A Study Of The Language Of Xinjiang Quzi Script

" Xinjiang Quzi",known by the folks as "small tune" and"tune opera",is the only local genre and opera sung in Chinese.It has been popular for many years since the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.In 2006,Xinjiang Quzi was approved by the State Council and included in the first batch of National Intangible Cultural Heritage List.At present,many writers and artists have collected a large number of tunes,and some experts and scholars in the field of opera are studying Xinjiang Quzi.However,few of the studies use the scripted lyrics as study object and apply linguistic theories.Opera is a performing art,but also a language art.Language is one of the important factors in the spread of opera.So,are there any obvious characteristics of Xinjiang Quzi from the perspective of linguistics?Can the study of opera language be carried out from the perspective of the combination of linguistics and opera theory,and thus discover more unique language phenomena?Opera language must be subordinated to performance.How will the stylization of opera art affect opera language?What unique rhetoric techniques does the opera language use to achieve better performance?While answering the above questions,we also consider the background of the formation of Xinjiang Quzi and its ties to small tunes from Shaanxi Province and Gansu Province.On the basis of sufficient references and field investigations,we sorted out the script of the tunes.At the same time,we used linguistics,opera theory,and folkloristics,and other theories to conduct in-depth research on the language of Xinjiang Quzi in order to provide a more comprehensive depiction of its phonology,words and phrases,sentence structure,rhetoric,etc.and to reveal its language features,origin and changes.The main content and innovation of the study are as follows:First,the study reveals the language feature of popularity of Xinjiang Quzi.The tunes are sung in local dialects and characterized by a strong sense of territoriality,colloquialism and popularity.Forty-one percent of the dialect words in Xinjiang Quzi have not been included in Chinese Dialect Dictionary or Xinjiang Chinese Dialect Dictionary,The thesis illustrates the dialect words of Xinjiang Quzi,compare them with Mandarin in terms of semantics and morphemics and provide a statistical analysis of the use of dialect words and inherited words in other dialects,which can be consider as a side evidence of Xinjiang Quzi originating from the Northwest opera.The use of reduplicated words,idioms,dialect affixes,dialectal interrogative pronouns and mood words in Xinjiang Quzi is also an important manifestation of the oralization of its lyrics?Reduplicated words have a strong sense of rhythm.Most of them are not used in Beijing dialect,but they are more accurate in describing characters and emotions than Mandarin.The language of Xinjiang Quzi regards vulgarity as beauty,making it loved by the local people since its formation.Second,the study explores the musical features of Xinjiang Quzi's libretto.The musicality of the libretto plays a guiding role in opera performance.Although Xinjiang Quzi is "small tune",it also has the characteristics of opera music.Based on opera theory,the thesis analyzes the application of the verse structure,sentence classification,and rhyme of Xinjiang Quzi.By comparing the final sound of words in Xinjiang Quzi with those in Xinjiang Chinese Dialect Dictionary,it can be seen that Xinjiang Quzi has a large number of final sounds,namely,"an","ian","uan" and "uan" from Chinese Phonetic Alphabet,and thus final rhyme are most frequently used.Meanwhile,Xinjiang Quzi has a small number of final sounds such as "ie"and "ue",i.e.the final sounds such as "ie"and "ue" are much less frequently used.However,the use of rhymes in opera language is slightly different from the language of life.Xinjiang Quzi has not strict requirements on level and oblique tones.The level and oblique tones,rhyme,sentence pattern and rhythm constitute the musicality of the language of Xinjiang Quzi.Third,the study analyzes the "stylized" language features of Xinjiang Quzi.Stylization is one of the important characteristics of opera language.In a narrow sense,stylization refers to standardized opera performance while in a broad sense,it refers to all aspects of the opera art.In addition to researching the phonological formula of the libretto of Xinjiang Quzi and its Cipai tune-style sentence formula,the thesis focuses on using the "Oral Formula Theory" to analyze other stylized expressions from the texts,such as character description formula,sentence formula marked by numbers,quantifiers,and order,language formula used in farewell scenes,lining word formula,formulaic speeches and stylized "Ba"sentences.The stylized language can promote the artist's memory and performance,and also increase the popularity of the tune.Fourth,the study describes the rhetoric of the language of Xinjiang Quzi.In order to achieve the ideal artistic effect,artists may use some operatic rhetoric techniques in the performance.Artists usually use the certain kind of technique,namely,Dahun to achieve the comedy effect.The common techniques they use include excessive exaggeration,the use of absurd language,the extensive use of dialect,and the use of mishearing to amuse the audience.They may also use rhetorical figures such as metaphor,exaggeration,metonymy,antithesis,parallelism,repetition,personification,etc.,which can improve the effect of stage performance.On the basis of the above discussion,we further study the background off the formation of Xinjiang Quzi and its relationship with Shaanxi Meihu,Lanzhou Guzi,and Gansu Xiaoqu.Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the study of the language of Xinjiang Quzi and the lack of data collection and field investigations,the theoretical analysis of the study needs to be further improved.Therefore,although the author has suggested the basic and related features of the language of Xinjiang Quzi,this research is only a phasic achievement and needs further exploration.Meanwhile,the author hopes that this research can play a role in promoting the protection of Xinjiang's local operas and other national intangible cultural heritage.