THE STUDY OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR OF THE WORD 山shān IN A FOUR-SYLLABLE CHINESE IDIOM AND SURVEY OF THE UNDERSTANDING OF CHINESE MAJOR STUDENTS, PIBULSONGKRAM RAJABHAT UNIVERSITY

Abstract

The objectives of this research were 1) to investigate the conceptual metaphor of the word 山 (shān) in the four-syllable Chinese idioms and 2) to survey the understanding of third- and fourth-year students’ Chinese language program, faculty of humanities and social sciences, Pibulsongkram Rajabhat University. The data was collected from The Complete Chinese Idioms Dictionary《中华成语大词典》. The tool for this research is a paper test. The target group is 91 persons of third- and fourth-year students of the Chinese language program at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Pibulsongkram Rajabhat University.  The results were reported by using percentages and descriptive.

The results revealed that 1) there were 87 out of 121 four-syllable Chinese idioms that contain the word 山 (shān) that has metaphor meanings, or 71.90 percent. These 87 idioms that contain metaphor meaning can be divided into 12 types. The most common type of metaphor was the metaphor of places, with 22 out of 87 expressions, representing 25.29%. followed by the metaphor of quantity with 18 expressions, representing 20.69%, and the least common type of metaphor consisted of 3 types: 2 expressions of each type, including the metaphor of long time, knowledge, and long-distance, representing 2.30% each. 2) The results of an analysis of the conceptual metaphor understanding of the word 山 (shān) in the 4-syllable Chinese idiom and the meaning of the 4-syllable Chinese idiom with 山 (shān) found that The respondents understood the conceptual metaphor of 山 (shān) in Chinese four-syllable idioms and the meaning of four-syllable Chinese idioms 山 (shān) representing 54.58% and the respondents did not understand the conceptual metaphor of 山 (shān) in Chinese four-syllable idioms and the meaning of four-syllable Chinese idioms 山 (shān), representing 45.42