function. For example, the proverb ‘Money makes the mare go’ demonstrates a remark as well as a criticism about the negative side of money. Its perceptive function is to make people aware of the bad effect of money which can become the power dominating the society, even the most inanimate things. The educational function is to criticize the negative side of money and urge to be aware of that ill effect. And its aesthetic function is to exaggerate in a picturesque way to help readers understand the proverb easily. In contrast, idiom does not express judgments, give advice or state general truth about life, which means it does not have functions of perception and education but only aesthetic function. For example, the idiom “to eat like a horse “ merely describes the ability of eating strongly of someone because of great hunger in figurative and imaginary way and does not point out any educational lesson or knowledge of life. In short, beside their common things, idiom is distinguished from proverb by its structures and functions.