A Study Of Chinese Personal Pronouns

In this thesis,we take the personal pronoun as the study object,and base on the three-dimension which include syntax,semantic and pragmatic.We combine the diachronic and synchronic research methods,and do the research respectively from the perspectives of number category,functional performance,diachronic evolution and typological language.In this thesis,the seven chapters are organized as follows:Chapter one is the introduction.We introduce the research object,the main content,theoretical foundation,research methods,research significance and corpus sources.Chapter two is the relevant research review.Firstly,we explain the related concepts,such as person,person category,personal pronouns and personal markers,etc.Secondly,we do the literature review of the previous study on the personal pronouns and point out the inadequacies of the relevant research.We take this as a starting point of this thesis.Chapter three is the “number” study of Chinese personal pronouns.Based on the classification of the number of Chinese personal category,we describe their forms and analyze them respectively from the perspectives of diachronic and synchronic evolution.At the same time,we describe and analyze the syllable contraction of “an”(?),“nin”(?)and “za/zan)”(?/???)which is constituted by “person pronoun + men(?)” from the synchronic and diachronic aspects.Finally,we conclude that syllable contraction is mainly the result of competition within the system of personal pronouns in Chinese.As to Chinese personal pronouns syllable contraction,the key reason of it is the existence of the “men”(?).In this thesis,we use the “cline” theory to explain the evolution process of the construction “personal pronouns +men(?)”.It is believed that syllable contraction is the virtual mode of subsequent stages of grammatical word and clitics of Chinese,which is an analytical language.It is different from the morphologic change language that has the inflectional morphology.In terms of personal pronouns,the main plural performance is the post-performance,which forms the type of person-number stem with a plural affix.Chapter four is the analysis on the emergence functions of Chinese personal pronouns.In this chapter,we use the theory of emergent grammar as the theoretical basis to discuss the factions of Chinese personal pronouns.The basic function of personal pronouns is reference and substitution,and there will be many functions emerging on this base,namely “transferred referent”,“empty reference” and “markedness”.We respectively investigate the first personal pronouns,the second personal pronouns and the third personal pronouns of Chinese personal pronouns,and get different grammaticalization degrees of different functions among these three personal pronouns.Secondly,we explain the reasons of the Chinese personal pronouns emergent function.Finally,we predict the further emerging trends of Chinese personal pronouns function,namely “interjection”.This dissertation focuses on the problems caused by the interjection of discourse marker of “person pronoun + verb”,and takes “X kan(?)(X)” as an example.Chapter five is the study on grammaticalization unbalancedness of the Chinese personal pronouns.We do the research from the point of diachronic,and use the theory of grammaticalization and other related theories to describe and explain the evolution trace of Chinese personal pronouns.At the same time,we use the typological methods to analyze the grammaticalization trace of Chinese personal pronouns.Based on the building up of the system of ancient and modern Chinese personal pronouns,we begin to explore the origin of personal pronouns.We find the universals and individualities of Chinese personal pronouns in the scope of world language from the typological angle,and explain it.Based on the Chinese reality,we think that its source has two main aspects: First,the first personal pronouns and second personal pronouns are from nouns,which include the relational nouns and generic reference nouns;second,the third personal pronouns are from the demonstrative pronouns.At the same time,we think that syntactic context is the fundamental reason that impacts the evolution from the demonstrative pronouns to the personal pronouns.The close relationship between demonstrative pronouns and personal pronouns on the sources can be confirmed by multiple languages.Finally,we do the description and explanation of the imbalance performance within the Chinese personal pronouns system.Overall,based on the exhibited performance of grammatical evolution path of Chinese personal pronouns,we integrate the language examples from the personal pronouns of world's languages.We do much clearer description of the overall context of Chinese personal pronouns from the perspective of typological.Since ancient times,the internal members of the Chinese personal pronouns have been from complex to simple with its constant grammaticalization.That is to say,the essence of Chinese personal pronouns grammaticalization is the dynamic process of the constant grammar evolution.Chapter six is the study of Chinese personal pronouns from the perspectives of language contact and typology–taking inclusive and exclusive as an example.In this chapter,we emphasize the analysis of the case study,and take Chinese inclusive(such as:“zan men”??)and exclusive(such as:“wo men”??)as examples,to discuss the related issues of the Chinese personal pronouns from the perspectives of language contact and typology.We do the study on the“INCL/EXCL”within the territory of China,and describe the distribution of“INCL/EXCL”in the world language.We draw the six types of Chinese“INCL/EXCL”,and do statistical analyses for the distribution of each type,then get the situation of both in China.Moreover,we study it respectively from the perspective of language geographic typology,language contact angle and historical to explore its distribution in depth.Meanwhile,we also explain the reasons of the Chinese“INCL/EXCL”.Overall,China is a multilingual country,and its language structure is very complex.On the one hand,the existence of“INCL/EXCL”reflects the underlying language problems in Chinese history.On the other hand,from the perspective of linguistic typology it once again proves that the language whose geographical development from South type to North type within the territory of China is the structure reproduction of the historical development from the ancient Chinese to modern Chinese.Chapter seven is the conclusion.We make the conclusion as follows:(1)We divide the syllable contraction of plural marker “men”(?)and personal pronouns into four types,and confirm that the key factor of causing the phenomenon is the “men”(?),then explain the evolutional progress of “personal pronouns + men(?)” from cline perspective.(2)We based on the description the three functional performances of personal pronouns which include transferred reference,phantom reference and markedness,and make the conclusion that the direct factor of different functional performance is the subjective and objective consciousness expression of personal pronouns.(3)We take the construction “X kan(?)(X)” as an example,and prove the interjectional tendency of personal pronouns.(4)We draw a conclusion about the resource of personal pronoun,namely nouns and demonstrative pronouns,and confirm that the syntactic context is the basic reason that affects the evolution of the demonstrative pronouns to personal pronouns;finally,the distribution of “INCL/EXCL” model is divided into north part and south part by Hui dialect in China.Among these two parts,their different performance leads to the different degrees of their grammaticalization and lexicalization,that is north is high and south is low.About the basic reason of the occurrence of inclusive and exclusive,we confirm that is the Chinese wants to meet the need of expression to adjust its own construction and inherits from ancient Chinese while getting influences from Altaic languages.