Shanghai Dialect Variables (e) Social Linguistics Study

Shanghai dialect is an ordered-heterogeneity system, of which the inner construction varies and ultimately results in numerous types of the variants of language. It is due not only to subjective factors but also objective ones such as class, community, environment, context, etc. However, these variants show certain kinds of syllable-lexical patterns in the process of their spreading, which is contribute to reflecting the on-going phenomena of our language lives and predicting the tendency of language change in the future as well. It is said that Shanghai urban city is the best target to observe the language contact and variation in apply with the methodologies of sociolinguistics, especially in the circumstances of the highly permeation from the dominant dialect to the Shanghai urban dialect these years.This study selects one of the ’on-going’ and ’uncompleted’ changes, vowel/E/(E> ei), to contribute to the discussion in the dialectal literature concerning the mechanisms of language contact and language change, using social networks as a framework. Comparing with the former research, this study has these features as below. First the study is based on one of the variants among the Shanghai dialect, which can explain the systematicity of langage contact and language change from various angles, such as linguistic factors and social factors. Secondly, this study gets extensive samples combining the field research methods of sociolinguistics interview and anonymous observation to investigate variations. Thirdly, this study uses the scientific statistic method in the process of analysis, which presents the results of phonetic truth clearly.This treatise totally includes four chapters. Chapter one introduces and concludes the situation and the historical background of Shanghai urban dialect. Chapter two describes the methodology adopted for this study and revisits some of the previous studies on social network. Chapter three presents and examines the findings and discusses the situation and the reasons of vowel/E/(E> ei) change. Chapter four reviews all the conlusions that discussed.