A Survey On The Usage Of Bei XX Structure In Chinese From Language Variation Perspective

Language is undergoing development with the passing of time. One language alwayscontacts with other languages on different occasions and from different degrees. Thedevelopment of language itself and the contact with other languages will inevitably causelanguage variation either in phonetics, lexicon or syntax. Under the influence of the specialcontext on the internet, the BEI XX structure appears for language development and influencesof other languages.Language variation is embodied in phonetics, lexicon or syntax, which is the coreconcept of sociolinguistic study. Taking the BEI XX structure as an example, this studyanalyzes the distribution of syntactic changes from the perspective of sociolinguistic variation.Research methods in sociolinguistics are adopted. First, type-recording the interviews of158students of Xiangtan University and observing students’ daily speech are applied, throughwhich sentence samples of BEI XX structure are collected. Then, the questionnaire survey onstudents’ attitudes towards the use of BEI XX structure is conducted as a supplement. Finally,with the mathematical statistics methods, the data are analyzed with help of softwares such asGoldVarb X and Excel (2003).The present study mainly discuss the following three questions: firstly, the characteristicsof BEI XX structure in daily usage; secondly, the distribution of social factors that affect theuse of BEI XX structure; thirdly, students’ attitudes towards this structure.It is found that the appearance and diffusion of BEI XX structure is influenced bylanguage development and social factors. The BEI in BEI XX structure is losing its function asa passive marker and becomes a quasi-affix to be used to define words. In this structure, theXX can be transitive verbs, intransitive verbs, nouns, adjectives and so on. In daily expression,the BEI XX structure can be used as both predicate and object, and it mainly used as predicate,this suits the expressional habit in oral speech. Meanwhile, the social variables influence itsdistribution, that is, the occurrence of BEI XX structure in casual speech is far more than thatin formal speech. Male students have a higher tendency to use this structure while studentsmajor in art use less because of their major demanding, and the educational background hasless influences on the use of BEI XX structure. The appearance and diffusion of BEI XXstructure in Putonghua results from internal causes of language and social causes. The internalcauses focus on the self-adjustment mechanism of language system and word formation, theexternal causes include the influences from internet and English language.With the fast spreading of internet, new language varieties appear frequently on the internet and the use of them in Putonghua will bring challenges to the common language, sothe systematic analysis of new variety can not only help people hold a rational attitudetowards its use and enrich the language variation study, but also keep the development oflanguage in a harmonious way.