Comparative Images in Vietnamese Perception Through Idioms With Comparisons

Abstract

Idioms are considered special linguistic units that represent national cultures and views (Giang, 2023). Idioms with comparisons are a type of idioms commonly used in Vietnamese communications. Comparative images of these idioms derive from their component parts implicitly containing typical cultural characteristics and unique perception of Vietnamese people. This paper is concerned with comparative images in Vietnamese perception through idioms with comparisons from a cultural perspective. A hand search of Vietnamese idiom dictionaries helped to establish a corpus of 731 idioms with comparisons, from which comparative image groups were identified. It was found that comparative images of Vietnamese idioms with comparisons come from humans, animals, objects and materials, natural phenomena, food, and plants. The diversity of comparative images of idioms with comparisons is a mirror that reflects not only the geographical and natural characteristics of Vietnam but also Vietnamese people’s rich material and spiritual lives.