ABSTRACT
This chapter argues for a cognition-based functional approach to Chinese word order problems encountered in classroom teaching. Through a sample analysis of the presentative sentences, this study demonstrates how Chinese word order phenomena can be viewed in terms of the Chinese collective conceptual viewpoint pertaining to the temporal spatial relationships in the physical world. It also illustrates how some general Chinese word order problems could be explained with simple concepts which both instructors and learners can relate to their general knowledge about the physical reality.
