【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 s plus the possible factors that lead to the variation and change.The author attempts to work out the following questions:1) What is the variation and change in terms of frequently used quantifiers?2) How do different social factors like age, gender, education level, occupation and occasion affect the variation and change of frequently used quantifiers in Hengyang dialect?3) What kind of language attitudes do local people have when they use different forms of frequently used classifiers?Organization of the Thesis The thesis is about the social distinction in usage of frequently used classifiers in Hengyang dialect and its causes under the guidance of language variation and change theory. There are five parts in this thesis:The first part introduces the whole study in general from research background information, objectives and significance of the research, research questions, research methods, and organization of the theses.Chapter one is about the previous literature related to this research. It firstly describes the previous researches on language contact, which covers the viewpoints of variationists on language contact, outes of language contact and language contact between Putonghua and Hengyang dialect. Then it depicts the previous researches on Chinese classifiers and classifiers in Hengyang dialect, which includes Chinese classifiers types of Chinese classifiers, variation in usage of Chinese classifiers and mon classifiers in Hengyang dialect. In the end, it is of brief ments on the preceding reviewed researches. Chapter two focuses on the theoretical foundation of this research. The research is built on the language variation and change theory which is a core theory of sociolinguistics. It serves as a pass to guide the explanation of the variation and change of the frequently used classifiers in Hengyang dialect. Chapter three mainly elaborates the research methods used in this survey. Firstly, it brings about hypotheses of the research. Secondly, it states how to select the target informants. Thirdly, it introduces the data collection process and method applied. Finally, the data processing process is introduced in a specific way. Chapter four shows the research results and discussion from different aspects. The results are analyzed in three parts. The first part is the change of the use of classifiers in Hengyang dialect consisting of the overall distribution of the use of classifiers, change of nominal classifiers and change of verbal classifiers. The second part is the analysis of synchronic study of differences on social factors like gender, age, educational level, occupation and occasion. And the third part is a multivariate statistical analysis. The last part concerns about language attitudes towards the change of frequently used classifiers in Hengyang dialect.Chapter five summarizes implications from the research. The last part is a conclusion. It points out deficiency of the research. And it offers some suggestions for further researches as well.69Chapter One Literature ReviewChapter One Literature Review Languages are dynamic and not static phenomena. It is within everyone’s experience of using and listening to languages that language use is variable and language change is sometimes rapid and sometimes slow but it has never stopped as long as human society exists. Under the big environment of globalization and urbanization, language contact has played a big role in language variation and change. The mutual impact of Putonghua and native dialects has gained much attention of scholars who are interested in it and have got outstanding achievements. Researches on Language ContactLanguage contact is a mon phenomenon in the process of human language development. In earliest work of modern sociolinguistics, the study of language in contact was regarded as a significant focus from the perspective of the development of sociolinguistic theories. And it has been one of primary subjects of researches in many recent sociolinguistic studies. of Variationists on Language Contact Language contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. To be concrete, when people of different languages contact, they will choose different elements from the structure of the two languages. The result of this contact depends on two categories: one is the intrafactors of a language。 the other is the extra factors such as social factors and psychological factors and so on (my translation, Xu Daming Language Change and Variation 250). The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. Contact linguistics in its narrow sense goes back to the early fifties of last century. During that time, cultural—linguistic contacts such as lexical borrowing had stood at the forefront of research. In Europe, the analysis of the linguistic contacts of classical languages and their effects had prevailed for a long time (qtd. in Coulmas 286). Again following Coulmas the contents of research in contact linguistics are linguistic levels like phonology, syntax, and lexicon as well as discourse analysis, stylistics, and pragmatics (287). Besides, it contains external factors such as nation, language munity, language boundaries, migration, and many others (qtd. in Coulmas 287). According to Bloomfield, language contact is categorized into “intimate contact” and “cultural contact”. The former means two languages are used under the same environment, such as in the case of immigration or a group conquered by another (444). This type of contact manifests in widespread societal bilingualism and wide varieties of functions that both languages are intended for. The latter refers to the contact due to cultural diffusion. It happens if different languages spoken in various speech areas having language contact involved with diffusion of cultural items or technology from one group to the other (445). The difference between the two types is that bilingualism is not required in the latter one. Outes of Language ContactNo language is