A Comparative Study Of The Four-character Idioms Containing "eat/食" In Chinese And Vietnamese

China and Vietnam are friendly neighbors linked by mountains and rivers.Although Vietnam is deeply influenced by China in all aspects,there are still differences between the two nations in traditional culture,lifestyle,festival habits and religious beliefs.Resulting in different languages,cultures and customs,the understanding of the same thing is different.Idioms are not only a static language unit,but also a carrier of a nation’s history and culture.The study of idioms has been widely concerned by researchers,and the comparative study of different languages is a hot topic.According to the author’s survey,although previous scholars have analyzed them unilaterally in terms of semantics,grammar,pragmatics and culture,there are still few studies on idioms with the word "吃/食".A comprehensive multi-angle study of Chinese idioms with the word "吃/食" and a comparative study with other languages has hardly been done.The same is true about Vietnamese idioms containing "(?)n/th(?)c".Based on the relevant theories of lexicology,grammar,rhetoric and cultural linguistics,and referring to the research achievements of the predecessors,the author uses quantitative,qualitative and comparative methods to analyze the similarities and differences in source,semantics,grammar and pragmatics about Chinese and Vietnamese idioms with the four-character idiom "吃/(?)n/食/th(?)c" comprehensively and in detail.The study is convenient for the understanding and application of idioms.And the results of this study can not only deepen the comparative study of Chinese and Vietnamese idioms,enrich the comparative study of Chinese and Vietnamese languages,but also help us to have a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences between Chinese and Vietnamese cultures,language teaching,language translation and dictionary compilation.In addition to the preface,catalogue,reference,conclusion and postscript,there are five chapters in this paper.Firstly,it summarizes the research achievements of the predecessors on Chinese and Vietnamese idioms,mainly on the ontology of Chinese and Vietnamese idioms linguistics,the application of Chinese and Vietnamese idioms(including translation,language teaching,etc.),the contrastive study of Chinese and Vietnamese idioms,the study of "吃/(?)n/食/th(?)c" and idioms containing these four words.Chapter two traces the origin of the four-character idioms of "吃/(?)n/食/th(?)c" in Chinese and Vietnamese.In the third chapter,based on the classification of the grammatical structure of idioms by Mr.Fu Huaiqing of China and Mr.Huang Wenhang of Vietnam,the author makes a comprehensive analysis about thegrammatical structure of the four-character Chinese-Vietnamese phrase " 吃 /(?)n/ 食/th(?)c",and makes a detailed comparison.Chapter Four explores the etymology of "吃/(?)n/ 食/th(?)c" and the transparency of the four-character idioms " 吃/(?)n/ 食/th(?)c" in Chinese and Vietnamese.At the same time,it elaborates the extended meanings of these two idioms,and then finds out the similarities and differences between them through comparative analysis.Chapter Five makes a comparative analysis of the rhetorical devices used by the two idioms in their internal structures.The results show that "吃" evolves from "食","(?)n" is a pure Vietnamese verb,and "th(?)c" is a Chinese-Vietnamese word(borrowed from Chinese).The part of "thc" is not limited to verbs,but as a verb,"th(?)c" and "(?)n" is a pair of pure Vietnamese-Chinese and Vietnamese words,which have certain relevance in meaning.In addition,there are many similarities and differences in grammar,semantics and rhetoric between Chinese and Vietnamese idioms with the four-character phrase "吃/(?)n/ 食 /th(?)c".As far as grammatical structure is concerned,although there are differences in the naming of the grammatical structures of the two idioms,there are many similarities in essence,such as Chinese parallel idioms,subject-predicate idioms and verb-complement idioms are similar to Vietnamese symmetric idioms,subject-predicate asymmetric idioms and verb-phrase asymmetric idioms respectively;from the perspective of semantic cognition,they are mapped to the same target domain.In terms of rhetoric,the two idioms use five classical figures of speech:repetition,exaggeration,metaphor,metonymy and duality,as well as the use of rhetoric in a comprehensive way,but the difference lies in the fact that Chinese has more parallelism and analogy than Vietnamese.Up to now,the author has not found the relevant research or summary of the four-character idiom " 吃 /(?)n/ 食 /th(?)c" in Chinese and Vietnamese.Therefore,it is hoped that this study will contribute to the comparative study of Chinese and Vietnamese languages.