The Xiamen comparative: Syntactic change in progress

This dissertation is a description of a syntactic change in the comparative patterns currently in progress in the dialect spoken in the city of Xiamen (Amoy). The data upon which the description is based were collected in the fall of 1994 in the city of Xiamen.;Chapter One presents an overview of comparative patterns used across Chinese dialects and briefly discusses a few studies on the historical development of the comparative. The dichotomy between a typologically northern pattern and a southern pattern is manifest in the geographical distribution of such patterns. From the word order of comparative patterns in languages neighboring China the typological difference in word order is most likely to be an area feature and not the result of internal changes.;Chapter Two presents data from Southern Min dialects other than Xiamen and from Southern Min historical sources. In certain neighboring dialects, as in Xiamen, there is considerable variation in the types of comparative patterns with the primary division being a southern word order pattern and a northern hybrid pattern. The historical sources show that in the past the southern word order pattern was the predominantly occurring pattern.;Chapter Three presents a detailed description of the variation in comparative patterns found in both Putonghua and the Xiamen dialect. The Xiamen description given is representative of the most conservative type of informant. Chapter Four compares the data from different types of informants. Based on their responses informants are divided into two groups; a conservative group and an innovative group. The conservative group exhibits a productive competence of the southern word order pattern that the younger, innovative informants do not. The innovative informants only showed a knowledge of the southern word order pattern with a few select stative verbs that show remarkable similarity across informants.;Chapter Five discusses the historical, social and linguistic contexts of the changes. A possible mechanism of formation of the northern hybrid pattern is presented. It is proposed that the change most likely arose from variation created through contact with the literary language and through intense bilingualism of Xiamen speakers since 1949.