A Contrastive Study On Demonstrative Pronouns Between English And Chinese

Demonstrative pronouns are widely used in English and Chinese. Based on the theories of Deixis, this paper aims to make a contrastive study of English and Chinese demonstrative pronouns in terms of syntax, semantics and pragmatics.On the basis of the syntax functions of English demonstrative pronouns "this,that,these,those" and Chinese demonstrative pronouns "zhe(xie),na(xie) " , this paper contrasts them in terms of semantics and pragmatics. This paper discusses semantic features of English and Chinese demonstrative pronouns, the changes of their semantic features, and the relationship between semantic features and the pragmatic functions of demonstrative pronouns in English and Chinese.By illustrating and analyzing a large number of examples, it is proved that the demonstrative pronouns have deictic, specific, distant and egocentric semantic features. When English and Chinese demonstrative pronouns have the specif ic features, "this" "that" and "zhe" "na" have proximate and singular features, "these" "those" and "zhexie" "naxie" have non-proximate and plural features. Sometimes "zhe" "na" also have specif ic and plural features. In both English and Chinese, "this,that" and "zhe,na" have non-specific features. In Chinese, the semantic features of "zhe" in "zhe +NP" has the trend of grammaticalization, just like the definite article in "definite article +NP" which shows the kind-denoting. It means that semantic features of Chinese demonstrative pronoun "zhe" are more complicated than English demonstrative pronouns "this" .The semantic features of demonstrative pronouns in both languages are different in different contexts. In both languages, when distant feature is prominent in text, specific feature is prominent, too, but egocentric feature is becoming weak. Conversely, when egocentric feature is prominent in text, distant feature is becoming weak.The semantic changes of demonstrative pronouns also influence pragmatic functions in both languages. When distant feature is prominent, physical distance is prominent; on the contrary, subjectivity is weak. When egocentric feature is prominent, author's emotion will stand out in the text, namely, the subjectivity is prominent, and physical distance is weak. Due to the diversity of semantic features of Chinese demonstrative pronoun "zhe" , it shows stronger subjectivity characteristics in pragmatic functions.