A semantic analysis of the locative word “ngoài”
Abstract
A locative word is a word that denotes direction and location. The word “ngoài” (outside) is one of the Vietnamese locative words, typically occurring in the structure “ngoài X”. This study aims to analyze the semantic structure of the spatial term ngoài (“outside”) in the construction “ngoài X” from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, based on the theoretical frameworks of conceptual metaphor and image schema. The research employs a combination of descriptive and quantitative methods. The linguistic data are drawn from the novel Mãi không nhắm mắt (comprising 264,400 characters). This study finds that the locative word “ngoài” in the structure “ngoài X” has a relatively low frequency of use (0.617‰) and conveys both spatial and non-spatial meanings. In its spatial meaning, the reference object of this locative word may belong to four types of space: zero-dimensional space, one-dimensional space, two-dimensional space, and three-dimensional space. In its non-spatial meaning, the locative word “ngoài” exhibits four types of metaphorical extensions: (1) domain; (2) organization or institution; (3) environment or circumstance; and (4) time.