A comparative study on the semantics of Chinese locative words “里 (li), 中 (zhong), 内 (nei)”

Abstract

“里 (LI), 中 (ZHONG), 内 (NEI)” are three locative words with similar meanings in Chinese. The article compares the semantics of them based on the results of quantitative analysis of large corpus. Results show that, “里” and “内” are both used with spatial meanings more than non-spatial meanings, “中” is used with non-spatial meanings more than spatial meanings. In terms of spatial meaning, they all have CONTAINER schema, they all have landmarks that are three-dimensional, twodimensional and one-dimensional spatial entities, they are often used with landmarks that are threedimensional spatial entities, but differ in the type of bấm cách mainly used three-dimensional space. In terms of non-spatial meaning, the number of meanings of them are not the same, “里” is mainly used to metaphorize the source of information or the means of conveying information, “中” is mainly used as a metaphor for psychological feelings and a metaphor for the human body or human body parts, “内” is mainly used as a metaphor for time.