1 INTRODUCTION Necessity of the Study 1.1 Adjectives of size are one of the basic lexical fields in the Russian and Vietnamese lexicon They are the special quality adjectives denoting the entities’ properties conceived and divided by human beings They have both general and specific features in terms of cognition and the culture and language of each nation 1.2 The real world is like a picture perceived by human and recreated through language and the language mapping That picture of the world and the view associated with it in the peoples speaking different languages have similarities and differences Through the survey and contrast analysis, the dissertation is to find out these similarities and differences in the structuring of the relations and the spatial properties in general and those of size in particular 1.3.Presently, the requirements for the intensive teaching and learning of foreign languages demand a comprehensive and thorough analysis of the lexical fields, in which the lexical subfield of spatial size exists The results of the dissertation are to make some contributions to making Russian and Vietnamese teaching more effective for the students of Russian as well as the Vietnamese ones Literature review - With the introduction of Cognitive Linguistics in the world, many works based on the cognitive views have proposed the basic principles of Cognitive Linguistics, of which the most important is “Language is not a self-governing ability of cognition; semantics and grammar are conceptualization; language knowledge arises from the use of language - In Vietnam, since the early 1990s, Cognitive Linguistics has become a new linguistic tendency Many research projects on space from a cognitive perspective have gone beyond the scope of traditional linguistics and have raised many important points such as: + Cognitive Linguistics aims to conduct an overall comprehensive study on the cognitive functions of language 2 + Cognitive Linguistics is a door to people’s spiritual and intellectual world, and a means to achieve the secrets of the thinking process, the focus of the study shifted from thinking to consciousness, concerned with the conceptualisation and categorization of the objective world + The formation of the conceptual structure is closely related to people’s experience and cognitive strategies + The meaning of language is not limited within the language system itself, but derives from the experience gained in the interaction between people and the world, between their knowledge and belief systems Objectives, Scope and Data Sources of the Study: The dissertation deals with adjectives of size in Russian: высокий низкий, глубокий – мелкий, толстый - тонкий, длинный - короткий, широкий - узкий, большой - маленький in contrast with equivalent ones in Vietnamese: cao (high) - thấp (low),sâu (deep) – nông (shallow) , dày (thick) - mỏng (thin), dài (long) - ngắn (short) , rộng (wide) - hẹp (narrow), to (big) - nhỏ (small) The dissertation focuses on the semantic features of the adjectives of size, the size location mechanism, the size cognition mechanism and the uses of the above adjectives The data used in the study are collected from the Russian – Vietnamese Dictionary, Vietnamese – Russian Dictionary or other Russian and Vietnamese dictionaries, coursebooks, textbooks, studies, doctoral dissertations, master theses, the literary works, etc The Aims and Tasks of the Study 4.1 The Aims of the Study The study aims to: a Contribute to clarifying the semantic features of adjectives of size in Russian and Vietnamese, especially to identifying the meanings and meaning traits which have not been provided in dictionaries, or have not been clarified, or have been generalized but need describing in more details b Contribute to clarifying the cognition mechanism of space in general and that of size in particular by the Russian and Vietnamese 3 c Apply the research results to the teaching and learning of Russian in Vietnam, and propose suggestions to correct errors in using size adjectives by learners of Russian 4.2 Tasks of the study The study is conducted with the following tasks: a Describing and analyzing the semantic features of adjectives of size in Russian and Vietnamese on the basis of linguistic data from the dictionaries to clarify the systematic relations between words and their meanings b Contrasting the meanings and expression manners of the spacial properties of the adjectives of size in Russian and Vietnamese through their collocations with spatial entities with a view to pointing out similarities and differences in the semantic structure of these adjectives c Identifying the similarities and differences in the mechanism and manners of spacial cognition by the Russian and Vietnamese through the relations between thought, culture and language d Pointing out cultural and linguistic cross-sections and causes of errors by learners of Russian, and proposing solutions to restricting errors and error correction in Russian teaching and learning Methodology of the Study: To implement the study, we use the following basic methods: 5.1 Description and analysis 5.2 Contrastive analysis 5.3 Statistics and classification 5.4 Survey and experimental method Contributions of the dissertation - This is the first dissertation dealing with adjectives of size in Russian and Vietnamese in the bilingual and inter-cultural patterns These adjectives are studied in the light of the spacial cognition in threeaspect relationships: thought, language and culture - The dissertation has a practical value not only of helping understand more deeply with a deeper look at the spacial cognition of Russian and Vietnamese nations, but also making some contributions to improving the quality of Russian teaching and learning, the translation from Russian into Vietnamese and vice versa The Design of the Study The dissertation has four chapters: Chapter 1: Concepts and Basic Premises related to the dissertation Chapter 2: Semantic Features of Adjectives of Size in the Vertical Direction Chapter 3: Semantic Features of Adjectives in the Horizontal Direction Chapter 4: An Application of the study to teaching and learning Russian and Vietnamese - The dissertation ends up with the introduction, conclusion, references, appendices and other related research CHAPTER CONCEPTS AND BASIC PREMISES RELATED TO THE DISSERTATION 1.1 Contrastive Analysis of Language from the Perspectives of Language, Thought and Culture The objective world is a continuous chain, but that world, as it is reflected in thought and consciousness, is restructured in each specific language of each nation and bear idiosyncratic characteristics Language, thought (or broader: cognition) and culture have a close relationship with each other Language is the place where to store and express the characteristics of the national culure, and it is a criterion to identify the nation Language is a real mirror of the national culture We contrast languages in a certain aspect to figure out the similarities and differences between them, and discover useful and valuable information for the understanding of national identity and the cognition of different nations with their languages Semantics and Lexical-semantic fields Congnitive Linguistics considers language a mental competence, and human language ability is defined as a cognitive ability, process and strucutre in interaction with other abilities, processes and structures (such as perception, thought, memory, attention, and learning) Cognitive Semantics stresses the role of human factors in the language, paying attention to the experience, and focusing on the analysis of concept and conceptualization, category and categorization The semantics of each language reflects the outlook, thinking, or perception manners and conceptualization of the native speakers’ objective world and their cultural-lingustic community Different nations may see the world with some dissimilarity through their language prism The semantic structure, therefore, is both universal and idiosyncratic Cognitive Semantics particularly investigates some “lexical-semantic fields”(such as of space, time, colour, emotions, etc.), which have their idiosyncratic characteristics Spacial field is one of the lexical-semantic fields bearing their peculiar national culture in language thought, expressed through the spatial structure The group of size adjectives which we investigate in this dissertation is a lexical sub-field of the spatial field Adjectives and those of size Russian adjectives have the following properties: denoting the state and quality of people, objects and phenomena in the objective world, e.g белый, длинный, etc.; gradable and nongradable, e.g.: очень хороший, etc.; adjective – noun agreement in morphology, e.g.синнее небо, большой дом, etc.; adjectives used as nouns: новое, данное, столовая, etc Apart from the descriptive meaning, adjectives have pragmatic meaning, the relation between language units – adjectives and the users Unlike Russian, Vietnamese adjectives are characterized by: The lexical and grammatical meanings without their own morphological structure and without adjectives of relations and belonging Adjectives of size in Russian have the same morphological, syntactical and semantic features as other adjectives They also denote peculiar properties such as quality – evaluation (качественно - оценочное); the relative properties of objects classified by human in evaluative location; in the contrast of each pair in terms of meaning; as polysemantic adjectives with open structure for a certain number of senses Language space from the perspective of linguistic cognition Adjectives of size are used to denote the properties of spacial entities Space conceived in human thought and conciousness is not the objective physical space but the space refracted through the human perception influenced by cultural factors and experiences of the community and the individual human beings Space in general include objective physical space, space (be) conceived and space (expressed) in language Language space differs from objective physical space in the outside world as well as from space which is reflected in the human brain as a cognitive subject Language space is the result of selective reflection of space conceived, which means that language space does not reflect the whole cognitive space Related to the common properties of language space (such as shape, distance, posture, location, direction, etc) and spatial dimensions, the dissertation has identified and clarified the following concepts: 1.4.4 The Concept of Reference points 1.4.5 The Concept of Direction 1.4.6 The Concept of Position 1.4.7 The Concept of Size Scale 1.4.8 Properties of Identified Standard Objects 1.4.9 Especially H Clark’s theory about: - Identification of objects in space - People as the center of space cognition - Peculiar biologial formation by which human beings can perceive themselves, objects, space, time and relationships between them - Referring to the outlook of people and space from many angles According to the geographers: people’s location and their surroundings, gravity and Earth’s plane In physicists’ and geometricians’ viewpoint, the location of an object in space is always in consideration with other objects in space From the biologists’ standpoint: the human body and many parts of the human body are nearly symmetrical with each other on the right and left sides by a vertical line, along the center of the body Human beings have a complex cognitive structure with symmetrical sides - The concept of language space “L-Space”, the concept of reference point… CHAPTER SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE ADJECTIVES OF SIZE IN THE VERTICAL DIRECTION высокий – низкий, глубокий – мелкий, cao thấp, sâu nông, dày – máng (High – Low, Deep – shallow, thick – thin) Semantic features of adjectives of size denoting the concepts of height - low: высокий – низкий; cao (high) – thÊp (low) The semantic contrast of the adjectives of size высокий – низкий; cao – thÊp on the basis of linguistic data from Russian and Vietnamese dictionaries shows: + There is a relatively large difference in the numbers of meanings in general высокий (7) (∗) - Cao (4); низкий (6) - ThÊp (3) + A distinction lies in the numbers of spatial denotations : высокий (1) - Cao (2) + There is no difference in the positions in the order of spatial denotations, which are in the first place Adjectives высокий – низкий; cao – thÊp denote the concepts of height and low with the basic properties: stretch; location; space from one to three dimensions; upward – an object measured from bottom to top or from top to bottom; reference point in space considered the unmarked original plane, (незaметная плоскость): ground, the plane of (∗) The number in brackets is the number of senses 8 the water in the seas, rivers, lakes, … and marked derivative plane, (заметная плокость) the planes of the furniture, the floor, the book in horizontal dimension, etc… Regarding the uses of the adjectives denoting the concepts of HEIGTH, LOW, we can see that: the adjectives высокий – низкий; cao – thÊp combine with the words denoting different entities in space: human, animals, hills, mountains, mounds; trees and grasses; construction works; labour tools, entertainment, activities, means of transport; sky, clouds, moon, stars etc From the spacial cognitive perspective on the senses and uses of the two pairs of Russian – Vietnamese adjectives it can be shown that: - Man is the most complex entity compared with other animal species and inanimate objects: man is both the subject directly involved in the process of space location and an objective entity located - The standard of height – the implicit standard has the variability, changing over time, social conditions and economy The standard of height is influenced by human feelings and depends on many factors such as human shape, clothes, color and subjectivity The observer takes himself as a basis for evaluation and comment - In Russian and Vietnamese, the meanings of stretch and position are explicit - In some cases, the contexts of the meaning of the object’s position are “hidden”, which causes ambiguity in cognition, especially when the Vietnamese not use prepositions - The phenomena of meaning shift, implicitness, and implication from Russian into Vietnamese are interesting In these cases the Vietnamese have to use similar adjectives to express the similar sense of size Semantic features of adjectives of size denoting the concepts of DEPTH and SHALLOWNESS: ; sâu nông It is revealed in the semantic contrast of the adjectives of size ; sâu nông (deep shallow) on the basis of linguistic data from Russian and Vietnamese dictionaries that: + There is a difference in the numbers of meanings in general - The adjective pair мелкий - n«ng (shallow) bears a relatively large difference in the number of meanings: мелкий (6) - n«ng (2) - The adjective pair глубокий - s©u has the same number of meanings: глубокий (6) - s©u (6), but the numbers of spatial deconcepts are different: глубокий - s©u The adjective глубокий - s©u is rich in the range of expression, carrying the meaning traits which not exist in Vietnamese + The order of size sense of the two adjectives глубокий - s©u is different: мелкий with the sense “shallow” is at the sixth position, but in Vietnamese nông in the same meaning is in the first one The adjectives глубокий – ; sâu nông denoting the concept of DEPTH and SHALLOWNESS have the basic properties: the stretch, the distance from the surface to the bottom, or to a certain point downwards, the distance to the surface, edge; three-dimensional space, hollowness, concaveness, depth With regard to the uses of adjectives denoting the concepts of DEPTH and SHALLOWNESS , it can be seen that: the adjectives ; sâu nông have collocations with words denoting the following spatial entities: the entities with great depth: пруд - ao (pond), река - s«ng (river), море - biĨn (sea), пучина - vùc (abyss) ; the entities with a depth, stretching horizontally: ров - hào (trench), - thung lũng (valley), - mơng (dike) ; ; entity with a depth, self-containedness, containing: пещера - hang (cave), - côngtenơ (container) ; entities as human body, parts: носовая впадина - hèc mòi (nasal cavity), ротовая полость - khoang miÖng (oral cavity), … It can be seen in the senses and uses of the two pairs of RussianVietnamese adjectives from the spacial cognitive perspective that: - When denoting the concept of DEPTH, the Russian and Vietnamese have the same way to look at things: containedness, three-dimensional 10 space, hollowness, concaveness, inwardness, a mouth edgedness, distance from top to bottom, depth and stretching depth - The description of the spatial entities of self-containedness and containing depends on the positions of the observer – the objects described as s©u (deep) or s©u (long), depending on the observing position - The entities such as trời (sky), vũ trụ (universe) are both high and far, vast, and difficult to imagine, but in the human mind, “trời”, and “vũ trụ” are limited (horizon), looking like a building dome, towards the mouth, edging toward the Earth, with a depth - shallowness, height lowness - When denoting the LENGTH and position of these adjectives, Russian people’s expression of meaning is more explicit than the Vietnamese’s in many cases Semantic features of adjectives of size denoting the concepts of THICKNESS and THINNESS: толстый – тонкий; dµy – máng The semantic contrast of the adjectives of size толстый – тонкий; dµy – máng (thick - thin) on the basis of linguistic data from Russian and Vietnamese dictionaries indicates that: + The numbers of senses in general of толстый – тонкий; dµy – máng are not similar: толстый ( 3) – dµy (4); тонкий (5) – máng (2) + The positions and numbers of spatial denotations bear similarity: both in the first position; толстый - dµy, has two senses; тонкий – máng one Adjectives толстый – тонкий; dµy – máng denoting the concepts of THICKNESS and THINNESS have basic properties of: stretch, distance between two surfaces or edges, vertical, three-dimensional, external, deep, no properties of the position The uses of the adjectives denoting the concepts of THICKNESS and THINNESS can be shown that the adjectives толстый – тонкий; dµy – máng can be collocated with spatial entities of the following types: 11 Strata, layers, blocks: - băng (ice), - đất (soil), - bê tông (concrete), - tuyết (snow); bc: - têng (wall), картина - bøc tranh (picture); thanh: полено- cñi (wood chip of wood), меч - kiÕm (sword); tấm: доска - tÊm v¸n (plank), облицовочная плитка - tÊm gạch lát (floor tiles); viờn: - viên gạch (brick), - viên thuốc (tablet); lỏ: - th (letter), флаг - l¸ cê (flag), селезёнка - l¸ l¸ch (spleen); cõy, cc, gy: - cọc gỗ mun (ebony pile), - sào (pole), - gËy tre (bamboo stick), lát: кружок колбасы - l¸t giò (slice of lean pie), - lát bánh ga t« (slice of gateau); air, fog, mist, smoke: дымовая завеса - mµn khãi (smoke screen), столб дыма - cét khãi (column of smoke), росинка - giät s¬ng (dewdrop) It can be seen in the senses and uses of the two pairs of RussianVietnamese adjectives from the spacial cognitive perspective that: - Spatial perceptions of the Russians and the Vietnamese are basically similar in nature the sense of dµy (thick) denotes size, shape of the object and ordered first in the dictionary - The numbers of senses of тонкий – thin in Russian and Vietnamese are different, indicating the implications of cognition, thoughts, and associations When describing the human body, body parts and objects of cylindrical shape cây, cọc, gậy, there are differences in spatial perception by the Russian and Vietnamese The Russian regarded human body, and body parts as cylindrical objects, and thickness as a two-plane section, while the Vietnamese notice the breadth of a cylindrical object, thus causing the meaning shift; unlike Russian, the Vietnamese often use: to, lớn, to bè, mập béo, rộng, or nhỏ, gầy, mỏng, etc to describe - Objects denoting the sense of thickness in Russian and Vietnamese people’s congition and classification are various in types, sizes and materials To denote the objects with a size, thickness – thinness, Vietnamese has an extremely abundant system of nouns denoting units, 12 creating more flexibility, definiteness, and imagery … From the above survey of the semantic features of adjectives of size in the vertical direction высокий – низкий, глубокий – мелкий, толстый – тонкий // cao thấp, sâu nông, dày mỏng (high low, deep – shallow, thick – thin), we can conclude that: The cognition and determination of the size of spatial objects depend on the speaker’s position, reference plane elements, posture, sight, and observation as well as each nation’s “outlook”, perception, and thought The spatial cognition by the Russians and the Vietnamese is basically similar but in some cases not identical, causing the phenomenon of meaning shift CHAPTER SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE ADJECTIVES OF SIZE IN THE HORIZONTAL DIRECTION длинный – короткий, широкий – узкий, большой – маленький// dài- ngắn, rộng – hẹp, to – nhỏ (long – short , wide – narrow, big – small) Semantic features of adjectives of size denoting the concepts of LENGTH – SHORTNESS : According to the semantic contrast of the adjectives of size ; dài ngắn (long short) on the basis of linguistic data from Russian and Vietnamese dictionaries: + The numbers of senses of длинный – короткий; dµi ngắn are different: (3) - dài (5); (4) - ng¾n (2) + The numbers of senses denoting the basic size properties of spatial objects are similar (2 senses) and are ordered first and second Adjectives длинный – ; dài ngắn denote the concepts of LENGTH and SHORTNESS with the basic properties: stretch is the length in horizonal direction; reference plane; one dimension length; position: two points, reference points, and distance 13 Regarding the adjectives denoting the concepts of LENGTH and SHORTNESS, we can see that adjectives - ; dài ngắn can be collocated with the following spatial objects: a vertical cylindrical shapes: холм - ®åi (hill) , холм - ®åi (mountain), дом - nhµ (house); (human body parts), (thing), plants, trees: лицо - mỈt (face), - mắt (eyes), - chân (legs), - tãc (hair); as lakes, rivers and the sea: пруд - ao (ponds), озеро - hå (lakes), река - s«ng (river), море - biÓn (sea); route, airport, beaches, fields: путь - đờng (roads), - sân (yard), - cánh đồng (field); clothing, tools of labor, daily life: - quần dài (trousers), - áo sơ mi (shirts), - khăn quàng (scarves), - xẻng (shovels); villages, cities, towns and hamlets: деревня - lµng (village), город - thµnh (City) , деревушка – xãm (hamlet) … It can be seen in the senses and uses of the two pairs of RussianVietnamese adjectives from the spatial cognitive perspective that: Method and mechanism of cognition, description, denotations of LENGTH and SHORTNESS by the Russians and the Vietnamese are fairly similar - The adjectives ; dài - ngắn denote such general properties of objects as length, horizontal direction, point of reference, and distance There is no big difference in defining the size of the objects: person / body, lakes, rivers, sea, road, clothing, tools of labor, cities and villages … no big difference - In Russian, nouns denoting things, such as some species of animals, especially clothes, are divided into two types: * nouns denoting things with no element of size * nouns denoting things with elements of LENGTH The nouns denoting things contain these elements of LENGTH, which the Russian language does not need to use adjectives of length to describe, but when they are transferred into Vietnamese, Vietnamese must use the adjectives dài ngắn to describe 14 Semantic features of adjectives of size denoting the concepts of WIDTH - NARROWNESS : широкий – узкий; réng – hÑp (wide – narrow) According to the semantic contrast of the adjectives of size широкий – узкий; réng – hÑp (wide – narrow) on the basis of linguistic data from Russian and Vietnamese dictionaries: - The numbers of senses of adjective pairs in Russian and Vietnamese are almost the same: широкий (7) - réng (6); узкий (4)- hÑp (3) The numbers of senses denoting the basic size properties of width are nearly similar and ordered from the positions to 4: широкий (4) réng (4) Adjectives широкий – узкий; réng – hÑp denoting the concepts of WIDTH - NARROWNESS have the basic properties: - Rộng is the distance from one end to the other in the direction opposite to the length (i.e width of the object) -The length, position, two dimensions, width, reference points, wide distance, or horizontal or dependent posture occupying a large space, having edges As far as the uses of these adjectives are concerned, it can be seen that широкий – узкий; réng – hÑp can be collocated with the following spatial objects : The adjectives denoting WIDTH can combine with nouns denoting entities of some types below: Objects as roads, ports, yards: дорога - ®êng (roads), objects as houses, caves, caverns: дом, пещера, грот; objects as rivers, ditches, canals, tunnels, trenches, sea, lake: погреб - hầm (tunnels), - mơng (ditches), - hào (trenches), канал - kªnh (channel); objects as wood plank, … , plates, strips, pictures: доска - tÊm v¸n (plank), стена - bøc têng (walls), ковёр - tÊm th¶m (carpet); object is a human and animal body parts: глаз - m¾t (eyes), - chân (legs), - (teeth); objects as doors, windows, gates: дверь - cöa chÝnh (doors), арка - cỉng tß vß (archway), окно - cưa sỉ (windows); objects as villages, 15 cities, hills and mountains: деревня - làng (village), - thành phố (city), - đồi (hills), … It can be indicated in the senses and uses of the two pairs of RussianVietnamese adjectives from the spatial cognitive perspective that: - The Russian and Vietnamese have the same mechanism to locate and determine the width: the maximum size of an object is the length, and the other of the two no larger than the maximum size is the width Regarding the difference in cognition of spatial objects in term of the concept of WIDTH, the Russians are concerned with the side dimension of the object and consider width as a result measured from this side to the other; thus, so some human body parts such as đầu, mặt (head, face) cannot be told long and wide but regarded as plane and described by широкий Vietnamese people consider rộng (wide) the distance from one end to the other in the direction opposite to the length Therefore, to (big) is often be collocated with the nouns denoting body parts such as head and ears: đầu to (big head), tai to (big ears), etc Besides, the Vietnamese use rộng (wide) to describe such body parts as forehead, shoulder, jaw, and chest at a higher rate with the “aims” to express some cultural implications: loftiness, responsibility, scholarship, and vastness Semantic features of adjectives of size denoting the concepts of BIG and SMALL SIZE: большой – маленький; to – nhá According to the semantic contrast of the adjectives of size большой – маленький; to – nhá on the basis of linguistic data from Russian and Vietnamese dictionaries: - The numbers of senses of adjective pairs in Russian and Vietnamese are similar: большой (5) - to (4); маленький (3) – nhá (3) The numbers of senses denoting the size of the objects are the same (one sense) and ordered first of all senses The numbers of senses denoting the basic spatial properties of big size: In terms of the stretch and position senses, the properties of большой – маленький; to - nhá are: vertical, horizontal, upward, three- 16 dimensional, reference plane, and background plane Objects often have a block shape, three-dimensional space, occupying a large space, upright or horizontal direction and independent of the speaker’s observation position With regard to the uses of adjectives denoting the concepts of BIG and SMALL SIZE, it can be revealed that: the adjectives большой – маленький; to - nhá can be collocated with the following objects: types of house, car, container: дом - nhµ (house), машина - xe (car), машина - xe (container); types of human, animals, bars, piles, trees, columns: человек - ngêi (people), гиббон vợn (ape), - sồi (oak), - kiÕm (sword), весло - m¸i chÌo (oars), подпора - cäc (pile); type of chunk, block, heap, mound, hillock, slab: кусок - khóc (chunk), глыба - t¶ng khèi (block) , куча ®èng (heap), редут - (mound), нанос - cån (hillock); type of lump, piece, piece, , bulb, drops ; body parts of human and animals: сердце qu¶ tim (heart), - tai (ears), - bắp chân (calf), - phæi (lung); costumes, clothes, shoes, sandals, caps: пальто - áo bành tô (overcoat), - đôi ủng (boots), - mũ sắt (helmet), găng tay (gloves); sky, cloud, smoke, planet: - Trái đất (Earth), - Mặt trăng (Moon), - Kim (Venus) etc The spatial cognitive perspective on the senses and uses of the two pairs of Russian-Vietnamese adjectives shows that: - The “big” size of objects have the common properties: threedimensional space, block shapes, occupying a large space, vertical or horizontal direction and unaffected by the speaker’s observation position When combined with the adjectives большой – маленький; to nhá, the spatial objects has been classified by means of types and shape, e.g the properties of block shapes, three-dimensional cover, through entities, styles: house, car, mass, heap, mound, rock, piece, human body parts - Vietnamese people’s classification is more detailed, sophisticated and clear-cut than the Russians The Vietnamese often rely on the 17 "dominance" of things to create opposition, and sometimes on the simulation of images of other things, e.g., fruit - just fruit, round blocks -> đồi (hill), tim (heart ) From the survey on the e semantic features of adjectives of size in horizontal direction длинный - короткий, широкий , // dài- ngắn, rộng hÑp, to – nhá we can conclude that: - In terms of the number and position of senses, adjectives of size in horizontal direction in Russian and Vietnamese bear the similarities and differences but the similarities outweigh the differences In terms of the uses, the universal abnormal meaning traits of dài (ngắn), rộng (hẹp), to (nhỏ) have a high frequency in Russian and Vietnamese - Russian and Vietnamese people’s spatial cognition is only different in detail of determining the “large” size In terms of size denotation, as Russian has nouns denoting objects which imply the senses and properties of space, in the translation into Vietnamese, the Vietnamese adjectives of size are used for description CHAPTER AN APPLICATION OF THE STUDY TO TEACHING AND LEARNING RUSSIAN AND VIETNAMESE The similarities between adjectives of size in Russian and Vietnamese: - The numbers of basic adjectives denoting the concepts of HEIGHT, LENGHT, DEPTH, WIDTH, THICKNESS, and BIG SIZE vertically and horizontally in Russian and Vietnamese are the same, including 12 adjectives of size * adjectives in the vertical direction: высокий – низкий, глубокий – мелкий, толстый – тонкий // cao – thấp, sâu - nông, dày mỏng (high low, deep – shallow, thick – thin) * adjectives in the horizontal direction: 18 длинный – короткий, широкий - узкий, - // dài ngắn, rộng hẹp, to – nhá (length – short, wide – narrow,big – small) Although the numbers of senes of some words are different, they are similar in the position of senses denoting size in order in the Russian and Vietnamese dictionary - There are similarities in the denotation of the spatial properties of size adjectives - The similarities lie in the cognition of the shape and size of objects The basic differences in the cognition of objects by the Russian and Vietnamese – The difference in the reference standard and implicit standard when denoting the concept of HEIGHT – The difference in some words denoting objects with or without implied meaning of size – The difference in the classification system of words and words denoting units describing the spatial properties: the delimitation criteria, the basis of their classification Russian has three criteria: + denoting entities as a separate section, divided, physical and raw materials + denoting entities with geometric shapes: circular plane, block, square + denoting spatial objects as a complete whole, implying spatial properties in themseves, represented by nouns, no adjectives, accompanying words denoting units as in Vietnamese Vietnamese has criteria (delimited according to space features): + “Shape” of things + “Direction” of space: three-dimensional, two-dimensional, onedimensional + “Posture” of things: from the vertical “hanging” posture, horizontal posture The delimitation based on the criterion of “posture of things” is 19 a relative spatial orientation to an object with many words denoting unit + Division into “sections” Smaller units of a complete thing based on the shape, size, dimensions: blocks, flat, long form, small size The systems of words denoting units and types in Russian and Vietnamese are different Words denoting units and types in Vietnamese are more plentiful and diversified than in Russian: In Vietnamese any spatial object is “associated” with one or more units of space, while Russian has many nouns denoting things with implied spatial properties in the objects themselves, without being expressed by means of words Survey and experimental research In the dissertation, we have conducted experimental research on texts intended for students, Russian and non-Russian majors The purpose of the survey: to aim at the interference causing areas, with the focus on negative interference leading to errors – mostly implicit ones; thus finding solutions to correct errors, contributing to improve the effectiveness in comprehension and transmission of Russian in teaching and learning, and in the translation of adjectives of size The scope and objectives of the survey: Russian – Vietnamese prose translations and Vietnam – Russian ones These translations contain Russian size adjectives translated into Vietnamese and Vietnamese size denoting words translated into Russian; and include texts of a political scientific styles and those of art and journalism The number of sentences incluing adjectives of size in the survey is: 1200 sentences, which are selected and classified for the purpose of the survey Error causing areas Based on the description, and analysis of the error types, the dissertation points out the error causing areas: a The Vietnamese language itself; systems of conceptual words reiterating with the roots as adjectives of size; adjuncts 20 b The subjectivity of Russian learners and users; difference in level, thought and culture CONCLUSION Adjectives of size are one of the basic word groups belonging to the lexical-semantic field denoting space in the lexicon of a language These adjectives describe one of the important properties of spatial entities – the size They help people describe, evaluate, visualize and make comments on the size of the objects in the objective world The dissertation as the first study have surveyed, analyzed and contrasted the adjectives of size on the basis of linguistic data in Russian and Vietnamese: denotation of the space concept in the vertical and horizontal diections, their semantic features and uses – especially from the cognition perspective on their uses in collocation with words denoting spatial entities from many angles, the properties of the size concept of objects in space, etc The adjectives of size in Russian and Vietnamese, though not much, are able to denote the size of all the entities in the objective world, from the smallest to the largest ones, from the one-dimensional to threedimensional entities The dissertation has described the adjectives of size under six groups of concepts of height – low, depth – shallowness, thickness- thinness, length - short size, width – narrowness, big – small size, analyzing their semantic features, uses and cognition basis in the vertical and horizontal directions On the basis of data summarized and generalized in the Russian and Vietnamese dictionaries, the dissertation has specified and clarified the meaning of the adjective group, focusing on two of the basic properties of the adjectives of spatial size: stretch and position Through the analysis, contrast and comparison of the adjectives of size in Russian and Vietnamese, the study has drawn some conclusions as follows: 21 (i) First, the adjectives of spatial size, as a sub-system within the system of adjectives, are complex, diverse and rich in usage The analysis of senses and uses of this adjective group, their combination to form collocations reveals that despite similarities, there are differences, proving that each nation has their own perspective and way of thinking about the world in general and the relationships and spatial properties in particular Therefore, if we only consider and look at the properties of the group of size adjectives under the prism of linguistic structure it is not adequate, but we should consider them from the cognitive perspective (ii) Second, the description, analysis, comparison and contrast of the semantic features, uses collocations, etc of the adjectives высокий низкий cao - thÊp; глуболий - мелкий s©u - nông; - dày - mỏng; - dài - ngắn; - rộng hẹp; - маленький to - nhá make more noticeable the cognitive mechanisms of space by the Russian and Vietnamese Every nation has the practices and habits in their own cogntive culture,which strongly affects the cognitive manner of space and their expressions in language (iii) Third, in the cognitive mechanism of space, people as individuals cognitive of space, are a measurement of all things, as well as an " physical object" with the structure, shape and motion manners Human beings are central in determining the direction and size in space and is also a reference point for determining the position and distance of objects in space This conclusion has the same opinion with the research tendency of modern linguistics in general and cognitive linguistics in particular - that is the research waveof language closely tied to people – cognitive subjects Language is the third world lying between the world of external phenomena and people’s inner world The dissertation investigates the features of the adjectives of spatial dimensions only on the basis of the relationship between language and culture and cognition, based on the theoretical achievements of modern linguistics, a new approach of cognitive linguistics, to find out the similarities and differences in the cognitive mechanism of space, 22 clarifying agents creating these similarities and differences The results are expressed as follows: 4.1 Similarities Russian and Vietnamese both contain adjectives denoting size formed in semantic oppositeness within pairs Both the languages not have a great number of these adjectives, but they can express all the basic properties of linguistic space in terms of direction, dimension, location and degree scale - of which stretch is considered a common measurement and also a basic property of linguistic space They both have equipollency in expressions of concepts in the horizontal and vertical directions With regard to form and semantic features, the size adjectives in Russian and Vietnamese have common universal traits in terms of the semantics, grammar, and pragmatics Specifically, the semantic features of adjectives of size in both languages are highly abstract and generalized, but their uses are very specific, rich and varied The results of the study on size adjectives denoting the concepts of height – low, depth – shallowness, thicknessthinness, length - short size, width – narrowness, big – small size in Russian and Vietnamese indicate a very interesting issue: although the two Russian and Vietnamese nations have many differences in the types of culture and language, their cognitive mechanisms are relatively similar For example, the Adjectives of size in the vertical direction in the two languages have the semantic property of length in the similar direction, requiring the observer’s reference plane, posture, location and direction 4.2 Differences The cognitive manners by the Russians and the Vietnamese have distinct characteristics with their own cultural identities, which has been mentioned in the tables of the number of meanings, the presence or absence of senses of space, order and their collocations, etc As far as the number of senses is simply considered, Russian is, in general, richer than Vietnamese For instance, Russian collocations with 23 adjectives denoting the concepts of high – low size shows that the Russian’s cognition of space has different features: - quần áo lót (underwear), - quần áo mặc (outside clothes) Or the difference in spatial cognition by the Russian and the Vietnamese lies in the group of adjectives denoting the concepts of LENGHT and WIDTH: In their perception, the Russians often make an objective physical distinction in their cognition of width The concept “wide” by the Russian is associated with a plane, measured from side to side; meanwhile, for the Vietnamese, the width of an object is the distance from this end to the other, as opposed to the length The meaning shifts in Russian and Vietnamese adjectives of spatial dimensions are also different When the meaning shift occurs, the Vietnamese often use extra words, reiterations and other adjectives of size to describe an object in space In addition, the Vietnamese lexicon denoting units and types of objects in space is extremely rich, helping the Vietnamese to describe the spatial objects in detail, from many different angles This shows that Vietnamese people have observant minds with very specific and detailed thoughts The dissertation proposes some solutions which teachers and learners could apply in teaching and learning foreign languages in general and Russian and Vietnamese in particular Although the dissertation only does experimental research on a group of size adjectives, it could make some contributions to achieving the right perspective, and good solutions to help learners reduce the impact or influence of negative interference from their mother tongue into a foreign language in the process of learning and translation Also, the dissertation contributes to enhance learners’ understanding about the distinctive cognitive cultural traits, especially in the spatial cognition by the two Russian and Vietnamese nations  ... (soil), - bê tông (concrete), - tuyÕt (snow); bức: стена - bøc têng (wall), картина - bøc tranh (picture); thanh: полено- cñi (wood chip of wood), меч - kiÕm (sword); tấm: доска - tÊm ván (plank),