The Bailongjiang River Chinese Dialect Grammar Research

Bai Longjiang Valley is among the most well-known "national corridor", every part of which is full of precious linguistic resources for study. Based on the survey of the geography, history, nations and languages along this valley, the dissertation focuses on the grammatical characteristics of regional dialect. Through the comparison with the mandarin of central plains to its east, the southwest mandarin to its south and the Kang of Tibetan to its north, it is revealed the grammar of the regional dialect is of the characteristics of both central plains and southwest dialects, but the former is in the majority. This dialect has two boundaries: one is with the Kang of Tibetan, the other with the southeast mandarin. In the transitional areas, the grammar is often a combination or overlap of several dialects.It is concluded, 1. Economic activities have a huge influence on the grammar of dialects because they lead to both the unification and variation of grammar. Among the grammatical variation, the change of lexis is slower than that of syntax. The syntactic variation is reflected in two forms: one is the change of position, the other is overlapping. 2. The difference in economic activities and geographical limits may cause "dialectal island" and the remains of ancient Chinese. 3. The grammar of regional dialect is an integration of both modern Chinese and neighboring dialects, affected not only by Kang of Tibetan, but also by universal Chinese; therefore it is special. 4. The triangle theory on the combination of ancient Chinese-mandarin-dialect is not very applicable to the grammar of regional dialect. One more "angle" of minority dialect is necessary in this study. In this way a quadrangle theory is suitable for the exploration of regional dialect.This study refers to the connection and variation theory and adopts the methods of both description and comparison.