A Study Of Topic Continuity In Oral Narratives In Xiakan Dong

Fruitful achievements have been gained in Dong language study. However, compared with the studies conducted in phonetic system, vocabulary and syntax, the area Dong discourse is relatively less covered. Dong folk stories are an important carrier of Dong cultures. In addition, Dong nationality does not have its own writing system. Therefore, the documentation and study of these oral narratives contributes to the preservation and promotion of Dong cultures. Besides, it has some reference significance for further studies in Dong discourse.This thesis is an attempt at the topic continuity in oral narrative discourses in Xiakan Dong. To begin with, three folk stories spreading at Xiankan village are documented, transcribed and translated, according to the related methods proposed in fieldwork linguistics and documentary linguistics. And on this basis, a comprehensive and systematic study is conducted of topic continuity in these oral narratives in such two aspects as grammatical devices and affecting factors. To specify, what kinds of grammatical devices are employed for topic continuity in those narratives and the choice of those devices is motivated by what discourse factors.The study reveals that a wide range of grammatical devices are employed to code topic continuity in these oral narratives, including zero anaphora, third person pronoun, various kinds of definite noun phrases, fronting and passive construction. Specially speaking, those various kinds of definite noun phrases include definite bare noun phrases, definite noun phrases modified by a demonstrative and definite noun phrases modified by a relative clause. And those definite bare noun phrases mainly include person names and kinship terms. The choice of these various devices to code topic continuity is restricted by such discourse motivations as referential distance, whether there are other disruptive topics and the number of these topics and topic prominence/importance and so forth.