Adaptation And Reconstruction Of Bilingual Ethnic Language And Culture

This dissertation divides the linguistic culture of bilingual ethnic groups into three subsystems, i.e. native linguistic culture, bilingual culture and dialectal culture. The author takesthe Daur language--the mother tongue of a minority group in northern China, as aanalytic sample to construct an explanatory pattern of linguistic cultural typology by making good use of historical data, research findings concerned and data from field work, applying methodology of descriptive linguistics, contrastive linguistics and cultural linguistics, brings the linguistic cultural system of bilingual ethnic groups into the primary and secondary cultural environment, accounts for the peculiarity of linguistic culture, its own systematization, diversity in type, the chaotic law of the change of linguistic culture, and attempts to find out the method of adaptation and reconstruction in the changing process of linguistic culture of bilingual ethnic groups.The dissertation consists of ten chapters which can be briefly divided into six parts.Part I. (chapter I): This part introduces the purpose of choosing of current topic, the basic idea and framework of the dissertation, the academic value of choosing the topic, writing principle and method, etc.Part II (chapter II): In this part, the author expounds his own understanding of the cultural essence of language on the basis of the theoretic frame and methodology designed in the introduction part. This part can be divided into three level. Firstly, linguistic culture and its component system, the characteristics of each system and the mutual relationship among them: With linguistic culture and its related concepts as a starting point, the author divides linguistic culture into three types or sub-systems, i.e. native linguistic culture, dialectal culture and bilingual culture, expounds the features and function of each sub-system. The author believes that native linguistic culture, referring to that of a ethnic group proper, possesses features as conservativeness and stability; bilingual culture, referring to the multicultural pattern formed in the course of using two or more than two languages, contains the features of duality and compatibility, dialectal culture, referring to a linguistic system,with features of a sub-culture formed on the basis of dialects in the course of formation and development of the native culture of each language, carries the features of locality and variability. Secondly, the source and course (origin and development) of the linguistic culture of the Daur people: supported by plenty of findings and data concerned, the author expounds the historical relationship between Qidan linguistic culture and that of the Daurs'. The author elaborates the main features of the Daur linguistic culture from the macro point of view, believes that the native linguistic culture is the main source of Daur linguistic culture, it has run through the whole process of the historical development of the Daur people. From the middle of the Qing Dynasty, appeared the Daur-Man bilingual culture and since the later part of the Qing Dynasty the Daur-Han bilingualism appeared, and dialectal culture emerged on the basis of this.Part III (chapter III, IV, V): Supported by the basic theory of "particular environment" of culture and "the homogeneity of language and culture", the author believes that the system of Daur linguistic culture reflects the productive mode of multi traditional economy, social system of patrilineal family as its center and the system of idea characterized by concrete thinking and polytheist belief. In this part, the author uses historical data, vocabulary and other collateral evidence to analyze the basic features of the Daur native culture from the material, constitutional and psychological levels respectively.Part IV. (chapter VI, VII): In this part, the author makes a detailed analysis of the bilingual culture formed in the process of contacting, intercommunicating and interacting between the Daur linguistic culture and that of other ethnic...