6th Anal International Conference on Language, Llrature and Linguistics (L3 2017) A Study on Prefix of Hohhot Dialect Gao Xuefeng The Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies ‘The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong. Absirace—Hobbot dialect (Cidibua), as the most Important and prevalent spoken-language in Hohhot, has its own linguistic features. ‘This paper focuses on morphology in Hohhot dialect. Based on the analysis of, ‘three dominant prefires, we find that these three prefixes, have their own features and have no substantive meati Keywords-Holhot dialect; Prefis; Linguistic features I. INTRODUCTION Hobhot, the provincial city of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is the political, economic and cultural center of Inner Mongolia. The major languages and dialects are Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese), Hohhot dialect (Cidihua) and several varietios of Mongolian (Puthuval & Wang 2016). Hupu, a contraction of huhehaote and Putonghua, is also a very interesting branch of Hohhot language attracting researcher's sight (Wang 2014). Hohhot dialect (Cidiua), as the most prevalent spoken-language in Hohhot, plays an important role in Hobhotians’ daily life. Like other dialects in China, Hohhot dialect also has its own linguistic features in phonology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. This paper will focus on three typical prefixes and analyze them more specifically Tl, LITERATURE REVIEW Liao (2014) believes that “if @ bound morpheme carries no substantive meaning, and / or its position is fied, itis best analyzed as an affix. Otherwise, it should be categorized as a bound root”. The analysis of the following prefixes in this paper will be based on this definition Li & Li (1986) analyze prefix and suffix and state some explanations on Hohhot dialect. ko?, as the most important affix in Hohhot dialect (as the branch of Jin dialect) is mostly discussed, The origin of ka? is also having a heated discussion (Zhang 2010; Liu & Liu 2012). Liu & Liv (2012) think that ko? in contemporary Jin dialect has the obvious property of agglutination, which i like the agglutinative elements. 6th Annual International Conference on Language, Literature and Linguistics (L3 2017) Copyright © GSTF 2017 ISSN 2251-3565 ol: 10.5176/2251-3566_1317.121 329 Sophia Yat Mei Lee ‘The Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies ‘The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong, in Altai Language. Itcombines with Chinese roots and. ‘forms a special kind of mixed language MI, THE PREFIX /ka?/ ko? is the most important prefix in Hohhot dialect As the most productive prefix, it can be combined with nouns, verbs, adjectives and classifiers. (Li & Li 1986; Liu & Liu 2000; Liu & Liu 2012), A, Jk92!+ monosyllabic noun root "The prefix /ka?/ combines with the monosyllabic noun ‘oot taking the form XY, () ko? ua prefix concave “the place which is high in two sides but low in the middle" ke? tan prefix. egg “egg-shaped things? @ ka? it prefix point “the top ofthe cone" @ () ko? tsar prefix. fragment “very small pieces of food or earth” The basic meaning of the ks?-noun is the basic ‘meaning of their roots. For example, the meaning of ‘ks? ua?*l “the place where high in two sides but low in middle’, /ko? teio“/ ‘the top of the cone” and /ka? tsa) “very smaller pieces of food or earth’ in (1) (3) (4) contains the original meaning of the noun root. ‘Some ko?-noun’s meaning isthe metaphor of the root. For instance, /ko? tan ‘egg-shaped things’ in (2) is not the egg, but a kind of egg-shaped thing. ko?-noun can also undergo reduplication (RED) of noun root, and take the form XYY. ostrez0n.{6h Annual Inemtonal Conference on Language, Literature and Linguists (LS 2017) (5) PAs? tan RED: egg-shaped thing “/k3? tan anda very small The example (5) indicates that the proce realuplication XYY is XY + Y. Does isia! tein, faa ua", fsa tsa" in (1), (3) and (4) exist in Hohhot dialect? The unswer is no. We usually use ka?-noun to describe these kinds of things, There is a special case to /tan tan in 2). When » use fantan%/alone, it reers to children’s testis. Ibis proper noun. But according to what we analyzed, we think that /tan™tan™, which indicates children’s tos is the result by the consensus ofthe mass. There is also a group of reduplicated words that are sifferent from the above one. (©) 4h-REL “atiny bit ) fh? 544 Js) 1 8-PRE— (ha? 9) 5) REI 995) 8 4 a tiny bit 1k92 sy sy*V ‘a tiny bi'in 6) and (7) show that it doesn’t undergo the process of XY#Y, but undergo prefix-adding(PRE). It means that the root undergoes reduplication frst and then adds the prefix. Therefore, the process of this kind of form is YY (reduplication ‘of noun root) + X (prefix~ ko?). The reason is that the wort ks?) 47 doesn’t exist in Hohhot dialect, but / 4 51) does. (8) AstaY-RED-~ tsa ts'al-~-PRE- ‘stay ‘very small pieces" (9) tks? 1sa)-—-RED—ko? sha tsa very small Pivces" ka? stat that ka? tha 0 these two There i also a very imoresting ew tal ‘very small pieces? can und Lifferent kinds of process, because both /ts'u tsta/ and (ka? s'a/exist in Hohhot dialee ‘Therefore, we can conclude that there are two different kinds of construction on ka?-noun, They are XVI and XIYY. Wang (1994) believes that the reduplication of noun refers to favor “xii”, kindness “gingie”™ cor tininess “xixiao”, which always apply to children's language. We find that the meaning of reduplicative forms of XY in Hohhot dialect also have little changes Which indicate “a litle / small”, 20 B, (ka?! + monosyllabic verb root Te prefix ‘ka?! combines with the monosyllabic ‘verb root taking the form XY. The verb 100s which can be combined with pretix-ka2/ usually express the physical action, The ka?-verb andl the verb itself can both be used in Hohhot dialect, but Hohhotians prefer using ko?-verb, For example: GOK? Ka prefix Tean ‘lean against’ (ks? uit prelix push push Ke? ayy pretix tie down Fintly, Liv & Liu (2000) argue that verb XY usually express “take actions slowly ora short period”. For instance: (13)ni% —twiou'®S tsail® su" mae ko? you AUX in tree prefix Baw Jean awhile there “Yoo just lean against the tee fora while” (i4)ni®—wiou'* wai ui nae au you AUX in tree there lean awhile (iS)ni® ious by nag" you AUX — not can sau?"uei" ko? Pui alittle bit peefix push a while “Why can’t you push a fitle bit more! (16)ni —wiou by ny! tsa you AUX — not can more saue"uei ko? i ia alittle bit prefix push awhile “Why can’t you push a litle bic mote?” ——EE eer ——" CI‘th Annual Intemational Confecence on Language, Literature and Linguistics (LS 2017) (iD A tly shot sy ko? ay? Jet be go. bed prefix liedown awhile “Let him rest in bed for a while.” (170 A" wy ishoMsy Pay let he go bed —_ lie down awhile “Let im rest in bed for a while.” Examples (13) to (18) show that there is no difference when the verb root attaches with or without Drefix- ko?, othe existence of prefix-ka? doesn’t have any influence on expressing “take actions slowly or a short period”, The meaning of “slowly or slightly” derives from “/cia™? and /xueio ‘a while”. It can be concluded thatthe meaning of “take action slowly (of a short period” derives from the context, not the prefix. ka’. Secondly, Li & Li (1986) argue that some ko? ‘verbs can express “non-stop repeated action”. See the following examples (excerpted from Li & Li (1986) (gyn —iau®® ko? niou" Le You not prefix. twist ASP “Don't twist your body anymore.” Q0)nig® = ko? tsuan® ke SPL prefix walk around ASP i? ie le one day ASP “They walk around all day.” “The sentence (19) and (20) show that actions /ko? siiou®®/“wist™ and /ka? tsuan®"/ ‘walk around? in sentences respectively refer to non-stop repeated ‘action. But if we use the verb root alone in sentences, will this meaning still romain, Sce the examples (21) and Q2). Qn biaut® niu! Te You not — twist ASP ‘Don’t twist your body anymore.” (22)nig* —tsuan® te io? tie de SPL walk around ASP one day ASP “They walk around all day.” a Compared withthe sentences (19) 10 (22), (21) & (22), which the verb roots don’t attach with prefix-ko?, still express the meaning of non-stop repeated actions. ‘We find that the verb what the prefix attached bas this kind of property: niu [non-stop +repeated] tsuan’®[+non-stop +repeated] ‘According to the above analysis, it can be concluded that “non-stop repeated” meaning derived from the verb root. Therefore, prefix- ka? doesn’t refer to repeated and non-stop. The meaning of them derives. from the verb itself and the context Based on the above analysis, prefix-ko? of verb carries no substantive meaning. The meaning of “take action slowly of a short period” and “non-stop repeated action” derives from the verb itself and the context C._ fko2/-+ monosyllabie adjective root The prefix (ka?! combines with the monosyllabic adjective root taking the form XY, which refers to the property of an entity. For example: @23)k3?—_ciow™* prefix Shriveled “shriveled” (24 )ko? tia prefix bent “bent” Some reduplicated adjective root can also combine with prefix-ko?. Reduplication in adjective root is not 1 very obvious feature in Hohhot dialect, compared with Mandarin Chinese D._ fks2/ + monosyllabic classifier root Chinese has « particular rich nominal classifier system that requires classifiers to occurs in a noun phrase using the following construction (Ahrens & Huang 2016): Determiner(Det) / Number (Num) / Quantifier (Q) - Classifier (CL) - Noun (N) They use “sorta classifier” and “measure classifies” to refer to its subcategories. Sortl classifiers include individual classifier, event classifier and kind classifier, while measure classifiers include container measure word, standard measure word and approximation measure word.{th Annual Inernatonal Conference on Language, Literature and Linguists (L3 2017) Prefix-k? in Hobhot diaeet can combine with some kinds of classifiers. For instance: wos (25)i92 ke? tui! won’ “a bunch of questions’ (26) san!" ka? tia? y> tio ‘three sections of corn’ (2D ia? ko? ku mA" son" ‘hemp rope According 10 what we analyzed, prefix-ka? can ‘only combine with approximation measure words. So the sructure of noun phrase in Hohhot dialect ean be written as follows: Determiner(Det) { Number (Num) / Quantfier (Q) (k>?)-Classifier (CL) — Noun (N) E. Summary Prefix. /ko2% is @ very important morpheme in Hohhot dialect and people use it in almost all the sentences. Based on what we analyzed above, we find that prefixcko? can combine with nouns, verbs. adjectives and classifiers. However, it doesn't carry substantive meaning. We also explain some ‘grammatical features and characteristics of 32. IV, THE PREFIX /xua?™/ Prefix ‘xu9? always combine with monosyllabic verb root, It refers to continuity and repetition of an action (Li &eLi 1986), and have derogatory sense (Liu Liv 2000). The meaning of/suo2I-verb is the basic ‘meaning ofthe verb root, For example (28) xus?™ prefix quiver ‘quiver (29)xu97 Tao prefix uncover (Go)xus7 au" prefix walk around ‘walk round! G1)xus prefix stir a ‘As we can see above, these words express continuity, 8. /aus?® tou “quiver” in (28), Juay™ zu “walk around? in (30) and /xuo? teiau™Y tir in (31). But /nua? liao" “uncover” in (29) doesn’t refer to cover and uncover the quilt continually. We Find thatthe verb root his the sume property: tou" [continuity + repetition] au [continuity + repetition) teiaw* (+continuity + repetition) [As we present above, tou" ‘quiver’, za" “walk, around” and /teiau®°Y*str* in (28), (30) and (31) al express continuity and repetition. So the property of continuity and repetition doesn’t derive fom prefix- xuo?", but the verb itself, Therefore, it can be concluded that ua?/ doesn't have any substantive ‘meaning. It only uses asthe derivational prefix, V. THE PREFIX (20? Prefix 1292 adjectives, Por example: ‘can combine with verbs and A. l430/ + monosyllabic verb root (32)208 sun! prefis. cheat cheat x2 ce! refix show off show off” Gm ot prefix brag brag! The above examples show that /9?/ always ‘combine the verb root which has the property of derogatory, like Ixup!Y “cheat” in (32), Jeie"! in (33) and sw in (34), B. za? + monosyllabic adjective root (35)20™* kei prefix ste “strange’ incredible retin incredible" estFo2017 tlNe in?" (7) Xiaofang Wang, “The study on reduplication of prefix shrewd ‘noun,” Journal of Jiaying University, vol. 29, pp. sorewd” 134-139, 1994, [8] Xuan Wang, “Unpublished field notes and j recordings, Hohhot, July-October 2014" {6h Annual ntematonal Conference on Language, Literature and Linguistics (L3 2017) | ‘The examples above can show that the roots of ‘232 in (35) 0 37) have the same propery unpublished. a [9] 8. Zhang, “The stad on ks?” Journal of Ankang | University, vol. 22, pp.46-48, 2010, | aye“ [+derogatory] | tg?” [derogatory] } ‘Therefore, the meaning of these words derives from the root and the derogatory sense is also encoded in the root ise. | VI CONCLUSION ‘Three main prefixes are explained and analyzed to present a micro vision of Hohhot dialect. Based on what we analyzed, we find that prefix in Hohhot dialect has no substantive meaning and its postion is fixed. It will help us to analyze more precisely on language and dialect. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This rescarch work is supported by an Early Career Scheme (ECS) project sponsored by the Research Grants Council, Hong Kong (Project No. F-PP14) and a Faculty Research Grant sponsored by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Project No. 1-ZEVK) REFERENCES [ID K. Abrens and C. Huang, “Classifiers,” in A reference grammar of Chinese, in C. Huang and D. Shi, Eds, Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp. 169-198, (2) Z. Li and S. Li, “Affixes in Hohhot dialect! Tournal of Inner Mongolia University, vol.3, pp. 58-464, 1986, [3] W. Liao, “Morphology,” in The handbook of Chinese linguistics, C. Huang, Y. Li, and A. ‘Simpson, Eds. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2014, pp. 3.25, [4) W. Liv and X. Liu, Hobhot dialect. Hohhot: Inner ‘Mongolia Press, 2000. (5) Y. Liu and X. Liu, “The new findings on ‘contemporary Jin dialect ka2," Chinese Study, vol.125, pp. 63-65, 2012 6) S. Puthuval and Xuan Wang, “Hohhot, The Language of," in Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics, R. 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