In order to observe the relationship between the intonation patterns and their functions of interjections as responses, 192 pairs of conversations were synthesized by combining 4 kinds of sentences of different sentence types and 4 kinds of interjection response words (ɑ、ɑｉ、ｏ、ｅｎ) loaded with different intonations to observe the matching degrees between the types of the former sentences and the responses of the latter sentence in the Chinese conversation sequences, as well as the functional orientations of the interjections in different intonations. It is found that，the actual behavior types inferred from the response function selection results of the latter sentences are roughly consistent with the function types of the former sentences, but it also highlights the asymmetry of the former sentences in forms and functions. Respondents’ choice of interjection and intonation affected subjects’ choice of response function at the same time, and the influence of intonation was more obvious. The rising or falling intonations can realize the basic distinction of positive or negative response functions, and the functions of complex intonation such as rising-falling and falling-rising are mainly determined by the rising or falling trend of the back part of the curve.

The paper examines the postverbal constraint in Chinese and the preverbal constraint in Mande languages, i.e., the number of constituents that follow the verb in Chinese and that precede the verb in the Mande languages, respectively, is limited, exhibiting a different word order type than ordinary SVO and SOV. Modern Standard Mandarin contains a few exceptions to the postverbal constraint, but their usage is restricted. The postverbal/preverbal constraint can be categorized as “quantitatively constrained word order”, in contrast to “quality-based word order” and “position-based word order”. The introduction of quantitatively constrained word order which is differentiated from the other two types of word order would enrich our understanding of the word order typology.

The Chinese and Zhuang languages in South Central Guangxi share two grammatical features. One is that reduplication of classifier expresses free reference, and the other one is that the word “对” meaning CORRECT has two functions, namely as existential verb first and as location/time preposition second. The model language of the two features is Zhuang, and Chinese replicates its grammatical functions. The first shared feature evolved from the following structure: V1+CL+where, CL+that+V2>V1+CL, CL+V2>V1+CL+CL+V2, triggered by the context of five-character Zhuang ballads. The origin of the second shared feature is that the Zhuang people realized that their “V+ｔｅ1” corresponded to the Mandarin's “V+ 对 dui,” deducing that Zhuang “ｔｅ1” was equivalent to Mandarin “对 dui.” They then analogized the Zhuang “ｔｅ1+N” structure to the Zhuang-style Mandarin “对dui+N.” As the Zhuang-style Mandarin “ 对 dui+N” expanded in Yizhou mandarin, “ 对 dui” acquired the functions of an existential verb and a location/time preposition.

Rgyalrongic belongs to Qiangic of the Tibeto-Burman in Sino-Tibetan family, including the three languages of Rgyalrong, Lavrung and Horpa. This paper focuses on description and analysis of the lexical nominalizing derivation and the clausal nominalization in Rta’u variety of the central Horpa, and compares them with the genetically related languages and dialects within the Rgyalrongic, tracing the historical trajectories of their evolvements and the common innovations of the nominalizing morphology and the syntactic structure of Rgyalrongic, in an attempt to construct a typological grammar system for Horpa and provide some critical nominalization evidences for morphological reconstruction and genus classification of the languages and the dialects in Rgyalrongic.

This paper examines the properties of demonstratives and demonstrative phrases in Lianhua Gan from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. There are three basic demonstratives: \[ku35\], \[ku35\] and \[k35\]. Among them, \[ku35\] and \[k35\] can refer to locations and also persons/objects; \[ku35\] can be used as a proximal demonstrative and also a neutral demonstrative that does not encode the distance contrast. Besides the commonly used demonstrative phrase of “DemDetClN” across Chinese, Lianhua Gan also employs the definite locational attributive structure of “DemLoc\[ku\]ClN”. Different from the direct way of the former phase, the latter structure indirectly refers to a person/object by specifying the location where the person/object is situated. These synchronic states are the result of subsequent diachronic development. Both old and new uses of different diachronic stages remain in modern Lianhua Gan, making the synchronic demonstrative system quite complicated. This paper aims to explore cross-dialectal/cross-linguistic similarities and differences of the development of demonstratives on the basis of the full understanding of the demonstrative system of Lianhua Gan, and to provide a case study to illustrate the relationship between the synchronic description and diachronic reconstruction as well as that between studies on a specific dialect and cross-dialectal/cross-linguistic comparative studies.

Based on the recent phenomenon of final variants in the town of Minqing Bandong (坂东) in eastern Min dialects, through acoustic analysis, we find that the final variants have different length structures between different tones. On the basis of the acoustic analysis of diphthongs in two representative dialects in southern and northern zone of Min dialects including Fuzhou (福州), Lianjiang (连江), Ningde (宁德) and Zhouning (周宁), we propose that the influence of tones on vowel duration comes first, subsequently the change of the vowel length leads to an increase or decrease in its loudness. Therefore, it may also be said that the tone affects the length of the vowel and that the relative loudness of the vowel is related to vowel length. So the tone, the length and loudness of vowel are the three factors which constitute the mechanism of the emergence of final variants. Finally, with reference to the common characteristics and historical evolution of eastern Min dialects, the article summarizes the basic rules of final variants in two types, i.e. the head component expansion and the end component expansion whereby the final variant developing in different directions according to the different tone condition.

“To play” is a universal basic concept in various languages. The verb meaning “to play” in the Hakka dialect in Ningdu has been recorded as \[ho\]、\[hui\]、\[xi\]、\[vi\]、\[vi\], and \[fei\], also as the dissyllabic \[huai tshau\]、\[fei tshau\]. According to the history of the Chinese language and synchronic study of various dialects, this word should be written as “huai” (坏) and “huaichao” (坏钞), evolving from “huaichao” (坏钞) (“to pay the expense”) in the early Mandarin. The verb meaning “to play” in Fuguang cluster of Gan dialect, which was written as “wei” (猥), may be written as “huai”, too, because they are practically of the same word. It shows the close relatioship of the Ningdu Shicheng cluster of Hakka dialect and Gan dialect.

After combing the unearthed documents, the paper observes that the characters  “lü” (履) and “ju” (屦) were used interchangeably and that they were also written as a number of variant forms during the Warring States Period. Under the influence of policy of Uniformity of Script, this problem was solved respectively during the period of the Qin dynasty. According to the investigation of unearthed and handed down documents from the pre-Qin to the early Western Han dynasty, the character ju was eventually replaced by “lü” and “lü” became a commonly used word for “shoes” no later than the Qin dynasty, resulting from the policy of Uniformity of Script. This case shows that policy of Uniformity of Script did have an important impact on the change of Chinese words.