The Study Of Topic Markers In Zuoyun Dialect,Shanxi Province

Since Chinese was considered as a topic-prominent language,topic problems of Chinese have been a major concern to linguistics.This paper selects topic markers as the subject.Based on dialect facts of Zuoyun,describes and analyses the usage and grammaticalization process of topic markers in detail,so that understands typology value and significance of Chinese,as a topic-prominent language.In the first,there is a introduction.This part points out the research object and purpose.Besides,summarizes literature about topic and topic marker,to know the current situation.What’s more,explains relevant theories,and defines the concept of topic and topic marker in this paper.In addition,introduces research methods and resources of corpus.Second,it’s the main body of this paper that consists of four chapters.According to sources,divides topic markers into four types: topic markers derived from modal particle,adverb,copula,pronoun,and by which structures the paper’s main body.Amply introduces the usages from the aspects of syntactic,semantic,pragmatic functions and so on.Besides,discusses the grammaticalization process of each topic marker,and attempts to summarize the rule.In the fifth chapter,introduces combination of topic markers.Comparing their combination abilities could deepen acquaintance about each topic marker.In the end,it’s the conclusion.Summarizes usages and grammaticalization features of topic markers in Zuoyun dialect.In general,topic markers of Zuoyun are relatively mature.Their types are diverse.Besides,the degree of grammaticalization is high,and the ability for marking is well.However,apart from the common,there are some differences,especially different degree of grammaticalization,but it couldn’t affect the function for marking topic.As for degree,the topic marker derived from modal particle is the highest,followed by adverb and copula,but pronoun is the lowest.This alsoconforms to the typology feature about the priority sequence of topic marker’s grammaticalization in most Chinese dialects.Grammaticalization is a dynamic process.As the topic-prominent language,maybe more words in Chinese could evolve into topic markers.