A Contrastive Study Of Semantic Asymmetry Between English And Chinese Equivalents

English and Chinese are distinct languages. In the comparison of the two languages, especially between their equivalents, a sense of semantic asymmetry often arises. This thesis intends to investigate into the phenomenon, clarify semantic asymmetry in interlingual equivalents and find out what brings it into existence between the English and Chinese languages.Starting with the literature review of E-C contrastive linguistics, lexical semantics and cognitive linguistics, the thesis is unfolded upon the verification of semantic asymmetry across languages by defining asymmetry and equivalents and distinguishing symmetry and equivalence so as to prove the universality of semantic asymmetry. To back up the universality of the asymmetry, comparative descriptions, evolution and analyses of the English and Chinese lexical equivalents are exemplified in three fields: color words, animal-plant words and neologisms. With the analysis of the semantic features of asymmetrical equivalents, four types of semantic asymmetry are identified: transposition, overlapping, misplacement, and vacancy. Finally, the three major causes of semantic asymmetry are investigated from linguistic, social and cognitive perspectives.The contribution of this thesis is the initial attempt to study the interlingual equivalents in the domain of semantics rather than translation. The successful distinction made between linguistic symmetry and linguistic equivalence helps identify the semantic asymmetry in interlingual equivalents. The originality of the thesis is manifested in the discovery of the semantic parameters in interlingual equivalents and the logical classification of semantic asymmetry across languages. The thesis, venturing beyond the frontier of the present contrastive studies of English-Chinese languages, is expected to illuminate further researches on semantic asymmetry across languages. It is also expected that the research will be useful to those who want to gain insight into the nature of language, translation between English and Chinese, TEFL in China, cross-cultural communication and bilingual dictionary compilation.