Study on the Negative Adverb “xə̃<sup>44</sup>” in Lingling Dialect and Its Origin: A Case of Language Horizontal Transmission

Abstract

There is a special negative adverb “xə̃⁴⁴” in Lingling dialect. Although there are some similarities between the “xə̃⁴⁴” and bu in grammatical function and syntactic distribution, the use of bu has less restrictions. Here the writer shows that the phenomenon of superposition of language elements from different origins appears not only in pronunciation, vocabulary system, but also in grammar system. The writer apply fieldwork, document comparison and other methods to analysis the phonetic and syntactic distribution and function of the “xə̃⁴⁴”. Comparing with those dialects and ethnic minority languages around Lingling and considering the history and relative phenomena of languages, It is suggested that the negative adverb “xə̃⁴⁴” evolves from the negative word [ņ] in Mian Language. This case shows that the negative adverb “xə̃⁴⁴” in Lingling dialect is due to the result of “horizontal transmission”. It tells people, when explaining Chinese dialect phenomenon, it should not be restricted to the dialect itself, better answers may be found in the dialects and languages of those surrounding places.