Chinese pronouns

Chinese pronouns

Chinese pronouns (known as 代词 dàicí) differ somewhat from their English counterparts. For instance, there is no differentiation between "he", "she" and "it", though a written difference was introduced after contact with the West, and with the exception of the reflexive self, pronouns remain the same whether they are the subject or object of a sentence. Mandarin Chinese further lacks a distinction between the possessive adjective ("my") and possessive pronoun ("mine"); both are formed by appending the particle de. Some honorifics exist in the language, but modern Chinese, especially in the spoken language, lacks the levels of respect of Japanese.

Contents

Personal pronouns

Standard Simplified Chinese personal pronouns[1]
Person Singular Plural*
First person

I, me
Exclusive Inclusive
我们
wǒmen
we, us
咱们
zánmen
we, us
Second person Informal Polite 你们
nǐmen
you


you

nín
you
Third person Masculine Feminine Neuter Masculine Feminine Neuter


he, him


she, her


it
他们
tāmen
they, them
她们
tāmen
they, them
它们
tāmen
they, them
* The character to indicate plurality is 們 (men) in Traditional Chinese characters.
Used to indicate 'you and I' (two people) only; in all other cases wǒmen is used. This form has fallen into disuse outside Beijing.

Originally, Chinese had no distinction for gender or animacy in the second- and third-person pronouns; in the spoken language, they remain undifferentiated. Separate characters were created in response to contact with the West and its gender- and animacy-indicating pronouns.[citation needed] Attempts to introduce audibly different forms for she () and it (tuō) in the first half of the 20th century were unsuccessful.[2]

Traditional Chinese characters maintain several pronouns that in simplified Characters have been merged together. The traditional system has both masculine and feminine forms of "you" ( and ), although this distinction is not always maintained in writing anymore; in the simplified system, only is used (sometimes also use in simplified Chinese in some contexts). 祢 , a second person pronoun, is sometimes used for addressing deities. The traditional system also has three neuter third-person pronouns, () for animals, for deities, and for inanimate objects, but, again, this distinction is sometimes blurred in actual usage; in simplified Chinese, is used in place of .

Third-person pronouns see less use in Chinese than in English, and overuse of by learners of the language is seen as undesirable. This is especially true when discussing inanimate entities, which are usually referred to as 'this' and 'that' instead.[3]

The collective pronouns are formed by simply adding (simplified)/ (traditional) mén to the end of each pronoun; thus, 你们, 我们, 咱们, 他/她/牠/它们 or 你們, 我們, ///它們 would mean "you [plural]", "we" and "they" respectively.

The pronoun nín is used as a formal version of the second person pronoun, but does not have a feminine variant, and is not used in the plural.

The pronouns ǎn and ǒu are often used in Mandarin to mean "I". They are of dialectal origins, once spoken by the stereotypical country-side commoner. However, their usage is gaining popularity among the young, most notably in online communications.

There exist many more pronouns in Classical Chinese and in literary works, including (rǔ) or (ěr) for "you", and (wú) for "I" (see Chinese honorifics). However, they are not encountered in colloquial speech.

There are also various dialectal variants of pronouns, such as Taiwanese Minnan 汝 (pinyin: ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: lín) for "you", and Written Cantonese 佢哋 (keúih deih) for "they".

The possessive pronoun

To indicate possession (de) is appended to the pronoun. In literature or in some daily phrases (especially ones about family or concepts very close to the owner) this is often omitted, e.g. 我妈/我媽 (wǒ mā); is a synonym for 我的妈妈/我的媽媽 (wǒ de māmā, "my mother"). For old generations, (ling) is the equivalent modern form 您的 (ninde), as in 令尊 (lingzun) "Your father." In literary style, (qí) is sometimes used for "his" or "her"; e.g., 其父 means "his father" or "her father".

In regards to dialectals, in Taiwanese Minnan the character for "your" is 恁 (pinyin: rèn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: lín); although this would be pronounced the same as the personal pronoun 汝 lín, it is represented by a different character when used as the equivalent of 你的 in Standard Chinese.

The reflexive pronoun

The singular personal pronouns (for humans) may be made reflexive by appending 自己 zìjǐ, "self".

Pronouns in imperial times and self-deprecatory

See also Chinese honorifics.

In imperial times, the pronoun for "I" was commonly omitted when speaking politely or to someone with higher social status.[citation needed] "I" was usually replaced with special pronouns to address specific situations.[citation needed] Examples include 寡人 guǎrén during early Chinese history and zhèn after the Qin dynasty when the Emperor is speaking to his subjects. When the subjects speak to the Emperor, they address themselves as (chén), or "your official". It was extremely impolite and taboo to address the Emperor as "you" or to address oneself as "I".

In modern times, the practice of self-deprecatory terms is still used in specific formal situations. In résumés, the term 贵/貴 (guì; lit. noble) is used for "you" and "your"; e.g., 贵公司/貴公司 refers to "your company". 本人 (běn rén; lit. this person) is used to refer to oneself.

See also

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ Adapted from Yip, p. 47.
  2. ^ Kane, p. 107.
  3. ^ Sun, pp. 166-167.

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Chinese honorifics — were developed due to class consciousness and Confucian principles of order and respect in Ancient and Imperial China. The Chinese polite language also affects Japanese honorifics conceptually; both emphasized the idea of classes and in group vs …   Wikipedia

  • Chinese adjectives — (simplified Chinese: 形容词; traditional Chinese: 形容詞; pinyin: xíngróngcí) differ from those in English in that they can be used as verbs (for example 天黑了 tiān hēi le The sky has become dark ) and thus linguists sometimes prefer to use the terms… …   Wikipedia

  • Chinese particles — In classical Chinese philology, words are divided into two classes: the shízì (实字 lit. solid word ) and the xūzì (虛字 lit. empty word ). The former include what modern linguists call verbs, nouns, and adjectives, while the latter includes what… …   Wikipedia

  • Chinese grammar — This article describes the grammar of Standard Chinese. For the grammars of other forms of Chinese, see their respective articles via links on Chinese language and varieties of Chinese. 中文語法/中文语法 Zhōngwén yǔfǎ (Chinese grammar) Standard Chinese… …   Wikipedia

  • Chinese titles — In Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, and other Chinese speaking societies around the world, an honorific title is attached after the family name of an individual when addressing that person. Aside from addressing colleagues or… …   Wikipedia

  • Chinese language — Unless otherwise specified, Chinese texts in this article are written in (Simplified Chinese/Traditional Chinese; Pinyin) format. In cases where Simplified and Traditional Chinese scripts are identical, the Chinese term is written once. Chinese… …   Wikipedia

  • Chinese languages — or Sinitic languages Family of languages comprising one of the two branches of Sino Tibetan. They are spoken by about 95% of the inhabitants of China and by many communities of Chinese immigrants elsewhere. Linguists regard the major dialect… …   Universalium

  • Chinese literature — Introduction       the body of works written in Chinese, including lyric poetry, historical and didactic writing, drama, and various forms of fiction.       Chinese literature is one of the major literary heritages of the world, with an… …   Universalium

  • Classical Chinese grammar — is systematically complex, and greatly differs from the grammar of modern vernacular Chinese. Contents 1 Overview 2 Word order 3 Sentence formation 4 …   Wikipedia

  • Old Chinese — Classic Chinese and Archaic Chinese redirect here. For the traditional style of written Chinese, see Classical Chinese. Old Chinese 上古漢語 …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”