An Analysis of the Semantic Features of the Chinese Dimensional Adjective“Gao”(High)

Gao” is an adjective to describe the height in vertical dimension. It has two meanings concerning space: one of dimension, the other of position. The two are consistent in nature. The semantic features of “gao” are verticality, direction and extension. The semantic features of nouns going together with it are objects with a fixed base, gestalt structure, the maximal vertical dimension and striking function of such dimension.