Syntactic Study On Chinese Reflexive Ziji

The non-anaphoric property of the reflexive,especially Chinese simple reflexive–ziji,is a special linguistic phenomenon,which has been attracted many linguists'attention.In this paper,first of all,in the Archaic Chinese,zi has the anaphoric property,while ji has the pronominal property.Through analyzing the distribution and usage of ziji in the modern Chinese,I am in favor of a fact that ziji contains both the anaphoric property and the pronominal property,which could be explained by the clitic property between zi and ji and between pro and ziji.Secondly,it indicates there are some limitations of explaining ziji.In this thesis,it will mainly employ syntactic device and also discusses ziji from the semantic and pragmatic levels beyond GB.At last,it compares Chinese ziji and English reflexive from their morphological structure,the syntactic distribution and their binding domain.Chinese simple reflexive–ziji is almost equal to noun phrase?NP?from observing their syntactic characteristics.The distribution of ziji is widespread and it can be treated as the object,subject,adverbial and attributive in sentences.In the Archaic Chinese,zi and ji were two different words.After the Five Dynasties,ziji had gradually been compounded into one word.Many scholars have maintained ziji,which is not just a simple reflexive,contains both the anaphoric property and the pronominal property.All of them make ziji special in the system of Chinese reflexive.At first sight,this is pretty contradictory,but the fact is not.There are the clitic properties between zi and ji and between‘pro'and ziji,which make ziji an inseparable entirety.In addition,this paper explores the anaphoric problem of ziji beyond GB.To begin with,ziji,which does not belong to a simple reflexive,cannot purely obey the first principle of the Binding Theory?BT?.Therefore,we should explain ziji beyond GB.Furthermore,we present four factors affect the interpretation of ziji from the syntactic,semantic and pragmatic level.In detail,the first factor is that ziji has an empty category,which gives ziji more choices of searching its antecedents.The second one states the agreement of‘PRO/pro'should be also checked.When ziji can keep pace with its agreement of the antecedent,ziji can be bound by the antecedent.And the next factor holds the views that it is easy to judge the antecedent of ziji in a simple sentence.However,the reference of ziji is influenced by the V₂ in the embedded sentence.Lastly,we should take the context into consideration,which can help us choose the most suitable antecedent.In the end,this paper supports the view that it is pretty necessary to analyze the complexity of ziji from the syntactic,semantic and pragmatic factors.In the end of this paper,it compares ziji with English reflexive.On the one hand,the morphological structure of Chinese ziji presents as[pro+ziji].Ziji,similar with NP,can be placed in the position of object,prepositional object,subject,appositive,adverb and attributive.Moreover,ziji is not a simple anaphor for it can be bound in the local domain and in the non-local domain.On the other hand,the morphological structure of English reflexive presents as[pronoun+self].It is a simple reflexive,which must be bound in the local domain.And it can be placed in the position of object,preposition object and appositive.Although the pure syntactic approaches and non-syntactic approach have their own advantages,it still has some problems.Therefore,in this paper,it is unsuccessful to explore ziji only from the syntactic level.But it has close relation with the semantic and pragmatic factors.If we do not analyze ziji from these three levels,we cannot have a clear understanding on it.