The Suffixes “Zi(子)”“Er(儿)”“Tou(头)” In Dialect Of Fenghuang Village, Ningjin County, Hebei Province

This thesis dose a full study of suffixes “Zi(子)”“Er(儿)”“Tou(头)” in dialect of Fenghuang Village, Ningjin County, Hebei Province based on the field work and literature. It includes five chapters:Chapter one is introduction. In the chapter we point out a set of standards for the affixes:bound morphemes; lexical meaningless; localization; soft tone-variation.The word-formation pattern “root+affix” can not explain the word-formation of derivative in Mandarin, therefore our analysis based on the word-formation pattern “base+affix”,here ”base”can be either a root or a complex component.Chapter two introduces the geographic location and history of Fenghuang village and describes the phonological system of Fenghuang village dialect, including the initials,finals and tone systems.Chapter three studies the suffix"Zi(子)"in Fenghuang village dialect.The suffix"Zi(子)"is“zi-wei(子尾)”.The suffix"Zi(子)"can be prounce as[ts?]or[?],the usage of[ts?]or[?]depends on the following conditions:First,it would be prounce as[ts?]when the final ahead of"Zi(子)"is[er]/[i]/[y]/[a]/[?];Second,it would be prounce as[?]when the base is made up of repetition of monosyllable noun morpheme;Third,the elderly and the uneducated tend to use[?].There is an evolution from[?]to[ts?]influenced by Mandarin,the surrounding dialects and immigrant dialects.Then we introduces the tone value and its influence to middle character in some special structures.From formative and semantic perspective,we analyze the word-formation of derivatives“X+Zi”and the compound word it made of:Noun:the derivatives denoting person are divided into four big categories and eight small categories;the derivatives denoting object are divided into four big categories and seven small categories;the compound words are divided into eight categories;Quantifiers are divided into one category.From formative and part-of-speech perspective,we analyze the inflectional function of"Zi(子)".According to comparison and analysis,we get the followings:The words consist of suffix "Zi(子)" are difference between Mandarin and Fenghuang dialect such as words that have same surface but be different in essence caused by the scope of lexical meaning and color meaning; words that have different surface but be same in essence caused by the source, the motivation of word-making, the way of word formation, literary and colloquial usage, the inflectional activeness, the special style in different language system; The suffix "Zi(子)" can either be derivative or be inflectional in Fenghuang Village dialect. A majority of derivative made up of "Zi(子)" are nouns, but minority of them are quantifiers; the compound words made up of "X+Zi" include nouns,verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns. The inflectional "Zi(子)" can be attached to nouns,quantifiers, adverbs. The bases to which the derivative "Zi(子)" attached are complex and various in nature, structure of syllable. The function of "Zi( 子) " that change in parts of speech has a role to play when "Zi(子)" attaches to non-nominal base to form noun derivative "X+Zi". The function of "Zi(子)" that change in meaning has a role to play when derivative "Zi(子)" attaches to adjectival, verbal, numeral, quantifier base, however, when it attaches to nominal base, the effect of the function are various. It’s irrational to study the negative meanings of "Zi(子)" from the following aspects: structure, semantics, the scope of word-formation, comparison to “Er(儿)”, because of "Zi(子)" do not have the negative meaning itself, it’s better for us to put the "Zi(子)" into derivative and study the meaning of derivative. The opinion that "Zi(子)" always attaches to the smaller ones of a special semantic field just can show the original meaning “small” exist in "Zi(子)", the diminutive function can not be proved, it need need to more explore.Chapter four studies the suffix "Er( 儿) " in Fenghuang village dialect. We studys structures of eight styles of retroflex final: [?r]/[i?r]/[u?r]/[r]/[?r]/[i?r]/[u?r]/[y?r].From formative and semantic perspective, we analyze the word-formation of derivatives “X+Er”and the compound word it made of: Noun: the derivatives denoting person are divided into four big categories and eleven small categories; the derivatives denoting object are divided into five big categories and nine small categories; the compound words are divided into four big categories and five small categories; Verbs and adjectives are divided into three categories respectively; Quantifiers,adverbs and pronouns are divided into one category respectively. From formative and part-of-speech perspective, we analyze the inflectional function of "Er(儿)". According to comparison and analysis, we get the followings:The suffix "Er(儿)" can either be derivative or be inflectional in Fenghuang Village dialect. In addition to nouns, the derivative”X+Er(儿)” could be verbs, adjectives, adverbs,pronouns, numerals. The bases to which the derivative "Er(儿)" attached are complex and various in nature, structure of syllable. The function of "Er( 儿) " that change in parts of speech has a role to play when "Er(儿)" attaches to non-nominal base to form noun derivative "X+Er" or verbal base to form adjectival derivative "X+Er". Derivative "Er(儿)" could drive the interconversion between concrete meaning and abstract meaning. "Er(儿)" itself does not show the additional color of fondness, however, it can strengthen the colloquialism of X. Frequently and adequately used, the diminutive function of "Er(儿)" has disappearing, mostly "Er(儿)" isn’t the diminutive suffix. A comparison of "Zi(子)" and "Er(儿)" in Fenghuang Village dialect shows the similarity between them, such as the original meaning, the development path, the scope of part of speech and semantic field of derivative, grammatical function, the relationship between base and derivative, and the differences between them, such as the development time, the lexical meaning of derivatives formed by the same base, the scope of word-formation, activeness. Form the comparison of activeness between them, we speculate a part of function of "Zi(子)" might have given way to "Er(儿)".Chapter five studies the suffix "Tou(头)" in Fenghuang village dialect. We firstly show the derivatives that usually do not be soft-toned or retroflexed and analysis the disharmony of diphthong and disappearance of initial caused by soft-tone.From formative and semantic perspective, we analyze the word-formation of derivatives “X+Tou” and the compound word it made of, we get the followings:The suffix "Tou(头)" just can be derivative in Fenghuang Village dialect. A majority of derivative made up of "Tou( 头)" are nouns. The function of "Tou( 头)" that change in parts of speech has a role to play when "Tou(头)" attaches to verbal, adjectival, numeral,quantifier base to form derivative "X+Tou". The capacity of "Tou( 头)" combined with disyllabic, polysyllabic or verbal base in Fenghuang Village dialect is more active than that in Mandarin. The function of "Tou(头)" that change in meaning has a role to play when derivative "Tou(头)" attaches to adjectival, verbal, quantifier base. The suffix "Tou(头)" make the colloquialism of derivative stand out. The views of previous studies can not prove the negative meaning of suffix "Tou(头)". The suffix "Tou(头)" does not have diminutive function.