The Research On Shu Yu (蜀语) And Vocabulary Of Sichuan Dialect

The book Shu Yu (蜀语) composed by Li Shi is a dictionary on Sichuan dialect, including 563 items of words and expression of Sichuan dialect in Ming dynasty. These words and expressions are not only still been used today but also quite a lot of them act as the heritage of ancient Chinese. Thereby, it provides the valuable materials for the investigation into the origination and composition of the words and expressions of Sichuan dialect, and also, leaves important clues to the study of Sichuan dialect's forming and developing history.Among the 563 words and expressions in Shu Yu(蜀语), 549 of them will be the subjects to study in this dissertation. On the base of lots of documents and careful investigations on Sichuan dialect, this dissertation tries to carry out a research on the history of lexicon through the analysis of the source, nature, form and rules of evolution of Sichuan dialect vocabulary by using quantitative analysis, synchronic and diachronic comparison.The dissertation includes five parts:The first part gives an introduction to the purpose of the study,the research status of related aspects,the outline of composition and the methodology used.The second part studies the basic characteristics of Sichuan dialect in Ming dynasty through the investigations of the formation,class,meaning category and pronunciation of words and expressions compiled in Shu Yu (蜀语) by synchronic perspective.The third part carries out the study on the diachronic level, from various angles of history and origination, and then induces the characteristics of Sichuan dialect, such as origination,nature,form and development, etc..The fourth part is the comparison of the words and expressions between the present Sichuan dialect and that in Shu Yu (蜀语). Through the study of the reservation and usage of the items in Shu Yu (蜀语), the evolution of Sichuan dialect in nearly 400 years, from Ming dynasty till now is studied.The last part is the conclusion based on the parts mentioned above:The basic characteristics of Sichuan dialect in Ming dynasty: for the syllable amount, single syllable was the mainstream of the words and expressions of Sichuan dialect in Ming dynasty, which was similar as that of Southern dialect. It mainly originated in that Sichuan dialect was mostly affected by the Southern dialect during its forming process; for the word-building methods, compound word-building method accounted for more for the words and expressions of Sichuan dialect, the deriving method and overlapping method had come into being and held an important position; on the aspects of word categories and meanings, noun,verb,adjective and the substantives closely related to social living were the mainstream of Sichuan dialect words and expression, which embodied the special living and colloquial characteristics of the dialectal words and expressions; for the pronunciation, Sichuan dialect gave prominence to the important inclination from the neoteric pronunciation to modern one.From Ba and Shu language in pre-Qin dynasty to the Bashu dialect after Qin dynasty annexed Ba and Shu dynasty, and then to Sichuan dialect in late Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty, Sichuan dialect undergoes a long historical process. In its forming process, it was mainly affected by the national prevalent language,dialect of other countries and Bashu aboriginal language. The national prevalent language laid the important foundation for Sichuan dialect becoming the official language; the dialects from different counties enriched the sources of words and expressions of Sichuan dialect, creating a phase of blending of the Northern and the Southern; and the Bashu aboriginal dialect then guaranteed its unique feature and cultural value. The complex immigration activity in Sichuan area was one of the important social roots for the formation and origination of Sichuan dialect.From Ming dynasty to modern times, Sichuan dialect's development keeps the relative inheriting and stead during these four hundreds years. Ming dynasty could be regarded as the important period for its formation.