Comparative Study On Basic-level Category Vocabulary In Zhuang And Thai Language

Basic-level category theory is one of the important theories in cognitive linguistics.It reflects the most directly and fundamentally level which humans recognize the world.The basic-level category vocabulary is the conceptual system which solidifies what people realize the world in the most directly and fundamentally way.The basic-level category vocabulary in Zhuang and Thai language have the most distinguishing feature as well as reflecting the objective world most efficiently in vocabulary in these two languages.In this paper,we extracted the basic-level category vocabulary in Zhuang and Thai language in statistic,investigation and analytical method.And finally,we found 25 basic-level category words in Zhuang language and 23 in Thai language.According to the data we extracted,this paper analyse the features of word-building and combination and metaphor of the data,and then we put the features to be compared.And as a result,it had been found that there is similarity in the word-building and combination,when there is similarity as well as difference in metaphor.Basing on the comparason of features in basic-level category vocabulary in Zhuang and Thai language,this paper recognized that the Zhuang and Thai nationalities have commonanlities and differences in the way of thinking and the means of cognition.The commonanlities are:1.the two nationalities have the features of concreteness and original natrue;2.using concret and visual things to map the abstract and general things;3.the two nationalities have the same way of choosing metaphorimages.And the difference is that there are contrasted in the cognition of animal images which are pointing to different directions in the Zhuang and Thai nationalities.All these commonalities and difference origined from the simmilarity and unlikeliness of the geographical environment and culture custom in the two regions Zhuang and Thai lived.