A Study on Semantic Cognitive Error of the Chinese Word—“duō shǎo”

From the perspective of semantic cognition, this study conducts an in-depth investigation into the errors involving the Chinese word “duōshǎo (how many)” , categorizing them into “intrusive errors” and “deviant errors.” Through analyzing the usage of “duōshǎo (how many)” in the HSK Dynamic Composition Corpus, it is found that intrusive errors mainly manifest as the inappropriate insertion of “duōshǎo” into linguistic contexts where “hěnduō (a lot of)” , “dà xiǎo (size),” or structures like “duō/duōme (how)+ adj/bù (not) adj” should be used. Deviant errors, on the other hand, occur when words such as “henduō (a lot of),” “duō (much)” , or “xiǎo (small)” are incorrectly substituted for “duōshǎo (how many/many).” Furthermore, this paper explores the semantic-cognitive reasons behind these errors, highlighting that the characteristics of dimensional adjectives and the difficulty Chinese learners face in comprehending vague quantitative meanings are key factors contributing to these mistakes. The findings provide significant insights for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL) and language acquisition.