Comparing "Shang" "Xia" And The Related Words In Both English And Chinese And International Chinese Teaching

The orientation word is one kind of special words in Chinese. The position relation of “Shang” and “Xia” is the basic concept of spatial position, many languages have the similar and objective experience to the spatial position, but every language has the great difference of metaphorical meanings from their basic spatial position meanings. The English words of orientation have more restrictions of using than the Chinese, but the Chinese words of orientation have more extension meanings than the English. It is very difficult to decide which orientation words should be used in different places. In the two languages, English and Chinese, we are according to the transfer position of subject and object to make sure the real relation of spatial position.But we have to know just one Chinese orientation word can match several different English orientation words in many places. Sometimes, they are not the same character of words. This inequality is not just the semantic inequality, but more inequality of people’s cognitive style and cultural identity. In Chinese, preposition and orientation words are the totally different words, they play different roles in the descriptions of spatial position. However, in English, preposition takes the function of orientation words. The purpose of this paper is to find the universality and individuality of Chinese and English orientation words by the means of semantic features analysis and comparative analysis. By the analysis of finding their relationship between basic meanings and metaphor meanings in Chinese and English orientation words, I will analyze the different paths of metaphor in the two languages. Besides, I would like to have a try to make some suggestions to our Chinese orientation words teaching, to expect to make positive influence to the language studies.