A Study Of Adverbs In The Taiyuan Urban Dialect

This paper is to compare the adverbs in the Taiyuan urban dialect with those in the Mandarin language through description and analysis of the first-hand materials. Adverbs of each category with dialect characteristics were selected and compared with the Mandarin language from the aspects of grammar, semantics and pragmatics. This paper is comprised of three major parts:The first part has introduced the cultural, geographical and dialectal aspects of the Taiyuan city. Studies on modern Chinese adverbs and Taiyuan dialects have been reviewed, which leads to the aim of this study. Methods and the sources of materials are also stated in detail.The second part is the body. The adverbs with Taiyuan urban dialectal characteristics were divided into six categories:degree adverbs, time adverbs, scope adverbs, modal adverbs, tone adverbs, and positive/negative adverbs. In each category, adverbs existent in both Mandarin and Taiyuan dialect but distinct, and those existent in Taiyuan dialect only, were selected and compared to the Mandarin language. The analysis and comparison were focused on the aspects of grammatical functions, semantic characteristics, pragmatics research, and the relations with other adverbs or related words. The comparison was mainly between Taiyuan and Mandarin, although neoteric Chinese were also involved occasionally.The third part is the conclusion. The adverbs of Taiyuan urban dialect are quantitatively less than those of the Mandarin language. Within those existent in both Taiyuan urban dialect and Mandarin, most adverbs are of the same usage; within those existent in Taiyuan dialect only, the adverbs are mostly distinguished subtly, from the Mandarin, in the aspects of grammatical functions, semantic characteristics and pragmatics.