INTRODUCTION
1. 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 re-
created 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.
2. 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

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.
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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.
5. 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

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
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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.

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
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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 2
SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE ADJECTIVES OF SIZE IN
THE VERTICAL DIRECTION
высокий – низкий, глубокий – мелкий, толстый – тонкий

(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 do 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: глубокий – мелкий; s©u – n«ng
It is revealed in the semantic contrast of the adjectives of size

It can be seen in the senses and uses of the two pairs of Russian-
Vietnamese 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
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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

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,
ln, to bố, mp bộo, rng, or nh, gy, mng, etc. to describe.
- Objects denoting the sense of thickness in Russian and Vietnamese
peoples 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,
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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 – thÊp, s©u – n«ng, dµy – máng
(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 3
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 :

- 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.
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Semantic features of adjectives of size denoting the concepts of
WIDTH - NARROWNESS : ; rộng hẹp (wide
narrow)
According to the semantic contrast of the adjectives of size
; rộng hẹp (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: (7) - rộng (6); (4)- hẹp (3).
The numbers of senses denoting the basic size properties of width
are nearly similar and ordered from the positions 1 to 4: (4) -
rộng (4).
Adjectives ; rộng hẹp denoting the concepts of
WIDTH - NARROWNESS have the basic properties:
- Rng 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 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-
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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 speakers observation
position.
With regard to the uses of adjectives denoting the concepts of BIG
and SMALL SIZE, it can be revealed that:
the adjectives ; to - nhỏ can be collocated
with the following objects: types of house, car, container: - nhà
(house), - xe (car), - xe (container); types of human,

- 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 4
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.
* 6 adjectives in the vertical direction: высокий – низкий, глубокий
– мелкий, толстый – тонкий // cao – thÊp, s©u - n«ng, dµy –
máng (high – low, deep – shallow, thick – thin)
* 6 adjectives in the horizontal direction:
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длинный – короткий, широкий - узкий, большой - маленький //
dµi – ng¾n, réng – hÑp, 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

+ 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.

size in Russian and Vietnamese, the study has drawn some conclusions
as follows:
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(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 - n«ng; толстый - тонкий
dµy - máng; длинный - короткий dµi - ng¾n; широкий - узкий réng -
hÑp; большой - 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

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
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adjectives denoting the concepts of high – low size shows that the
Russian’s cognition of space has different features: нижнее бельё - quÇn
¸o lãt (underwear), верхняя одежда - quÇn ¸o mÆc ngoµi (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.