The Vietnamese classifiers ‘CON’, ‘CÁI’ and the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach: a preliminary study

Abstract

This preliminary study is the first-ever attempt to analyse the lexical semantics of the two most commonly used classifiers in the Vietnamese language, ‘con’ and ‘cái’, using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach (Wierzbicka 1996; Goddard & Wierzbicka 2002; Goddard 2009). The study originates from an experience in teaching Vietnamese as a foreign language in Australia, where students’ difficulty in learning/acquiring the usage of the Vietnamese classifiers and the classifier noun phrases was observed. The ultimate aim of this pilot study is to use the semantic analysis of the classifiers achieved through NSM to enhance teaching and learning Vietnamese as a foreign language, and to advance the understanding of one of the world’s most extensive and elaborate classifier systems. If this aim is achieved then the study will further support the claim that NSM is an effective tool in the explanation of lexical semantics and language-specific grammatical categories and constructions (Goddard 2011:336).