AN INVESTIGATION INTO SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH IDIOMS

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate syntactic and semantic features of English idioms. The data of this study were 6,500 English idioms collected from Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the eighth edition (OALD8) and described quantitatively and qualitatively. The data were analyzed and presented with statistics, percentages, and content analysis. The findings demonstrated syntactic and semantic features of English idioms. Syntactically, English idioms were categorized into nominal, verbal, adjectival, adverbial, prepositional, conjunctional and interjectional idioms. Semantically, the findings showed the meanings of idiomatic variants, idioms used as slang, humorous idioms, idioms with proper names, idioms used in various fields, idioms used formally and informally, and so forth. The results of this study are beneficial to teachers of English, foreign language students as well as translators who have difficulty in identifying English idioms and translating them into Vietnamese. In addition, the study gives some implications for teaching and learning English idioms in Vietnamese contexts.