Analysis of the Necessity of Studying the Semantics of Chinese National Customs in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

Abstract

National cultural semantics is a branch of semantics in the field of linguistics. It explores the national cultural connotation which is the embodiment of the national culture. Proffesor Wang Dechun defines it in the following way, “National cultural semantics is the manifestation of the natural cultural semantic character in the language which reflects the history, customs and habits of the nation and is of rich taste of that nation’s culture. It is the additional cultural connotation of a linguistic unit on the basis of the reflection of its conceptual meaning. Without the national and cultural background, it will be hard to understand the meaning of the language unit”. Theories on cultures and the teaching of it are a must for the second language teaching. Hence, we shoud attach much importance to culture teaching in TCFL, particularly, the teaching of those words which carry national cultural connotations. By involving national cultural semantics in teaching, students are enabled to understand the cultural features of the target language and therefore improve accuracy and appropriateness. In other words, national cultural connotation teaching can optimize the learners’ knowledge of the taget nation and communication competence, as well.