Vietnamese idioms from the perspective of Appraisal Theory

Abstract

The research of Vietnamese idioms in use is not novelty in Vietnam. This paper uses the Appraisal Theory developed by Martin, J. R., & White, P. R. (2005), which is considered as a part of realizing Interpersonal metafunction in of Systemic Functional Linguistics, to determine evaluation factors in Vietnamese idioms. Accordingly, we investigated 50 Vietnamese idioms that were listed in the Dictionary of Vietnamese Idioms and Proverbs in Use compiled by Do Thi Kim Lien & et al (2015) to identify and then classify their Attitude, Graduation hidden in use. Idioms were randomly selected from the dictionary. From a qualitative approach, the methods of linguistic description and discourse analysis were used to achieve the two purposes. Besides, the statistical classification method was also used to count and classify idioms in terms of the Appraisal Theory. The survey results show that all idioms carry evaluation in performance. The Attitude hidden in idioms was mainly realized in the type of Judgment and Appreciation. The level of evaluation in the idiom was mostly high and realized by Sharpen and Raise. This classification result may be a new approach in compiling a Vietnamese idiom dictionary. Furthermore, the classification of Vietnamese idioms based on the Appraisal Theory may support the critical discourse analysis to become more effective when approaching Vietnamese texts (spoken or written discourses).