Fuyang Dialect "vp" Interrogative

This paper reports a multi-dimensional study of "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect. This study is based on a detailed static description of linguistic facts and conducted within the framework of tri-dimensional theory of syntactic structure,semantic category and expressive functions.It also seeks to examine the origins and causes of "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect within the framework of contrastive linguistics and synchronic and diachronie,spatial and chronological perspectives,in an effort to discover its differences from corresponding questions in other dialects and the typological implications and significance of "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect.The Introduction section is a review of the existing studies on repeated questions in dialects.It points out the inadequacies of the previous research and presents our own arguments and solutions.The body of the present research is divided into two parts.The first part examines the static features of "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect,which falls into three chapters.Chapter One describes the syntactic features of "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect. These "Ke VP" questions were firstly classified into "Ke VP0" type and "Ke VP+PRT" type. The forms of "Ke VP" questions were described and a detailed explanation of their syntactical distribution was made.It also examined the structural sequence of adverbials and "Ke",and the forms of "Ke VP" in predicate-complement structures.Chapter Two reports the semantic features of "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect.It examined the expressive functions of interrogative focus of "Ke",and the aspectual tense differences of "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect.It is argued that the two forms of "Ke VP0" and "Ke VP+PRT" shows striking contrast between realis and irrealis in terms of aspect,forming a whole system.This chapter finally examined the nature of "VP" in "Ke VP" questions.Chapter Three reports some particular uses of "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect from a pragmatic perspective.It first explored the characteristics of questioning words initiating with "Ke".Then it investigated the essence of "Ke+NP" questions and explained the uses of post-positioning of "Ke".Part Two is a dynamic contrastive study of "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect,which is collapsed into two separate chapters:Chapter Four and Chapter Five.In Chapter Four,the origins of "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect was explored and compared synchronically and diachronically.The development of "Ke VP" questions from Qin Dynasty to modern Mandarin Chinese revealed the origins and dimensions of "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect."Ke VP+Mang" questions were also discussed.Synchronically, this chapter also compared the differences and similarities between "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect and repeative questions and Yes-No questions in Mandarin Chinese,arguing that "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect correspond with the repeative questions in Mandarin Chinese and Yes-No questions ending with "Ma".Finally a comparison was made between "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect and other dialects in Anhui Province as well as repeative questions in Wu dialect.Chapter Fives defines the interrogative system of "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect. It first made a classification of interrogatives in Fuyang dialect,and then discussed the categorization issue of "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect.Finally it examined the significant implications of "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect from the typological perspective.Chapter Six concludes the whole paper.It summarized the essential arguments of the present research,pointing out that "Ke VP" questions in Fuyang dialect are the results of synchronic and diachronic operations.