Adjectives with the Meaning ‘Thick’ and ‘Thin’: Evidence from Russian & Mandarin Chinese

Abstract

The problem of our research is how the semantic field of thickness is divided by the lexemes in Russian and Chinese languages and what features can describe the difference between these lexemes. This study is performed within the framework of lexical typology. Methods used include context analysis of dictionary articles and corpora examples; questioning of native speakers informants. The goal of this study is to give a detailed analysis of the semantics of Chinese adjectives with initial meaning ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ and to give a comparison of systems of meanings between Chinese and Russian adjectives from the semantic field of thickness.