Variation phenomenon and lexical variation characteristics of Vietnamese idioms and proverbs

Abstract

The article applies descriptive methods, qualitative analysis, and the theory of
variation by Vietnamese linguists to examine the phenomenon of variation. Research on the
characteristics of lexical variations in Vietnamese idioms and proverbs is limited to elements
of 12 animals. Research results show that at the “variable semantic variation” level, variant
phenomena appear at almost all language levels, which is different from “invariant semantic
variation”. The characteristics of lexical variables are expressed in the units of phonemic
variation based on the dialect, variants of synonyms, or other vocabularies. The study clarifies
linguistic and cultural values, the transformation process of Vietnamese idioms and proverbs,
and its diversity.