In my brief examination of Chinese pronouns, I pointed out some general paradigmatic characteristics, one of which is the use of certain particles for denoting PLACE (in an abstract locative sense). The Cantonese/Mandarin paradigms are conveniently presented as below:
Cantonese Mandarin
Here: 呢度 這裏
There: 嗰度 那裏
Where: 邊度 哪裏
As is evident, the locative particle in Cantonese and Mandarin is -度 and -裏 respectively, and the initial character expresses various spatial relations (proximal (呢/這), distal (嗰/那), interrogative (邊/哪)). In Cantonese, however, there is a particular usage which is very striking and totally absent in Mandarin, and that is the use of the locative particle -度 after nouns, namely names of people and places e.g.
Cantonese: Mandarin:
學校-度 *學校-裏
school-LOC school-LOC
‘at school’ ‘at school’
哥哥-度 *哥哥-裏
brother-LOC brother-LOC
‘at my brother’s’ ‘at my brother’s’
公司-度 *公司-裏
office-LOC office-LOC
‘in the office’ ‘in the office’
It is clearly then that the use of locative particle is quite productive in Cantonese as it (度) can be used after a range of nouns denoting place/location, whereas the distribution of the Mandarin equivalent (裏) is not so widespread as it seems to occur only after grammatical morphemes like demonstratives rather than full nouns. Amazing microvariation.