Gwo＂ and ＂Dzy＂ in Huajian Ji and Yue Ou

In this paper, we focus our grammar studies on two early Cantonese literature contexts： Huajian Ji （花菚記, 1714） and Yue Ou （粤謳, 1820）. Two aspect markers, the experience aspect marker ＂gwo 過＂ and the duration aspect marker ＂dzy 住＂, in these two Cantonese books show different characteristics from oral Cantonese today. ＂Gwo＂, mostly used as an aspect marker of＂experience＂ and ＂repeat＂ in verbal expression, had the usage of＂unhappened experience＂ in the old books as a connection between this two aspects. Every step of ＂dzy＂＇s grammarlization process was clearly recorded in the written materials. By comparing with the aspect markers in Mandarin Chinese, the usage of the completion aspect marker ＂liu 了＂ found in these two books was also discussed. We argue the importance of literature context in diachronical grammar studies of dialect.