This dissertation focuses on morphosyntax of the Min dialect spoken in Hui'an County in Fujian province of China, which belongs to the Quan (Quanzhou)-Zhang (Zhangzhou) subgroup of Southern Min dialect family. Part I of the dissertation presents a detailed description of important aspects of morphosyntax within the framework of linguistic typology, based on data collected via naturally occurring conversation and questionnaires, besides a brief overview of phonological features. In Part II, ten case studies of grammaticalization are presented and four aspects of grammaticalization are explored: phonological reduction, divergence, convergence and subjectification. Part I shows that the Hui'an dialect differs from other Southern Min varieties in phonological properties more than in morphosyntactic features, and morphosyntax in different Southern Min varieties, especially those in Fujian and Taiwan, shows a high degree of similarity as well as subtle differences. Strong influence from Mandarin Chinese is observed, while some conservative features are also preserved in the Hui'an dialect.

In Part II, three kinds of phonological reduction are found to be involved in grammaticalization in the Hui'an dialect, i.e. segmental erosion, syllable fusion and tone reduction. In terms of segmental erosion, both the initial consonant and part of the final of a grammaticalized item can be lost. Two kinds of tone reduction are associated with grammaticalization: (a) using neutral tone for grammatical morphemes, i.e. tonal neutralization; and (b) using sandhi tone for grammatical morphemes. Tonal neutralization of grammatical morphemes occurs at the later stages of grammaticalization paths, and the more the original lexical meaning is preserved, the less likely an item is to be in the neutral tone. While divergence is a salient characteristic of grammaticalization in the Hui'an dialect, a type of convergence is also demonstrated, i.e. convergence between the grammaticalization paths of one lexical item, which is different from the use of 'convergence' in the literature. This type of convergence usually occurs at the later stage of grammaticalization paths, and it suggests that the divergence model is inadequate. Subjectification is also clearly associated with grammaticalization in the Hui'an dialect.

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