A Study Of The Affixes Of Shandong Dialects In Ming-Qing Dynasties

Based on a number of works in the vernacular literature of Ming-Qing dynasties, including Jia Zhongming's Zaju, Feng Weimin's Sanqu, Jia Yingchong's Guci, and such literary classics as Jing Ping Mei, Xingshi Tinyuan Zhuan, Liaozhai Liqu Ji, which show most strikingly the characteristics of Shandong dialects, this dissertation undertakes to conduct a comprehensive collection, systemization and research of the targeted resources, and via a synchronic-diachronic comparative method, perform a detailed analysis and description of the usages and characteristics of the affixes in Shandong dialects, and aims to explore their evolutionary patterns and finally, to disclose the basic features of the affix system of Shandong dialects.Apart from the "conclusion", the dissertation consists of five chapters.Chapter One is the "introduction," and it is divided into three sections. Section one is mainly concerned with the significance and purpose of this research, and elucidates in the light of the history of Chinese the necessity and feasibility of conducting the research of affixes in Shandong dialects, and exposes the meaning and value of describing exactly the development of the affixes in Shandong dialects to the research of history of Chinese. Section two is mainly concerned with the methodology and framework of the research. This dissertation adopts a comparative method, which combines static description and diachronic research, research of local resources and that of synchronic resources, including the research of certain periods and diachronic research, the synchronic research of local literature materials of Shandong and those of bordering areas. Meanwhile, due attention has been paid to the unification of basic description and theoretic interpretation, and to the unification of exhaustive research and enumerative research. In terms of the framework, this dissertation conducts an exhaustive study of the major affixes and their categories, unites the study of the affixes with that of the whole system of Shandong dialects, and aims to offer an exact and scientific description and expounding of the nature, category and basic features of the affixes within this period. Section three of this chapter introduces the resources cited and their linguistic characteristics.Chapter Two is divided into two sections. Section one is concerned with defining the nature and categories of the Chinese affixes, for although affixes are a major constituent of the additive disyllabic words, there are in the academia no universally accepted definitions, thus leaving quite a lot of ambiguities concerning affixes. Based on a thorough survey of the studies by related experts and my own analysis, this section proposes that Chinese affixes are fixed morphemes attached to the root morphemes with their own meanings weakened. Moreover, based on the basic features of affixes of Ming-Qing Shandong dialects, this section offers a preliminary classification of the Chinese affixes. Section two analyzes the academic interests in affixes on the part of ancient philologists and comments in an outline the early research in this field, especially the research by domestic and international scholars concerning Chinese affixes from the 1940s till the present, with emphasis on important contributions and related methodologies.The following part of the dissertation, divided into three chapters, chapters three to five, exhibits a functional unity and presents an exhaustive study of the usage of all the affixes in Ming-Qing Shandong dialects. In the course of analyzing the usages of certain affixes, comparison with their usages in the previous time periods or their synchronic usages in bordering dialects is conducted. Moreover, the origin and the course of development of each affixes are explored as far as possible. In common with Chinese as a whole, prefixes of Ming-Qing Shandong dialects are comparatively not well developed. Among them, "A (阿) " serves as a noun or pronoun prefix, which is seldom used in present-day speeches of Shandong dialects, but is used in allusions to or quotations from archaic usages and therefore shows a declining tendency; "Lao (老) " serves as a noun prefix, which enjoys full development and frequent currency, and therefore forms by far the most additive compound words; "Ba (巴)" serves as prefix to nouns, adverbs and adjectives; "Da (大) ", "Di (第) ", and "Chu (初) ", perform comparatively simpler functions and serve as prefix respectively of verbs, numerals, and time nouns; "Er (二) ", which was developed during the Ming-Qing dynasties, serves as prefix to nouns and is still in use in Shandong dialects today. The suffixes are well developed in Ming-Qing Shandong dialects. Among them, "Zi (子)", "Er (儿) ", "Tou(头) ", "Jia (家) ", "Men (们) " serve mostly as suffixes to nouns and pronouns, and "Zi (子) "and"Er (儿) " serve as suffixes to nouns, measure words, verbs, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs; "Me (么) ", as a variation of the ending notional morpheme of notional words, is still at the evolutionary stage during the period, and therefore is not fixed in written form and serves as suffix to pronouns, adverbs, adjectives and even conjunctions. There are quite a lot of verbal, adjective and adverbial suffixes in the Ming-Qing Shandong dialects, including "Da (打) ","La (拉) ","Gua (刮) ","Deng(登) ", "Fa (法) ", "Dai (待) ", "Bian (变) ", "Cha (查) ". These affixes are mostly used as verbal suffixes, although they are often used as adjective, noun or adverbial suffixes. These new additive compound verbs, formed with the suffixes added to the verbal root morphemes, take on different semantic hues and the same is true of their doubled forms. "Zi(子)", "Sheng(生)","Ge(个)" are mainly used as adverbial suffixes, while "Zi (子) " also serves as suffix to conjunctions, "Sheng (生) " serves as suffix to adjectives, interrogative pronouns, and "Ge (个) " serves as suffix to adjectives, pronouns and auxiliary words. Moreover, "Ke (可) ", "Sheng (省) ", "Zai (在) ", "Kuai(快) ", "Qiao (巧) ","Ban (办) ","Bang (帮) ", "Zheng (挣) ", are also typical adjective or adverbial suffixes in Shandong dialects.The Conclusion includes three aspects: summing up and describing the affix system of Ming-Qing Shandong dialects, analyzing the formal structures of Chinese additive compound words, and elucidating the relationship between the development of Ming-Qing Shandong dialects and the disyllabic tendency of Chinese. Furthermore, this part also offers a tentative theoretic exploration of the causes of the formation of Chinese affixes.