THIRD PERSON PRONOUNS  第三身代詞

[GRAMMAR]
Hypernym
  • PRONOUNNOUN REPLACING ANOTHER NOUN. []
    • NAMESPEAK so as to REFER to something OR WORD USED for REFERRING to something.
      • WORDSOUND IMAGE of a CONCEPT. (Leibniz, Couturat p. 432)
        • SOUNDWHAT CAN be HEARD....
Hyponym
  • THEY　Plural third person pronoun. GRAMMAR

      Words

      斯人  sī rén OC: sqe njin MC: siɛ ȵin 17 AttributionsWD
        Syntactic words
      • NPadNpronominalthis person's; of such a person
      • NPindefinitesuch a person;
      • NPindefinitesuch persons
      • NPpluralthese persons
      • NPpronominalthis person
      是人  shì rén OC: ɡljeʔ njin MC: dʑiɛ ȵin 15 AttributionsWD
        Syntactic words
      • NPanaphoricthis person (sometimes deictic!)
      • NPanaphoricthese people
      • NPdeicticthis person here
      • NPpluralsuch persons
      • NPpronominalsuch a person
      彼人  bǐ rén OC: pralʔ njin MC: piɛ ȵin 11 AttributionsWD
        Syntactic words
      • NPpluralthose people
      • NPpronominalthat man
      他  tā OC: lʰaal MC: thɑ 10 AttributionsWD
      • Studies in the Language of Zǔtáng jí 祖堂集 ( ANDERL 2004B) p. 175-177

        There have been some discussion concerning the origin of this third person pronoun: others (unspecified reference) > he/she/it (specified reference). Some scholars (e.g. Lv Shuxiang cited examples of the pronoun already in the BAIYUJING (汝彼愚人，被他打頭，不知避去，乃至傷破，反謂他痴), but these early examples are problematic. Guo Hong 1998: 398 thinks that it already resembles a pronoun in BAIYUING but that it still can be analyzed as having unspecified reference.

        Another often cited source is a text from the Wei period, Xia4oli2n 笑林: 甲與乙鬥爭，甲嚙下乙鼻。官吏欲斷之，甲稱乙自嚙落。吏曰：“夫人鼻高耳（而）口低，豈能就嚙之乎？”甲曰：“他踏床子就嚙之。) but it was pointed out that in this early example the interpretation 'others' is still possible (GUO HONG 1998: 398)

        Another often cited early source is SOUSHENJI, fasc. 3: 顏依言而往，果見二人圍棋。顏置脯斟酒於前。其人貪戲，但飲酒食脯，不顧。數巡，北邊坐者忽見顏在，叱曰：“何故在此？”顏唯拜之。南邊坐者語曰：“適來飲他酒脯，寧無情乎？It was pointed out that also here the interpretation is not quite clear and that the passage might have even been interpolated during the Tang (Guo Hong 1998: 399; Jiang Shaoyu 1994; Jiang Lansheng 1987).

        Now it is usually agreed upon that ta1 was not commonly used as third person pronoun before the early Tang period (Tang poetry).

        On early examples see ZHOU FAGAO 1965(PRONOUNS): 115-117 (Yuefu, Tang poems).

        On early examples of non-human reference see Feng Chuntian 2000: 50-51. During the Song 他 could also be written 它 when indicating non-human reference. 佗 was another way of writing 他.

        In ZTJ the pronoun 他 is very frequently used (F: ca. 200), object position: 141 (including pivot position), subject position: 48; adnominal position: 14. In the meaning 'other' 他 appears ca. 140 times.

      • 近代漢語語法研究 Jìndài hànyǔ yǔfǎ yánjiū ( FENG CHUNTIAN 2000) p. 50-51

      • 他稱代詞‘他’究竟產生於何時？ Tāchēng dàicí 'tā' jiūjìng chǎnshēng yú hé shí [When did the Third Person Pronoun 'ta' Originate?] 中國語文 Zhongguo yuwen ( Guo Hong 1998) p. 398

      • 八卷本《搜神記》語言的時代 Bā juànběn Sōu shén jì yǔyán de shídài 中國語文 Zhongguo yuwen ( JIANG LANSHENG 1987) p.

      • 中國古代語法 Zhōngguó gǔdài yǔfǎ The Grammar of Ancient Chinese ( ZHOU FAGAO 1965C) p. 113-117

        Syntactic words
      • npro.adNhis; her
      • npro.postVtanimalthem (the pronoun substituting animals)
      • nprohumanhim
      • nprohumanit
      • nprohumanhe
      • nproobjectit
      • nprosingularit
      伊  yī OC: qlil MC: ʔi 6 AttributionsWD

      This third person pronoun is probably of Southern origin and is still current in the modern 吳 dialect (the pronoun is quite frequent in ZTJ and also appears a few times in BIANWEN; during the Song and Yuan periods it still was occasionally used but mainly survived in local dialects; the origin of the function as third person pronoun is not quite clear and WANG LI thinks that it originated during the 4th and 5th centuries) [CA]

      • Studies in the Language of Zu-tang Ji 祖堂集 ( ANDERL 2004C) p. 177-178

      • A Chinese-English Dictionary of the Wu dialect ( CREAMER 1991) p. 53

      • 近代漢語語法研究 Jìndài hànyǔ yǔfǎ yánjiū ( FENG CHUNTIAN 2000) p. 55

      • 漢語史稿 Hànyǔ shǐgǎo Outline of the History of Chinese ( WANG LI 1980) p. 269

      • 敦煌變文語法研究 Dūnhuáng biànwén yǔfǎ yānjiū A Study of the Grammar of the Duānhuáng Transformation Texts ( WU FUXIANG 1996) p. 24

        Syntactic words
      • npro.adNdialecthis, her, its
      • nprodialecthe/she/it (this third person pronoun is probably of Southern origin and is still current in the modern 吳 dialect (the pronoun is quite frequent in ZTJ and also appears a few times in BIANWEN; during the Song and Yuan periods it still was occasionally used but mainly survived in local dialects; the origin of the function as third person pronoun is not quite clear and WANG LI thinks that it originated during the 4th and 5th centuries)
      • nprodialecthe, him
      • nprodialecthim
      渠  qú OC: ɡa MC: gi̯ɤ 5 AttributionsWD

      This third person pronoun originated in the south and already appeared in texts from the Wei, Jin, and Six Dynasties periods (SNAGUOZHI, however, examples prior to the Tang are rare; in ZTJ it appears ca. 40 times and it also can be found in YOUXIANKU where it is often suffixed with jiā 家). After the Yuan it only survived in a number of southern dialects as for example the Wú 吳 dialect and in Cantonese. According to LV SHUXIANG the pronoun is possibly related to pronoun qí 其. [CA]

      • Studies in the Language of Zu-tang Ji 祖堂集 ( ANDERL 2004C) p. 177

        Syntactic words
      • npro.adNdialecthis
      • nproanimalthey (with reference to animals)
      • nprodialecthe/she/it This third person pronoun originated in the south and already appeared in texts from the Wei, Jin, and Six Dynasties periods (SANGUOZHI, however, examples prior to the Tang are rare; in ZTJ it appears ca. 40 times and it also can be found in YOUXIANKU where it is often suffixed with jiā 家). After the Yuan it only survived in a number of southern dialects as for example the Wú 吳 dialect and in Cantonese. According to LV SHUXIANG the pronoun is possibly related to pronoun qí 其.
      • nprodialecthim, her, it
      • nprodialectthey
      其人  qí rén OC: ɡɯ njin MC: gɨ ȵin 5 AttributionsWD
        Syntactic words
      • NPhis peoplehis people
      • NPpronominalthe person concerned
      他  tā OC: lʰaal MC: thɑ 4 AttributionsWD
        Syntactic words
      • npro.postVthim/her
      • npropivothe/she/it
      是渠  shì qú OC: ɡljeʔ ɡa MC: dʑiɛ gi̯ɤ 1 AttributionWD
        Syntactic words
      • NPprocolloquialcontrastive pronoun: he/she/it
      其  jī MC: ki OC: kɯCH 1 AttributionWD
        Syntactic words
      • nproanaphoriche, she it, theyCH
      怹  Click here to add pinyin OC:  MC: 0 AttributionsWD
        Syntactic words
      • nprohonorifichonorific: he There is an entry for this already in Kangxi Cidian. 老舍 《龍鬚溝》第一幕："四嫂，您忙您的活兒，我是個閑人，我來伺候怹。"

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