A Comparative Study Of Spatial Demonstratives In Chinese And Russian

The language of spatial demonstratives refers to vocabulary or grammatical structures used to express or describe spatial relationships,including the position,orientation,and distance of participants.Spatial demonstratives help speakers and listeners accurately understand each other’s references to spatial locations during communication.Spatial demonstratives in all languages worldwide typically encode at least two forms of spatial relationships: proximal(near)and distal(far);and Chinese and Russian are no exceptions to this pattern.However,due to different linguistic types of Chinese and Russian,speakers of these languages exhibit certain commonalities and individualities when using spatial demonstratives,and this is influenced by the convergence of human cognition.This paper explores and interprets important issues,such as the relationship between language,cognition,and reality from a cognitive experience perspective.The research employs descriptive explanations,comparative analyses,and empirical studies to contrastively analyze Chinese and Russian spatial demonstratives.It investigates the physical and psychological worlds that speakers adhere to when choosing spatial demonstratives.From the perspectives of distance,size,emotion,sequence,visibility and viewpoint,the paper analyzes the influences on the selection process of spatial demonstratives in Chinese and Russian.Its specific chapters are introduced as follows:Introduction: This chapter introduces the research objectives and significance,reviews the current domestic and international research status of Chinese and Russian spatial demonstratives,and outlines the research methods.Chapter 1: Starting with a general overview of the relevant content of spatial demonstratives,this chapter defines spatial demonstratives based on the research of predecessors.It summarizes the existing research results and categorizes spatial demonstratives into dialogue deixis and narrative deixis;autodeixis(speaker’s location)and heterodeixis(excluding speaker’s location);entity reference deixis and place reference deixis;and direct deixis and indirect deixis.Chapter 2 mainly compares the usage of Chinese spatial demonstratives of"这"and"那"with Russian spatial demonstratives of"этот"and"тот".First,it elaborates on the category features of Chinese spatial demonstratives of"这"and"那"and Russian spatial demonstratives of"этот"and"тот."The derived forms of Chinese spatial demonstratives include这会儿,这么,这样,这么样,那会儿,那么,那样,and那么样,while the different inflections and forms of Russian spatial demonstratives areэта,этого,этому,этой,та,того,тому,andтой.Subsequently,the usage of these demonstratives is thoroughly analyzed from the perspectives of direct indication,explicit reference,implicit reference,etc.Finally,this chapter summarizes the commonalities and differences between Chinese spatial demonstratives of"这"and"那"and Russian spatial demonstratives of"этот"and"тот."Chapter 3 focuses on a comparative study of the usage of Chinese spatial expressions of"这里","这儿","那里"and"那儿"and Russian spatial expressions of"здесь","тут","там"and"вон".It further explores the specific applications of these words in direct location indication and explicit reference.Initially,the analysis delves into semantic features,syntactic functions,indicative characteristics,etc.separately for Chinese expressions of"这里","这儿","那里"and"那儿"and Russian expressions of"здесь","тут","там"and"вон".Finally,this chapter summarizes the commonalities and differences between Chinese spatial expressions if"这里","这儿","那里"and"那儿"and Russian spatial expressions of"здесь","тут","там"and"вон".Chapter 4 primarily analyzes the impact of distance and emotion on the selection of spatial demonstratives in Chinese and Russian.In Chinese,besides physical distance,psychological distance significantly influences the choice of spatial demonstratives.In Russian,physical distance often serves as the primary factor for determining proximity and remoteness in demonstratives’ selection.Emotions also play a role in influencing spatial demonstratives in both languages.Positive emotions tend to favor the selection of proximal demonstratives,with people preferring words that express spatial proximity.Conversely,negative emotions prefer the use of distal demonstratives,with individuals choosing words that indicate spatial distance when expressing spatial references.Chapter 5 primarily analyzes the impact of size and sequence on the selection of spatial demonstratives in Chinese and Russian.From an experimental design perspective,size serves as an independent variable,while the choice of proximal or distal demonstratives becomes a dependent variable.When objects of different sizes are indicated,there are notable differences in the selection of spatial demonstratives between Chinese and Russian.The influence of sequence effects is observed when the order of tasks is altered,leading individuals to exhibit different responses under the same conditions.Through experiments,it is concluded that both size and sequence have commonalities and differences in the selection of spatial demonstratives in Chinese and Russian.Chapter 6 primarily analyzes the impact of visibility and viewpoints on the selection of spatial demonstratives in Chinese and Russian.Through experiments,it is revealed that visibility is an active perceptual process aimed at shaping thinking,enabling individuals to analyze and effectively differentiate relevant information.Observed viewpoints of an object sometimes deviate from its actual angle,and the choice of demonstratives depends on whether the speaker opts to describe the event from his/her own viewpoint or from the viewpoints of his/her interlocutor(if the interlocutor’s viewpoint is accepted).