A Contrastive Study On Semantics Of Chinese-English Commonly Used Words

The present study belongs to the category of contrastive linguistics. Taking the Chinese-English commonly used words in HSK and ESL word lists as the major research objects, we adopted quantitative and qualitative, descriptive and interpretative, microscopic and macroscopic research methodologies to describe, compare and interpret the semantic system of Chinese-English commonly used words. As a part of the vocabulary system, the semantic system of commonly used words is made up of semantic distribution, hyponymy, polysemy, synonymy, antonymy. With the view of systematic approach, the thesis studied the semantic system of Chinese and English commonly used words comprehensively and deeply. It provided necessary data to prove its result, as well as the character of its semantic system. Through the thorough and careful analysis on the universality and the individuality of semantic system of commonly used words in Chinese and English, we formed a basic frame for the contrast between them to reveal the difference and similarity in the semantic system and explore the part they would play in second language teaching. In addition, the thesis explained the task and function of commonly used words convectively, which they undertook in daily communication.This thesis fell into six chapters.The first chapter was a general introduction to the study on vocabulary of Chinese-English, including the analysis on the feasibility of contrastive study on the semantics of Chinese-English commonly used words, the definition of commonly used words and the nature of HSK and ESL word lists, the aim and significance of the study, as well as the corpora and methodologies.The second chapter made a contrastive study on the commonly used words from the semantic perspective. Taking the Concise Chinese Meaning Dictionary as a frame, we counted and compared the semantic distribution of Chinese and English commonly used words. The results showed that the semantic distribution of Chinese and English covered large scope and the proportion of which tended to get balanced and uniform. As a result, the common core of language, commonly used words could undertake about 80% of the sociality task in daily communication. At the same time, the nature of the commonly used words, used by the whole civilian, could be displayed in this way. Otherwise, based on the universality, the hyponymy of commonly used words of Chinese-English owned different national individuality.The third chapter made a contrastive study on the commonly used words from the polysemy perspective. On the foundation of semantic distribution, the thesis investigated the sememes'component of the commonly used words. In the vocabulary system, most of the polysemy concentrated in commonly used words. In comparison with the integral polysemy condition of Chinese and English, the number of polysemy of commonly used words in both Chinese and English was twice as many as that of the whole vocabulary. The component index of polysemy also distributed evenly and similarly in the aspect of semantic classified collection. Polysemy, displaying the efficiency and the flexibility of language, was an essential condition of language efficiency. It is through the Polysemy that the essential nature of commonly used words, which were used with high frequency, could be manifested.The fourth chapter made a contrastive study on commonly used words from the synonymy perspective. Based on semantic distribution, the thesis inspected how the synonym of commonly used words distributed in the semantic distribution and the types of synonymy. Synonym had the function of explanation and substitution between words. Being language approach in common use, commonly used words developed abundant relationship with the other words. Most of the commonly used words in Chinese and English could form synonymy with the other words. The synonym of commonly used words in Chinese and English presented such universality that the synonym was proportionate to their polysemy. Meanwhile, majority of the synonym phrases were distributed in the same semantic classified collection.The fifth chapter made a contrastive study on commonly used words from the antonymy perspective. We studied the distribution and the types of antonym in semantic classified collection of commonly used words. Antonymy linked commonly used words with the unusual words. Antonym was a kind of reversed association, through which we could explain and replace words in an opposite way. Generally speaking, the types of antonym in Chinese and English distributed evenly. Of the three types, the number of relative antonym in the two languages was the largest, the next was the antipodal opposites and the least was correlation opposites. With the perspective of semantic distribution, most of the antonyms in Chinese and English commonly used words were distributed balanced, while the proportion of which differed slightly.The sixth chapter made a summary and analysis to the contrastive study on the semantic of commonly used words in Chinese and English. Also, the results of the thesis could be used in the field of second language teaching, translation and compilation of dictionary.