Linguistic Variation in Contact: the Use of Erhua and Rusheng in the Xianggang Community in China
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Syracuse University SURFACE Theses - ALL 8-2014 Linguistic Variation in Contact: the Use of erhua and rusheng in the Xianggang Community in China Lei He Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/thesis Part of the Chinese Studies Commons Recommended Citation He, Lei, "Linguistic Variation in Contact: the Use of erhua and rusheng in the Xianggang Community in China" (2014). Theses - ALL. 59. https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/59 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract This study considers dialect variation by young and middle-aged speakers in the Xianggang community in China.1 The Xianggang community is located at the southern part of China, but it used to be composed of northern people. The contact between northern and southern dialects has given birth to a dialect mixed situation. With the attempt to know the driving force of language change within this speech community, both social factors and linguistic factors have been taken into consideration. In this study, Erhua is chosen as the representation of northern dialects and rusheng is chosen on behalf of the southern dialects. Linguistically, erhua has two environments: post-vocalic and post-nasal. Against the background of Chinese education, social factors such as age, gender, and period of residence as well as the division of northern and southern characteristics have been studied. This study suggests that there is dialect variation within the speech community, while more evidence is needed to support the assumption of dialect acquisition. Age and the division between northern and southern characteristics play significant roles on the use of rusheng and erhua within the speech community. Period of residence has effect on the use of erhua but not on rusheng. Influenced by Putonghua education, young speakers have less variation in their use of these two linguistic variables than middle-aged speakers do. Within the social context of a steel company, the use of rusheng is lexically conditioned because both northern and southern- characterized speakers choose to apply this tone to similar characters. Post-vocalic erhua is a significant linguistic environment for the use of erhua of the northerners. This is changing tendency towards the use of Putonghua within the speech community. 1 This study focuses on varieties of Chinese. Although they are not ‘mutually intelligible’, they are treated as dialects in this study. According to linguistic classifications, they should be considered languages. However, in Chinese linguistics, they are often treated as dialects, because of their shared grammar and writing systems. In this study, I follow the classification of mainstream Chinese linguists. LINGUISTIC VARIATION IN CONTACT: THE USE OF RUSHENG AND ERHUA IN THE XIANGGANG COMMUNITY IN CHINA By Lei He B.A., Ludong University, 2012 THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics In the Graduate School of Syracuse University Syracuse University August 2014 Copyright © Lei He 2014 All Rights Reserved Acknowledgements My deep appreciation goes to my thesis advisor Dr. Rania Habib. I feel very thankful to the inspiration from your course language change and variation. It is your insights and discussions that have encouraged me to make up my mind to conduct this work. I really enjoyed this experience, and with your guidance I finally understood how to organize my thought and make arguments. The process was hard, but luckily I have you as my guide who has spent countless hours to help me improve the work and has always been responsive to my ideas. Thanks for your critical thinking, and frank words, I couldn’t do this without your devotion. Many thanks are given to my academic advisor, Dr. Mary Louise Edwards, for your kindness and support throughout my graduate study. Your calmness left me the first expression on academics when I first walked into your office. Thank you for spending a whole summer with me to do the independent study. Besides the academic knowledge, I gained pleasure from reading and the ability to learn and solve problems. Thanks for all the conversation that happened between us, your words gave me power and supported me to finish this work. Thanks to my committee member, Dr. Tej. Bhatia, and my mentor Dr. Amanda Brown for your encouragement and believing in me. Special thanks go to all the participants of my study, and my friends in Syracuse. Without your support, this work couldn’t be done. Finally, I would like to say thank you to my parents, for your unconditional support and endless love. Thank you for giving me a happy life. iv TABLE OF CONTENT INDEX OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... VII TABLE OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ VIII CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ......................................................................................................... 4 1.2 BACKGROUND OF CHINESE LANGUAGE ................................................................................ 5 1.2.1 Relationship between Putonghua and Chinese dialects ................................................ 6 1.2.2 Phonological rules in Putonghua ................................................................................... 7 1.3 SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE XIANGGANG COMMUNITY .................... 10 1.4 SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................... 13 2.1 DIALECT IN CONTACT IN THE NATURALISTIC CONTEXT .................................................... 13 2.1.1 How can one variety of language have influence on another? ................................... 14 2.1.2 What are the patterns of linguistic changes? .............................................................. 16 2.1.3 What are the social meanings associated with one language variety that may influence another? ............................................................................................................................ 20 2.2 STUDIES ON LANGUAGE POLICY IN CHINA ......................................................................... 21 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................... 25 3.1 LINGUISTIC VARIABLES ...................................................................................................... 25 3.2 DATA COLLECTION ............................................................................................................. 28 3.2.1 Participants ................................................................................................................. 28 3.2.2 Questionnaire design ................................................................................................... 30 3.2.3 Wordlist design ............................................................................................................ 31 v 3.2.4 Recordings and coding ................................................................................................ 32 3.3 DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................. 34 3.3.1 Grouping ...................................................................................................................... 34 3.3.2 Descriptive analysis ..................................................................................................... 34 3.3.3 Statistical analysis ....................................................................................................... 35 CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS ........................................................................................... 36 4.1 QUESTIONNAIRE ................................................................................................................. 36 4.2 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH ON THE USE OF ERHUA AND RUSHENG .................................... 39 4.2.1 Analysis of erhua ......................................................................................................... 40 4.2.2 Analysis of rusheng ...................................................................................................... 48 CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION ................................................................................................... 54 CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 63 6.1 IMPLICATIONS FOR DIALECT VARIATION ........................................................................... 64 6.2 LIMITATIONS ....................................................................................................................... 65 6.3 FUTURE RESEARCH ............................................................................................................. 66 REFERENCES: ........................................................................................................................