首先指出§1（1）漢語方言經驗法則「已知本字的方言詞，通常文讀與白讀音韻地位相對應」，§1（2）漢語方言本字考證基本假設「若已知或找到文讀及本字，白讀音韻地位、本字皆同」。§2.1 討論漢語「大」歷史悠久的兩讀泰韻徒蓋切、箇韻唐佐切；§2.2 討論漢語方言「大」為§1（1）經驗法則的例外，文讀、白讀徒蓋切或唐佐切、或不確定。接著§3 討論閩南某一方言詞白讀khua^⊃（擱淺、乾燥等義）兩「候選本字」「（艐）」、「（溘）」；但文讀kho^⊃（擱淺、乾燥等義）音韻地位箇韻口箇切、本字「（艐）」，白讀遵循之，且否定「（溘）」。§4 討論閩南另一方言詞文、白對應有二可能：「沓」、「曡（疊叠）」（均指重疊）；因文讀、白讀與「濌thap⊃、thaʔ⊃」同源，故白讀taʔ⊃、thaʔ⊃選擇「沓」作本字。綜合上述，§5 繼續探索漢語方言分成內部「方言詞本字文讀：白讀」音韻對應，外部「不同方言間共同方言詞」音韻對應。一般情形方言詞內部文讀：白讀音韻地位對應整齊；如§3、§4 則需強化內部證據「文：白音韻對應，文讀本字即白讀本字」、或外部證據「不同方言間共同方言詞或同源方言詞的同源關係」。未來漢語史、漢語方言史、方言區域史研究提供外緣歷史文化的證據，期解決§2「大」的難題，且說明文白異讀是否均源自「古代相同或相交流接觸的方言」。

We start by noting the rule whereby the original character of particular word is already known for a dialect, the literary and vernacular pronunciations of that character evidence phonetic correspondence. Likewise, the basic assumption for determining the original character for a word in a particular dialect is that if the literary pronunciation and the original character are already known or determined, the phonetic position of the vernacular pronunciation and the original character will be identical. Next, we focus on one of the most basic words in Chinese - da - and its two historical pronunciations. Interestingly, the word da is an exception to the above rule insofar as its literary and vernacular pronunciations may be either, or neither, of the two readings given above. We continue by considering the fact that sometimes it is necessary to search for evidence for which character is best suited to represent a word either internally, through correspondences between literary and vernacular pronunciations, or externally, from words common to different dialects or from cognatic relations among related dialect words. Once this distinction is made, research into Chinese historical linguistics, the history of dialects, or the history of dialect regions will be able to provide valuable historical/cultural evidence that could also be of use in resolving the big problem of the word da.