The Heqing White Language Study

This dissertation is a description of Heqing Bai language. With reference grammar as its model and guided by the theories of modern descriptive linguistics, comparative linguistics and language typology, a relatively systematical description of sound, grammar, and lexicon of Heqing Bai language has been made. Based on this, some characteristics and grammar rules have been generalized.The body consists of four chapters. Chapter one is an introduction of the achievements and problems in Bai language study. A brief valuation to different schools has been made from monograph and special topic respectively. Also it is introduced as to the theories and methods adopted, source of data, background knowledge of Heqing's geography and human society in the chapter two. Chapter three is on sound that summarizes the phoneme system of Heqing Bai language, relations of syllable collocation, and principle ways of sound mutation. Chapter four concentrates on word morphology. In this body of four chapters, research methods from Chinese grammar are used for reference. The grammar description focuses on lexicon morphology by classification of word classes, phrases, and syntactical constructions in order to summarize some main grammar characteristics of Heqing Bai language. At the end the long context of data and an appendix of lexicon table of Heqing Bai langauge is provided.(1) The phonetic features, e.g. Relatively more aspirated consonants, having a set of aspirated unvoiced fricative, while lacking of retroflex. Tense and lax vowels are distinctive, nasalized and non-nasalized sounds rightly correspond. Relatively more double finals are found, with a group of retroflex final. There are 8 types of tones, with a tone of tense 55. The syllable structure of Bai is simple, lacking of consonant coda, and all is open syllable.(2) A few affixes. The prefix'a'and suffixes'tsi33','pau55','mau33'are commonly seen in Heqing Bai language. Heavily influenced by Chinese, there are abundant Chinese loan words in Heqing Bai language. Constituent order is one main way of lexicon formation, which may differ in ten types. Bai language is rich in four-syllable words, which feature with diverse structures and more expressiveness.(3) Empty words and constituent orders are two main means to express grammatical relations in Bai language, meanwhile some morphological markers and morphological changes are available. Constituent orders in Heqing Bai language are flexible and changeable, among them SVO dominates, yet SOV and OSV coexist. Left-movement of an object may yield multifunctional grammar. Similar with Chinese, there exists a one-to-many-relation between word class and grammatical element in Bai language. The way of phrase combination is very much the same to the one of sentence combination.There are rich classifiers in Heqing Bai language. That combining classifier with pronoun and number may be determiner after a noun. Except for indicating meaning of number category, classifier in Bai language also function definite and indefinite, modal and the others. Personal pronoun has mutation in number and case. Two sets of numbers, namely the traditional one and the Chinese-loaned one mix in use. Most verbs in Bai are monosyllable and empty words are available to express various grammatical categories. Preposition develops from verb, and usually constituting PO construction with noun and pronoun to be a syntax element.'n(?)33'is the most active auxiliary which shows more meanings and usages. In most case modifier postposes its head, while a few precedes the head. Three kinds of negatives occur in Heqing Bai language, e.g. preceding negative, postposing negative, and inflectional negative. The inherent negative always locates at the end of a sentence. Connective in Bai language characterizes by a mix of Chinese and Bai language. The grammar of Heqing Bai language differs apparently from the one of Jianchuan Bai language, and Zhaozhuang (at Xiaguan in Dali City) Bai language. In the family of Sino-Tibetan languages, Bai and Chinese enjoy more similarities than the one of Bai with Yi, Tibetan and other Tibeto-Burmese subfamily languages.