Abstract
It is widely known that the Min dialects, especially Southern Min, contain a number of language chronological strata systematically, which are defined as colloquial and literary readings. It should be noted that chronological strata are limited morphologically in some ways, that is, a morpheme may occur only in the colloquial reading or only in the literary reading. Additionally, different readings of the same character sometimes fulfill different functions in the present-day system. Moreover, competition and diffusion between different strata do not always result in similar developments in every dialect. Furthermore, rich strata also evolve and interact with each other diachronically. Intrigued by the complexity above, I attempt to conduct a comparative study on the interactions between different strata from a morphological perspective, both synchronically and diachronically, illustrating with examples in Xiamen, Shantou and Haikou Southern Min dialects.The thesis consists of eight chapters:
Chapter 1 provides a preliminary review of the literature on chronological strata phenomena in Chinese, addresses the significance of the present topic, and introduces the data sources as well as methodology used in this study.
Chapter 2 offers a detailed description of the strata interaction and evolution in Xiamen dialect from 1800s up till now, using Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy with the Principle Variations of the Chang-chew and Chin-chew Dialects and Supplement to Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy as historical data sources. In this chapter I describe the evolution pattern first, secondly explicate the evolution process including the competition in favor of the colloquial stratum and that in favor of the literary stratum, and finally examine the examples which exist in a relatively stable status.
Chapter 3 compares the similarities and differences of the three dialects in the interactions between different strata. This chapter analyzes the matches of the colloquial and literary readings, which includes two parts: one focusing on doublets, the other on triplets and multiplets. Both of them are exemplified according to different types of correspondences both in phonological and morphological strata.
Chapter 4 provides an analysis on the mismatches of the colloquial and literary readings. This chapter covers two sections, one is crossed mismatches and the other is uncrossed mismatches. Basing on the examples elaboration, I make a comparative analysis on the similarities and differences of the matches and mismatches.
Chapter 5 contains two sections. In the first place, I focus on two relevant phenomena: one is vernacular morphemes in literary readings, the other is words in the same written character but different readings. In the second place, I conduct an analysis of the case study in family names.
Chapter 6 explores five influencing factors on the chronological strata interaction, from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives, basing on the data from the chapters above.
Chapter 7 extends my observation to the important role which Chinese characters play in the formation and interaction of different chronological strata, by comparing the similarities between the chronological strata and Xundu 訓讀 which are synonyms with no etymological link.
Chapter 8 summarizes the findings of this study, and finally, I emphasize the need for further observation and a broader-ranging investigation into this topic in the future.
| Date of Award | 8 Jun 2016 |
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| Original language | Chinese (Traditional) |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Bit Chee KWOK (Supervisor) |
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- Standard