North Sea Cantonese Dialect Vocabulary Study

The study of the Chinese dialects has been well-established,however,it has mainly focused on the perspective of phonetics,while the attention paid to the lexicological perspective study is obviously insufficient,which actually reduces lexicological study to the subordination to phonetics. In recent years, comprehensive dissertations that encompasses analyses form different angles about the lexicological study in a single work are increasing gradually,but the special analytical articles about the lexicological study in a comparative perspective are still rare .point of view. This thesis is a systematic and thorough discussion on the lexicon in the Beihai Cantonese dialect and is expected to make some contribution to the development of the Chinese dialects study.The comparative analysis is carried out in both synchronic and diachronic perspective of lexicon in the Beihai Cantonese dialect. The synchronic study includes the internal comparison of the lexicon within the Cantonese dialect of Beihai,and the comparison between the lexicon in the Cantonese dialect of Beihai and that of Mandarin. The diachronic study includes comparison of the lexicon in the Cantonese dialect of Beihai and that in the Ancient Chinese. In this way,the thesis attempts to reveal the basic status and the essential characteristics of lexicon in the Beihai Cantonese dialect,improve our knowledge about Beihai's history and culture, provide more lexicological materials for the further study on the Cantonese dialect in Beihai and Guangxi as well as offer some help for people in Beihai to learn Mandarin.This thesis contains six chapters. Chapter One is introduction. By making deduction and induction on the study status on the subject,it states the grounds, object, approaches, purpose and significance of the subject. Chapter Two gives an overviewof the subject-it briefly introduces the general status of the geographical and thehistorical status of Beihai as well as its population and dialectical features and serves a premise for main part of the subject. Based on internal comparison,chapter Three demonstrates the internal similarities and differences among the lexicon of the five different Cantonese dialects of Beihai. Chapter Four carries out the comparison inmeaning,structure and origin of the lexicon between the Cantonese dialect of Beihai and Mandarin,and thus draws a conclusion on the features of the lexicon of the Cantonese dialect of Beihai. Chapter Five makes the comparison of the lexicon in the Cantonese dialect of Beihai with that in the Ancient Chinese, paying specific attention to and expounding the 81 Ancient Chinese words which have been preserved in the Cantonese dialect in Beihai so as to point out the conservation and development of the lexicon in the Cantonese dialect of Beihai from the Ancient Chinese. Chapter Six are concluding remarks,they are some initial conclusions drawn according to all the above comparisions and analyses .