Typological Approach To Semantics And Syntax Of English Dimensional Adjectives And Chinese Dimensional Adjectives

This thesis focuses on fourteen dimensional adjective pairs on the basis of thecognitive linguistic theory to make a typological insight into the semantic and syntacticfeatures of English dimensional adjectives and Chinese dimensional adjectives to find outtheir similarities and differences with spatial cognitive interpretation. It comes to thefindings:(1) Semantically, the similarities and differences of English dimensional adjectivesand Chinese dimensional adjectives co-exist in semantic content and semantic structure.The common points in semantic content: both of them are characterized with [+space],[+dimension],[+measure],[+property value],[+direction], etc.; the hierarchy of theirmetaphorical extensions in targets is sensations＞quantity＞quality＞time＞emotions＞social status＞natural phenomena＞sickness; there are inter-language and inner-languageasymmetrical distribution of non-spatial metaphors in both English dimensional adjectivesand Chinese dimensional adjectives; the peculiarities in semantic content: the non-spatialmetaphors of English dimensional adjectives are mainly in target domains of sensations,time, quantity and quality, on the contrary, Chinese’s in sensations, quantity, quality andtime; their different semantic capacity and subcategories:“gao(高)” VS “high/tall”;“di(低)/ai(矮)” VS “low”;“kuan(宽)” VS “wide/broad”;“cu(粗)/xi(细)” VS “thick2/thin2”;“hou(厚)/bao(薄)” VS “thick1/thin1”; the shared features on semantic structure: both ofthem with [+gradability],[+temporality],[+subjectivity], etc.; the distinct points onsemantic structure: the English dimensional adjectives with [+zero assignment],[-volition],[-dynamics],[-referentiality],[-ambiguity] but the Chinese dimensional adjectives with [+referentiality],[-zero assignment],[+volition],[+dynamics],[+ambiguity] and[+self-control], etc..(2) Syntactically, both of English and Chinese dimensional adjectives can be asnominal pre-modifier and object complement, but the former also can be nominalpost-modifier (in a phrase form) and predicative while the latter can act as predicate, object,resultative and subject complement in a sentence. As to their typical syntactic constructions,both of them can enter comparative, evaluation, question, copy, quantification andmodifieradconstructions but only Chinese dimensional adjectives can be used in imperativeconstruction.(3) Typologically, English dimensional adjectives are a type of “nouny adjectives”while Chinese dimensional adjectives are “verbal adjectives”; their intrinsic semanticproperties to a great extent, can predict their syntactic behaviors and on the contrary, theirdifferent semantics will result in various syntactic structures. The similarities anddifferences on spatial cognition of different nations lead to the discrepancies of themeanings of corresponding words thus further to affect their syntactic behaviors.