A Preliminary Study On Extension Meaning Of The Word "Dao" From The Perspective Of Cultural Linguistics

Being the carrier of the distinctive culture of a nation, language is a very significant component in constructing the distinctive culture. At the same time, the distinctive culture of a nation pushes the development and transition of the language in turn, especially the development and transition of written words and vocabularies. Cultural linguistics is a subject which studies the relationship between language and culture. The research on cultural linguistics can not only deepen the understanding of the property of language and culture, but also make us better understand the characteristic and ways of thinking of people in the nation, so that the remodeling of the overall culture of the nation could be obtained. Based on this idea, an in-depth discussion on "Dao" which is one core concept of Chinese traditional ideology and culture was put forward in this paper. Following with concentrating on the character pattern evaluation and combing the process of "Dao", the meaning in forms and the theory of cognate characters to infer the original sense of "Dao" was elaborated. Nearly eleven senses of meaning of "Dao" was found from reference books. And then extending procession of "Dao" by means of diachronic analysis of the generating sequence of each sense and the characteristics of national culture and general rules extended from Chinese words meanings was strengthened. The extension of the meaning of "Dao" from a real road to abstract regularities and methods reflects the improvement of the level of cognition of the people at that time. At first, a preliminary introduction to the cognition of Chinese culture of "Dao" from the view of the heaven and earth was listed. Then, two people, Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi were briefly introduced to the cognition of Chinese culture of "Dao" from their theories of "Dao". To apply the research into the teaching of Chinese as a second language, a teaching plan of "Dao" was made. Through elaboration on the pattern and meaning of character "Dao", the possible cultural factors implicit on "Dao" were disclosed. Anyway, the cultural factors of "Dao" have great significance in recognizing our national culture.