Research on the creation and uses of new idiomatic phrases in press (since 2000 to present)
Abstract
In recent years, there have had new phrases which are considered idiomatic and possibly placed between idioms and loose phrases in Vietnamese. These phrases are not stable in structure and carry fewer idiomatic meanings than true idioms but actual useas they can express topical issues. To reveal the trends in how the new idiomatic phrases are created and used in press, we collected the data for this study from a variety of newspapers published since 2000 to present and then analyzed them from the following perspectives: 1) Forms: numbers of syllables in the structure of the idiomatic phrases. 2) Compositional mechanism of the phrases: direct comparison or hidden comparison (metaphoric description). 3) Origins: pure Vietnamese elements or borrowed ones (Indo-European, Sino- Vietnamese). 4) Types of structure: adding or reducing elements, using available structures in the language such as A is like B, (A) is like B, A1B1A2B2, and so on; 5) Frequencies of new idiomatic phrases.