Abstract:
This study, framed within the metaphor theory of cognitive linguistics, analyzes the pragmatic frequency and characteristics of the Chinese spatial term "shang" among Thai learners of Chinese, based on natural learner corpora. The study explores the cognitive differences in expressing spatial relations with "shang." The results indicate that there are asymmetries in the spatial, temporal, and stative metaphorical representations of "shang" between Chinese and Thai. Consequently, Thai learners exhibit pragmatic errors in the actual use of "shang." To help learners better grasp the multidimensional usage of Chinese spatial terms and reduce error frequency, this study proposes pedagogical recommendations such as contextual-pragmatic training and contrastive grammar analysis.
