A Cognitive Linguistics Approach to Teaching Chinese Classifiers: A Case Analysis for Classifier tiao

Abstract

Cognitive linguistics (CL) is defined as the study of language in its cognitive function. While a CL approach to teaching second language (L2) is still at its infancy, it is conductive to adult leaners' acquisition of meaningful linguistic units such as prepositions and classifiers. Noticeably, memorising Chinese classifier-noun mapping is one of the most challenging tasks during Chinese L2 learning. Learning Chinese classifiers has been placed peripherally in L2 classroom, with rote memory being the crudest way. However, it is often neglected that Chinese classifiers are unique in their transparent semantic association with corresponding head nouns, which justifies the employment of the CL approach to teaching classifiers. Considering most Chinese classifiers are polysemic in use with nouns, this study proposes to adopt a CL approach to teaching Chinese classifiers and the learning of their associated nouns. A CL approach to teaching classifiers is featured by five essential concepts: image schemas, prototypes, metaphors, semantic networks and principled polysemy. For a didactic purpose, only one frequently used classifier tiao (referring to long, flexible nouns) was exemplified to provide a means of differentiating the senses instantiated in principled polysemy. This study concludes that the CL approach is cognitively demanding for learners, and it may take much in-class time for teachers, albeit the potential to alleviate learning memorisation and genernalisation issues. Suggestions were made to situate the CL approach to teaching in an online self-learning scenario beyond classroom, and preferably for adult L2 learners.