Metrical Study On The Conjunctions In ErNvYingXiongZhuan

ErNvYingXiongZhuan,written by a Manchu who lived in Beijing,is a mid-19^th century vernacular novel with each chapter headed by a couplet giving the gist of its content.The language of this novel is the pure Beijing dialect,so the novel has got the fame of "excellent textbook of Beijing dialect".The language reflects the general picture of Beijing dialect in the time of mid-19^th century,which makes the novel one of the most significant literature on the study of function words in Beijing dialect.This thesis studies 185 conjunctions in the novel.Based on the semantic relations between clauses in compound sentences and between sentences in sentence clusters,these conjunctions are categorized into ten types.They are juxtaposition,progression,succession, choice,assumption,concession,turning,condition,cause-effect,and purpose.The thesis also makes a metrical description and analysis of the usage and distribution of each conjunction.By means of quantitative and qualitative analysis,synchronic and diachronic study, macro and micro study,the thesis depicts the overall picture of conjunctions and the characteristics of the usage and distribution of them with statistic diagrams.