A Comparative Study Of Spatial Concepts "Up,Down,Front,Back" In Mandarin Chinese And Thai

Adopting the structural theory of functionalism and the fundamental concepts of cognitive linguistics to the corpus analysis of the authentic language use,this paper comprehensively describes how the spatial concepts of "up","down","front" and "back" can be grammatically revealed in modern Mandarin Chinese and Thai.The study includes the grammatical characteristics of the relevant spatial expressions,the image schemas of these four words,their metaphorical meanings,and the similarities and differences between the two languages concerning the aforementioned aspects.Mandarin Chinese and Thai share a lot of similarities.For example,both are isolating languages and there are no morphological changes in relation to gender,singular or plural nouns and tenses.The two languages also have the same basic sequence of sentence:subject+predicate+object.However,there are many differences between Mandarin Chinese and Thai and one of them is the spatial concepts.According to the Thai grammatical system,there are no "nouns of locality" like in Mandarin Chinese.The concepts of directions in Thai are usually expressed by using prepositions,adverbs,nouns and verbs Thai.Evidently a portion of spatial concepts in Thai is different from Mandarin Chinese with respect to semantics and grammar.As a hot spot of Mandarin researches,the study about nouns of locality has achieved a great variety of findings.However,the Thai scholars have done very few researches on the spatial concepts in Thai.Consequently,the achievements are mostly lacking in further interpretation from the perspectives such as differentiation and fundamental explanation of part of speech.Needless to say,there are few researches comparing the nouns of locality in Mandarin Chinese and Thai.Spatial concepts are essential for human communication.It is indispensable knowledge for learning and teaching of a new language.Hopefully by comparing the similarities and differences between the spatial concepts in Mandarin Chinese and Thai,this study will not only deepen the understanding of spatial concepts of the two languages but also benefit those who teach Mandarin Chinese and Thai to foreigners.The main body of this paper is divided into eight chapters and the summary of each chapter is as follows:Chapter 1 is an introduction,presenting the importance of research hypothesis,the objectives and benefits of this study,the research scope,the data sources,the methodology and theories used in the research,and the related literature review.Chapter 2 describes the grammatical characteristics and cognitive semantics of the spatial concept "up" in Mandarin Chinese and Thai.According to the findings,the Chinese word "Shang"can be used more variously when compared with its Thai equivalent."hang" cn function as a morpheme or be used together with a preposition a noun.It can also be a verb(predicate or complement of a sentence).However,it is found that the lexical characteristics and grammatical structures of the spatial concept "up" in Thai are more complicated.The spatial concept of "up"(static relation)in Thai can be expressed by using the word "(?)"(preposition,adverb and noun)and "mua"(preposition)while the spatial concept of "up"(dynamic relation)is conveyed by using the word "(?)"(verb,adverb and preposition).The differences of the cognitive semantics of the spatial concept "up" between Mandarin Chinese and Thai are as follows."Shang" has totally 18 image schemas(14 related to positional meaning and 4 indicating movement direction)while "(?)" has 12,"(?)(?)5 and "(?)" 4 image schemas.Chapter 3 describes the grammatical characteristics and cognitive semantics of the spatial concept "down" in Mandarin Chinese and Thai.According to the findings,the Chinese word "Xia"can be used more variously when compared with its Thai equivalent."Xia" can function as a morpheme or be used together with a preposition a noun.It can also be a verb(predicate or complement of a sentence).However,it is found that the lexical characteristics and grammatical structures of the spatial concept "down" in Thai are more complicated.The spatial concept of"down"(static relation)in Thai can be expressed by using the word "(?)"(adverb)and "(?)"(preposition)while the spatial concept of "down"(dynamic relation)is conveyed by using the word "(?)"(verb,adverb and preposition).In contrast to Thai,"Xia" is the only word used to express the spatial concept "down" in Mandarin Chinese.The differences of the cognitive semantics of the spatial concept "down" between Mandarin Chinese and Thai are as follows."Xia" has totally 9 image schemas(6 related to positional meaning and 3 indicating movement direction)while "(?)" has 4,"(?)6 and "(?)" 4 image schemas.Chapter 4 describes the grammatical characteristics and cognitive semantics of the spatial concept "front" in Mandarin Chinese and Thai.According to the findings,"Qian" is an agglutinative word and a postposition that in general cannot be used solely and cannot function as a sentence element in Mandarin Chinese.The analysis indicates that the spatial concept "front" in Thai is expressed differently from Mandarin Chinese because its actual part of speech depends on the sentence structure and the word position.Generally the Thai word "(?)"(preposition,adverb and noun)is used to express the spatial concept "front".The differences of the cognitive semantics of the spatial concept "front" between Mandarin Chinese and Thai are as follows."Qian" has 7 image schemas(6 related to positional meaning and 1 indicating movement direction)while "(?)" has 6 image schemas(5 related to positional meaning and 1 indicating movement direction).There is one different image schema between the two languages due to their different spatial concept.Chapter 5 describes the grammatical characteristics and cognitive semantics of the spatial concept "back" in Mandarin Chinese and Thai.According to the findings,the Chinese word "Hou"is a spatial word that cannot be used solely and cannot function as a sentence element.The analysis reveals that the spatial concept "back" in Thai is expressed by using the word "in"(preposition,adverb and noun).The differences of the cognitive semantics of the spatial concept "back" between Mandarin Chinese and Thai are as follows."Hou" has 7 image schemas(6 related to positional meaning and 1 indicating movement direction)while "(?)" has 7 image schemas(6 related to positional meaning and 1 indicating movement direction).Besides,the Thai word "(?)" can be used to express the spatial concept "up" and can be replaced by using the word "(?)"(preposition).Chapter 6 describes the characteristics of orientational metaphor in Mandarin Chinese and Thai.According to the findings,the Chinese words "Shang" and "Xia" which are used to express the spatial concepts "up" and "down" respectively can generate 6 metaphorical meanings:time,order,social hierarchy,states,quantity and scope.Meanwhile the Thai words "(?)" and "(?)"conveying the spatial concepts "up" and "down" can create 4 metaphorical meanings:social hierarchy,states,quantity and scope.The orientational metaphor in Mandarin Chinese appears in the word level while that of the Thai language is mostly seen in the sentence level.The two languages share metaphorical similarities of the spatial concepts "up","down","front" and "back",but there are some differences of the word usage between them.In Thai there are fixed words and one cannot be used to replace another.The significant difference of orientational metaphor between Mandarin Chinese and Thai is about time metaphors.In Mandarin Chinese the spatial concepts "up","down","front"and "back" can be expressed as time metaphors while the Thai language uses only the spatial concepts "front" and "back".Chapter 7 describes the similarities and differences of grammatical characteristics,cognitive semantics and orientational metaphor that can lead to possible mistakes in expressing the spatial concepts "up","down","front" and "back" in Mandarin Chinese and Thai.Recommendations on teaching the spatial concepts in Mandarin Chinese and Thai for foreign learners are also included:more lessons on comparison and linkage between grammar and cognitive semantics,more activities to develop learners' critical thinking skills,and more relevant content to better understanding of Chinese and Thai cultures.Chapter 8 is the conclusion part.It summarizes the main content and research findings discussed in this paper.