A Comparative Study of the Locative Word Between Chinese Word " li " and Thai Word " nai"

Abstract

As an important spatial concept, locative words have always held a special place in the modern Chinese word class system. This paper took the Chinese high frequency locative word " Li " as the main research object. Underpinned by cognitive linguistics as the theoretical framework, this paper explored three aspects of the specific spatial location concepts, extending time concepts and other abstractions. The comparative analysis of Chinese position words “Li” and Thai word “Nai” indicated both similarities and differences in the spatial meaning, grammatical meaning and extended meaning in the practical application between the Chinese and Thai language environments. The findings revealed that the locative word " Li " presented different characteristics in varied language environments. Also, the results can offer valuable suggestions and references for language learning activities and teaching Chinese as a foreign language in both China and Thailand.