Comparative structures of face idioms in Vietnamese

Abstract

This research aims at studying of the comparative structures of face idioms in Vietnamese. The data of 63 Vietnamese idioms were collected from 2 Vietnamese dictionaries. The 9 body parts were found from the studied result of the comparative structures of face idioms: “họng (neck)”, “đầu (head)”, “khẩu, miệng, mỏ, mồm (mouth)”, “lưỡi (tongue)”, “mắt (eye)”, mặt (face)”, “môi (lip)”, “tai (ear)” and “tóc (hair)”. “mặt (face)” was mostly found 31 expressions, followed secondly by “mắt (eye)” found 10 expressions, and the least was “đầu (head)” found 6 expressions. Additionally, based on the criteria of comparative words and word classes, the study of the structures of Vietnamese face idioms can be divided into 3 groups; that is, the 15-found comparative structure “như”, the 3-found comparative structure “hơn”, and the 1-found comparative structure “bằng”.