The current Vietnamese youth phraseology

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Introduction One of the manifestations of current democratization of the Vietnamese language system is the expanded scope of the youth slang usage. The tendency to still more expanded usage of the youth slang in mass media is generally connected with extralinguistic factors, such as enhancing youth role in the Vietnamese society, total computerization and swift development of qualitatively new communication environment (Internet, social networks). Lexical-semantic characteristic of the phraseological subsystem of Vietnamese youth slang is of a special interest. To give as complete presentation of phraseological speech stock of Vietnamese youth as possible, we examined phraseological units of different degrees of stability in a broad sense of the term, such as: idioms, phraseologism proper (thành ngữ), sayings with sentence structure (thành ngữ), proverbs (tục ngữ), set similes (thành ngữ so sánh), pithy sayings (danh ngôn), rhyming units in ca dao genre of traditional folk verses, set combinations (ngữ cố định). In Vietnam’s society there is a keen interest in youth phraseological units both among professional linguists and among the masses. In media scientific and popular publications one can see the following new phraseological units: thành ngữ sành điệu (catchphrases), thành ngữ teen, thành ngữ giới trẻ (youth phrases), thành ngữ mới của giới trẻ (new youth phrases), thành ngữ @, thành ngữ thời @ (Internet epoch phrases), thành ngữ mạng (Networks phrases), thành ngữ tân thời (new time phrases), thành ngữ tân tạo (new invented phrases), thành ngữ cải biên (transformed phrases), thành ngữ hiện đại (present-day phrases), ca dao tục ngữ thời hiện đại (modern ca dao and proverbs), ca dao thời @ (Internet epoch ca dao), ca dao, tục ngữ (tự) chế (individually invented ca dao and proverbs). The public interest was especially strong, when in 2011 the book “Sát thủ đầu mưng mủ” (“A killer with a festering head”) by Thanh Phong with his illustrations (cartoons) was edited; the book contained 113 new phraseological units, which the artist called “catchphrases”. The book sparked a lively public debate, there appeared sharp critical (e.g. [Mai An 2011, Quỳnh Vân 2011]), neutral and approving publications [Phạm Xuân Nguyên 2011; Hữu Đạt 2012]. Because of its mixed critical reception by the public the book distribution was cut off. However, in 2013 the book by Thanh Phong appeared again with insignificant changes and additions titled “Phê như con tê tê” (“ Happy as a pangolin”). The public debate on new phraseological units in the speech of youth and on the youth slang as a whole was activized [Thiên Hương 2013, etc.]. The attention is attracted to the tendency to re-make traditional phraseological and paremyological units, especially enhanced currently and having become a kind of trend in social networks [Phát Lê 2020, Dạ Thảo 2020]. The process of new phraseological units appearance, especially active in the Vietnamese language since the beginning of a new millennium could not help attracting attention of Vietnamese phraseologists. In 2009 in his article “On New Set Phrases in the Communication of Vietnamese” Tran Van Tieng paid attention to several structural features of such phrases: different rhymes, rhythm, parallelism, model-formation, dwelling, also, to their semantic features [Trần Văn Tiếng 2009]. In her work “Some Features of the New Proverbs” Le Thi Hong Minh has written that new set phrases can be considered new proverbs and idioms. The researcher points out the following two ways to form new proverbs: transformation of ready units and invention of new phrases on the base of the current reality. She dwells on the features of some kinds of transformations, analyses modes for new proverbs creation, their semantic characteristics, emphasizing their ridiculous, humorous components [Lê Thị Hồng Minh 2019]. Some researchers devote their works to separate aspects of current youth phraseology. Le Thi Thuy Vinh investigates new comparative phrases actively invented and used by present-day youth analyzing their difference from traditional set similes [Lê Thị Thùy Vinh 2012]. Do Thuy Trang analyzes new youth phrases from linguo-culturological viewpoint. She draws the conclusion that new phrases are not only a curious linguistic phenomenon, but also a peculiar cultural one, which reflects worldview and cultural features of representatives of a new generation of the current Vietnamese society [Đỗ Thùy Trang 2017]. Tran Nhat Chinh classifies minutely the phrases in the book «Sát thủ đầu mưng mủ» in accordance to the quantity of morphemes, to rhymes position, investigates transformations of traditional phraseological units and concludes on the normality of appearance of new youth phrases and of the enrichment of the Vietnamese language with them [Trần Nhật Chính 2016]. In the article “On the Language of Vietnamese Internet” Mai Xuan Huy while mentioning expressiveness and humor of new youth phrases, opposes the transformation of traditional phraseological units and believes that the phenomenon may pervert traditional moral and ethical cultural values of the Vietnamese people [Mai Xuân Huy 2018: 49, 54-55]. As far as we know, the complex and systematized investigation of modern youth phraseology has not been carried out yet, neither by foreign researchers. The task of our investigation is to analyze the formation and classification features of youth phraseological units, to determine their structural and semantic characteristics. In the course of the investigation, we have used methods of structural-semantic analysis, as well as of component one, descriptive method, context analysis, sampling method of lexicographic sources, Internet and mass media. Among new phraseological units of Vietnamese youth speech, it seems possible to single out the following categories: semantically unmotivated (phonetic) phrases, motivated phraseological units, transformed phrases, phrases-quotations. We are going to analyze these categories in details. Semantically unmotivated (phonetic) phrases The most noteworthy phenomenon of phraseological creativity of Vietnamese youth of the latest decades is the tendency to invent new phraseological units based not on the semantic principles, but entirely on phonetical and rhythmical ones and on paradox of the inner form. For example: cướp trên giàn mướp “to robber on the wicker grating to cultivate loofah” - to robber, to seize, to steal impudently, in front of everybody. This phraseological unit has no semantic motivation, as the grating to cultivate loofah has nothing to do with the place for robbery. But a sudden rhyme cướp - mướp attaches a comical effect, forms the impression of novelty, suddenness, and the phrase is memorized easily. Some other examples: ngất trên cành quất “to lose consciousness on kumquat branches” - to faint away, to drop from tiredness, to fall asleep (the rhyme ngất - quất); dở hơi biết bơi “crazy who is able to swim” - mad, lunatic, fool, jerk (the rhyme hơi - bơi); điên trong công viên “a madman in the park” - crazy (the rhyme điên - viên), thoải con gà mái - unconstrained, natural, easy (play upon words by transferring the morpheme “mái”: thoải mái - easily, con gà mái - a chicken + the rhyme thoải - mái). However, this form of phrase creativity is more typical for the invention of numerous comparative phrases, i.e., new set comparisons-paradoxes having no logical motivation of the comparative relations expressed in them and constructed on phonetical and rhythmical principles, such as: buồn như con chuồn chuồn “sad like a dragon-fly” - very sad, to look rather down in the mouth (the rhyme buồn - chuồn); nhỏ như con thỏ “small (insignificant) like a hare” - nonsense, not worth a dime (the rhyme nhỏ - thỏ); chán như con gián “dull like a cockroach” - very boring, to be bored to death (the rhyme chán - gián); nghèo như con mèo “poor like a cat” - very poor (the rhyme nghèo - mèo); xấu như con gấu “ugly like a bear” - ugly, deformed (the rhyme xấu - gấu); đuối như trái chuối “weak like a banana” - to have no strength, to lose one’s strength (the rhyme đuối - chuối), etc. These comparative structures are constructed along the standard model of set comparisons A [C] như B, but sometimes the comparison indicator như is omitted, which apparently is connected with phonetical and rhythmical principles of speech organization, for example: dã man con ngan “severe [like] a duck” - very angry, severe (the rhyme man - ngan); tuyệt vời ông mặt trời “splendid [like] the sun” - beautiful, magnificent, wonderful; sành điệu củ kiệu “stylish [like] Chinese onion” - fashionable, stylish; bét nhè con gà què “drunk [like] a limping hen” - drunk like a skunk; lạnh lùng con thạch sùng “cold [like] a gekko” - indifferent, insensitive. In contrast of traditional set phrases, standard comparative images are not motivated in current comparative youth phrases, i.e., they do not reflect the mindset and the way of thinking of the current Vietnamese linguistic community. The categorial and syntax semantics of the entire comparative locution is formed with the first (left) part of the set comparison, while the right (standard) part only emphasizes and enhances the intensity of the sign or the action, attaching vivid picturesqueness, expressiveness and emotionality. For example: nhục như con trùng trục “shame like Lanceolaria mollusk” - what a shame! shame on you! (the rhyme nhục - trục); khổ như con hổ “to suffer like a tiger” - to suffer terribly, to agonize (the rhyme khổ - hổ); tụ tập con cá mập “to assemble like sharks” - to get together in the same place (the rhyme tập - mập); mất tích con chim chích “to be lost [like] a chiffchaff” - to be missing. Thus, in current comparisons-paradoxes of Vietnamese youth the emotional content prevails over the subject and logical one. They possess expressiveness, vivid picturesqueness; they are easy to memorize; they attach expressiveness to speech. Recently, they have gained popularity not only among the youth, but also among people of the older generation. Motivated phraseological units New phraseological units (both of traditional parallel and non-parallel structures) are formed by metaphorization, metonymy, de-terminologization of combinations of words etc. Rhyme, harmonious combination of tones and rhythmic organization of the phraseological unit are of great importance for their formation. The source of metaphorical images are numerous traditional and current realities, customs etc. Thus, the ancestors’ altar, which can be found in every Vietnamese family, served as an image for such new phraseological units as: tốc độ bàn thờ “the altar speed” - extremely high speed of a vehicle (often causing death and as the result the photo of the lost is placed on the ancestors’ altar); ngắm gà khỏa thân “to contemplate the naked chicken” - to die, to get to the afterlife (the photo of the deceased is in the ancestors’ altar; next to it there are gifts for dead souls with an indispensable cooked chicken among them). Some combinations of words in their direct functioning are rethought metaphorically: ăn trầu “to eat betel” - to get a punch in the face (usually while chewing a betel gum lips become red). A de-terminologization example is the following phrase motivated with an element of Internet-culture: bó tay chấm com “with folded arms point com (.com)” - pass, to be no good at something, to wash one’s hands, no exit. Youth phraseological units mostly belong to the sphere of “human being”: physical qualities, appearance (hai lưng “two backs”, also, màn hình phẳng “a flat monitor” - a girl with a flat breast; đẹp như sao Hàn “beautiful like South Korean stars” - very beautiful), intelligence (đầu to óc bằng quả nho “the head is large, but the brains as big as a grape”- grown-up, but stupid), emotions (mắt chữ O mồm chữ A “eyes like O, the mouth like A”- to be greatly surprised, to make round (rabbit) eyes); physiology (đeo ba lô ngược “to bear a knapsack back to front”- to be pregnant), natural toilet facilities (giải quyết nỗi buồn “to shake the blues”- to relieve oneself, to defecate), etc. The phraseological units lacking images usually express a recommendation, a counsel, an exhortation; they reflect a collective experience, judgement, observation in this or that sphere: sống đơn giản cho đời thanh thản “to live merely to have a quiet life”; xấu nhưng biết phấn đấu “he is not handsome, but he can get his way”; đứng cho vay, quỳ đòi nợ “to lend money on feet, to ask to pay back it on knees” - people pay back their debts reluctantly. Creating new phraseological units, the following traditional devices of parallelism are used: grammatical, lexical-semantic, and phonetical ones: chân dài não ngắn (“the legs are long, the brain is short”) - pretty girls are stupid, a brainless beauty (the opposition of chân “legs” - não “brain”, dài “long” - ngắn “short”); thật thà ăn cháo, bố láo ăn cơm (“honest fellow eats porridge, insolent one eats rice”) - cheek brings success (grammatical, lexical-semantic parallelism of the phrase elements); the contact rhyme and the distant one, rhythmic pause, regular alternation of even and non-even tones, harmonious combinations of upper and lower registers tones: chuẩn không cần chỉnh “a masterpiece, which needs not to be corrected” - ideal, a perfection; ăn chơi sợ gì mưa rơi “having a good time, one should not be afraid of rain” - to move towards the goal, being not afraid of any hardships, to get what you want at any price; từ từ khoai nó mới nhừ “batat is cooked slowly” - one should not hurry; the play upon words: cố quá thành quá cố “working too hard may cost one’s life” - too much zeal may result in nothing. Transformed phraseological units Traditional phraseological units in current speech are actively reproduced, rethought anew and transformed being used as a peculiar joking antipode of the original phrase. Such a picture is typical not only of the Vietnamese language, but also of many others worldwide. Recently, researchers have mentioned unusual activization of the transformation process. The terminology for such transformed structures has not been definitively set, so far. In Russian linguistics they are called transformed proverbs, proverbial transforms, quasi-paremiae, paremiological neologisms, anti-paremiae, anti-proverbs, anti-phrases, anti-aphorisms, etc. In English linguistics the terms of perverbs (transformed proverbs), anti-proverbs, quasi-proverbs, pseudo-proverbs, pseudo-sayings etc. are accepted. In Vietnamese there is no common terminology for transformed phraseological units. There are isolated attempts to introduce the loan translation of the English term “anti-proverb” - phản tục ngữ [Trần Lê Nghi Trân 2012], but this term has not been fixed in linguistical literature. Transformation, or parody, of traditional phraseological units is becoming still more popular with the Vietnamese youth. One can find numerous transformed phrases in the youth press, in the Internet on many sites in the form of rather long lists. Prints of such units one can see on T-shirts, knapsacks, baseball caps, bags and other youth fashion attributes. Usually, well-known phraseological units are transformed. H. Val’ter and V. Mokienko mention that “’the recognition effect’ of any proverbial transform is essential for its popularity and functioning. However, changed are the proverbs…, they must be recognized to strike a spark of irony or humor between the poles of tradition and creativity, novelty” [Val’ter 2005: 12]. The types of structural-semantic transformations of the original phraseological units seem to be as follows: The replacement of components of phraseological units а) the substitution of one or several components of the phrase with the words, which are not synonyms of the original ones. For example, the traditional unit: gần mực thì đen gần đen thì sáng “near a [black] ink it is black, near a lamp it is light” - the transformed unit: gần mực thì đen gần đen thì cháy “near a [black] ink it is black near a lamp it is fire”; the original unit: hồng nhân bạc phận “the beauty has hard lot” - the transformed unit: hồng nhân bạc tỷ “the beauty has a lot of money”. Có công mài sắt có ngày nên kim “if iron is being ground, one fine day it will be a needle” is transformed into the unit có công mài sắt có ngày chai tay “if iron is being ground, one fine day you will get callused hands”; một điều nhịn là chín điều lành “once enduring (yielding) you will get ninefold good” has been transformed into the unit một điều nhịn là chín điều nhục “once enduring (yielding) you will get ninefold shame (humiliation)”. The proverb một con ngựa đau, cả tàu bỏ cỏ “when one horse is sick, the whole stable refuses the grass” expressing compassion, sympathy and solidarity, has been transformed into the proverb một con ngựa đau, cả tàu bỏ chạy (a version: cả tàu được ăn thêm cỏ) “when one horse is sick, the whole stable runs up (or: the whole stable will get more grass), expressing selfishness, indifference. Current realities are reflected in such transformations as: Ăn quả nhớ kẻ trồng cây “while eating fruit, think of the person who planted the tree” - Ăn quả nhớ kẻ xịt thuốc “while eating fruit, think of the person who sprayed pesticides”; đi một ngày đàng, học một sàng khôn “one day of travel will give you a basket of intellect” - di chuột ngày đàng, học một sàng khôn “one day with a computer mouse in your hand will give you a basket of intellect”; b) the substitution of the second part of the phraseological unit: thuận vợ thuận chồng tắt bể Đông cũng cạn “if a wife and a husband are in concord, they can take out the East Sea” - thuận vợ thuận chồng con đông mệt quá “if a wife and a husband are in concord, they have many children, and this is tiring” (the substitution even have the same rhyme chồng - Đông/đông); mấy đời bánh đúc có xương, mấy đời dì ghẻ lại thương con chồng “one never find bones in a doughnut ‘banh duc’, the stepmother never love her stepsons” - mấy đời bánh đúc có xương, mấy đời gái đẹp lại thương trai nghèo “one never find bones in a doughnut ‘banh duc’, a pretty girl will never love a poor lad”. The expansion of the components composition (explication) а) the introduction of a single component: trời sinh voi, trời sinh cỏ “God gave birth to the elephant, God gave birth to the grass” (God gave a child, God will give [means] for the child) - trời sinh voi, trời không sinh cỏ “God gave birth to the elephant, God did not give birth to the grass” (before giving birth to a child one can care for how to feed the children); б) the additional ending, the second part of the phraseological unit: ăn quả nhớ kẻ trồng cây “while eating fruit think of the person who planted the tree” - ăn quả nhớ kẻ trồng cây, chặt cây nhớ coi cảnh sát “while eating fruit think of the person who planted the tree, while cutting the tree down think of the police”; học, học nữa, học mãi “learning, learning and learning” - học, học nữa, học mãi. Đuối thì nghỉ “learning, learning and learning. When expelled you will have a rest”; Change in the order of the components Còn nước còn tát “while the water remains, it must be taken out” (not to lose heart, not to surrender, to go all the way) - còn tát còn nước “no matter how much water you take out, it still remains” (there is no result despite all the efforts, everything is useless); cờ bạc là bác thằng bần “a hazard game is the uncle of a poor man” [hazard games accompany poverty (people lost everything)] - thằng bần là bác cờ bạc “a poor man is the uncle of hazard games” [poor men fall for hazard games (poor men hope to get rich in this way)]; tốt gỗ hơn tốt sơn “a good wood is better than good varnish” (the internal essence is more important that the appearance) - tốt sơn hơn tốt gỗ “good varnish is better than good wood” (the appearance is appreciated more than the internal essence). Reasons for the widespread transformation of traditional phraseological units in Vietnamese-speaking youth are as follows: the youth strives for self-expression and nihilism, for creative language game, they need jokes, humor, laughing to take off the pressure of daily occurrence, need ironical representation of a new view of life and new values of life in new social and historical conditions, as well as critical comprehension of traditional stereotypes and canons, reflected in traditional phraseological language stock. Phrases-quotations Phrases-quotations, or phraseological quotations are phrases and expressions from popular songs, interviews, articles, films, news, advertisements, broadly discussed in social nets, published in digital versions of the youth press and various blogs. Such phrases and expressions quickly spread, become stable, and become reproducible and integral units, causing images and plots of the cited work in the minds of the native speakers of the language. Thus, on T-shirts and baseball caps of the youth one can see the inscriptions: «yêu anh đi, anh không đòi quà» “love me, I won’t take back my gifts (when we part)” - the phrase from the song by Karik; «tiền nhiều để làm gì» “why to have a lot of money?” - the phrase of the coffee magnate Dang Le Nguyen Vu in the court during the divorce suit; «mày biết tao là ai không» “do you know, what I am?” - the scandalous threat of the businessman Vu Anh Cuong, who was fined for harassment in the plane; «tao là cung bọ cạp» “I am Scorpio” - the threat of the teacher Le Na, addressed to her pupil, etc. The sustainability of phrases-quotations is very relative, and over time, they can either become a natural part of language with no traces of their sources, or fade from memory with no traces of themselves. Conclusion Current phraseological stock of youth Vietnamese language is the open dynamic system continuously reviving. It consists of both semantically motivated phraseological units, which are formed on the base of metaphorical renovation, and significant quantity of semantically unmotivated phrases, constructed on merely phonetical-rhythmical principles. Some of these units have already taken their steady place in the national spoken language. Recently, various transformed phraseological units (thành ngữ, tục ngữ, ca dao) have also become widespread. They have both merely ridiculous, comical effect and also allowing to watch changing values and guiding lines of youth consciousness and worldview. Youth phraseological stock of the Vietnamese language is re-stocking the spoken language with new phraseological units, it is actively used in current mass media and the Internet communication. Therefore, the investigation of the phraseological discourse of the Vietnamese youth community is, undoubtedly, actual and significant practically.

About the authors

V. A Andreeva

Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: andreeva_va@iling-ran.ru
Researcher

References

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