1. Full name: Gao Yi Jiao                       

2. Sex: Female

3. Date of birth: Sept 05th, 1979                         

4. Place of birth: Meng Zi, Yun Nan, China

5. Admission decision number: 2694/2013/QĐ- XHNV-SĐH dated 25 Nov 2013 from University of Social Sciences & Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

6. Changes in academic process: Extending study time (24 months) according to decision number số 649/ XHNV-ĐT of University of Social Sciences & Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

7. Official thesis title: “Research on the place names of China’s Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province”

8. Major: Linguistics           9.   Code: 62220240

10. Supervisor: Assoc. Prof., Dr. Nguyen Van Hieu

11. Summary of the new findings of the thesis:

We collected 1419 administrative place names at the village, district, county, municipality, and prefecture levels. The basis of the names can be divided into natural factors and human factors.

Research results indicate that the place names have various origins, such as Standard Chinese, local Chinese dialect, Yi, Hani, Dai, Miao, Zhuang, Bouyei, and a mix of the above.

The place names of Honghe prefecture include compounding of common nouns and proper nouns. Common nouns include the words for village, street, district, town, county, and prefecture. Proper compound nouns show the following grammatical relations: modifier and modified, coordinate structure, and subject-predicate. The word order in Chinese place names is modified followed by modifier, characteristic of Chinese syntax.  But minority language place names show either modified-modifier or modifier-modified word order, depending on the typology of the minority source language.

The two main types of basis for names are natural factors and human factors, which contain 23 smaller types. Traces of ethnic, linguistic and cultural contact are left in the names of mixed etymology. Chinese culture maintains an important status in Honghe prefecture administrative place names. The culture of Honghe administrative place names is displayed through research on their semantics, unfurling a rich picture scroll of life, culture, and history for us.

Honghe administrative place names is a completely new object of research. This is the first research project to systematically investigate Honghe place names. The thesis collected and analyzed 1419 place names’ etymology, method of naming, word structure, and the value of ethnic culture demonstrated in the place names’ semantics. The research results are valuable to many disciplines, especially contributing to the work of standardizing place names.

12. Practical applicability:

The results of the thesis are valuable materials for many academic fields, providing resource material for linguistic, historic, and locale culture research and the writing of locale encyclopedias.

13. Further research directions:

The thesis initially examines the place names of Honghe prefecture from the perspective of linguistic investigate the structural characteristics and meanings of Honghe Prefecture’s place names, to clarify their etymology and principles for naming as well as the relationship between Honghe’s administrative place names and Honghe’s history, geography, and culture. This is a difficult but exciting issue, and will be a part of my future study.

14. Thesis-related publications:

1.(2017),“Linguistic culture research on the place names of Mengzi[J]”, Translation and Culture Researc, Guangxi People’s Press, pp.254-260.

2. (2019), “Regional cultural research on the place names of Honghe Prefecture [J]”, Modern Tourism. Heilongjiang Chuanglian Press Corporation Limited, pp. 15-16.

3. (2019), “Research on the Yi place names of Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China [J]”, Language and Life. National Politics Press (09), pp.70-73.