On the Habitual and Occasional Senses of Mandarin <i>ziji</i>

Jianming Wu

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12

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On the Habitual and Occasional Senses of Mandarin ziji

Jianming Wu

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 8, Issue 6)

Received: 30 October 2020 Accepted: 11 November 2020 Published: 19 November 2020

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Abstract

In the literature，Mandarin ziji “self” has been fitted into various grammatical categories, such as reflexive pronoun, locally-bound anaphor, long-distance reflexive, adnominal/adverbial intensifier, etc. Different from previous grammatical analyses, the author argues that ziji, as a lexeme, has two types of senses, namely, the primary sense, i.e. “self” and the secondary sense, which includes speaker’s reflection, speaker’s identification, participant’s reflection, unexpectedness, exclusion of others, focused identity, etc. These secondary senses not only help ziji to be linked to a referent in discourse but also distinguish it from the three-way personal pronouns in Mandarin. By resorting to a group of randomly-generated examples from the BCC corpus, the author finds out that speaker’s reflection and speaker’s identification are the most frequent secondary senses of ziji (each accounts for 81% or 61% of ziji), whereas participant’s reflection (i.e. logophoricity) is the lest frequent one (i.e. 8% of ziji). Thus, the author defines the former two secondary senses as 常义habitual senses (i.e. senses that are most or very likely to be present when ziji is used in utterances) and the rest ones as偶义occasional senses (i.e. senses that are relatively less likely to be present when ziji is used in utterances). The significance of this demarcation lies in an understanding that there is always an asymmetrical distribution among the secondary senses of a lexeme, which, hopefully, predicts how it may be used or understood in the most relevant way.

Published in	International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 8, Issue 6)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12
Page(s)	246-250
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Primary Sense, Secondary Sense, Mandarin ziji, Reflexive

References

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[3]	D. Wilson and D. Sperber, “Relevance theory,” in The Handbook of pragmatics, L. Horn and G. Ward, Eds. Blackwell, Oxford, 2004.
[4]	Y. Huang, The syntax and pragmatics of anaphora: A study with special reference to Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
[5]	Y. Huang, Anaphora: Across-Linguistic Study. Oxford: Oxford University Press, New York. 2000.
[6]	S. Levinson, Presumptive Meanings. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 2000.
[7]	Sells, P. (1987). Aspects of logophoricity. Linguistic inquiry, 18 (3): 445-479.
[8]	S. Kuno, Functional Syntax: Anaphora, Discourse, and Empathy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 1987.
[9]	Oshima, D. Y. (2004). Zibun revisited: empathy, logophoricity, and binding. Proceedings of the 20th NWLC, 23: 175-190.
[10]	König, E. and Gast, V. (2006). Focused assertion of identity: A typology of intensifiers. Linguistic Typology, 10 (2), 223-276.
[11]	König, E., & Siemund, P. (2000). The development of complex reflexives and intensifiers in English. Diachronica, 17 (1): 39-84.
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[14]	Siewierska, A. (2008). Introduction: Impersonalization from a subject-centred vs. agent-centred perspective. Transactions of the Philological Society, 106 (2): 115-137.
[15]	N. A. Chomsky, Lectures on government and binding. Dordrecht: Foris, 1981.
[16]	Wu, J. (2019). The inventory structure of Person in the Chinese dialect of Puxian. Language and Linguistics, 20 (4): 631-655.

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Jianming Wu. (2020). On the Habitual and Occasional Senses of Mandarin ziji. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 8(6), 246-250. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12

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Jianming Wu. On the Habitual and Occasional Senses of Mandarin ziji. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2020, 8(6), 246-250. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12

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Jianming Wu. On the Habitual and Occasional Senses of Mandarin ziji. Int J Lang Linguist. 2020;8(6):246-250. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12,
  author = {Jianming Wu},
  title = {On the Habitual and Occasional Senses of Mandarin ziji},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {8},
  number = {6},
  pages = {246-250},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20200806.12},
  abstract = {In the literature，Mandarin ziji “self” has been fitted into various grammatical categories, such as reflexive pronoun, locally-bound anaphor, long-distance reflexive, adnominal/adverbial intensifier, etc. Different from previous grammatical analyses, the author argues that ziji, as a lexeme, has two types of senses, namely, the primary sense, i.e. “self” and the secondary sense, which includes speaker’s reflection, speaker’s identification, participant’s reflection, unexpectedness, exclusion of others, focused identity, etc. These secondary senses not only help ziji to be linked to a referent in discourse but also distinguish it from the three-way personal pronouns in Mandarin. By resorting to a group of randomly-generated examples from the BCC corpus, the author finds out that speaker’s reflection and speaker’s identification are the most frequent secondary senses of ziji (each accounts for 81% or 61% of ziji), whereas participant’s reflection (i.e. logophoricity) is the lest frequent one (i.e. 8% of ziji). Thus, the author defines the former two secondary senses as 常义habitual senses (i.e. senses that are most or very likely to be present when ziji is used in utterances) and the rest ones as偶义occasional senses (i.e. senses that are relatively less likely to be present when ziji is used in utterances). The significance of this demarcation lies in an understanding that there is always an asymmetrical distribution among the secondary senses of a lexeme, which, hopefully, predicts how it may be used or understood in the most relevant way.},
 year = {2020}
}

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TY - JOUR
T1 - On the Habitual and Occasional Senses of Mandarin ziji
AU - Jianming Wu
Y1 - 2020/11/19
PY - 2020
N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12
DO - 10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12
T2 - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP - 246
EP - 250
PB - Science Publishing Group
SN - 2330-0221
UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12
AB - In the literature，Mandarin ziji “self” has been fitted into various grammatical categories, such as reflexive pronoun, locally-bound anaphor, long-distance reflexive, adnominal/adverbial intensifier, etc. Different from previous grammatical analyses, the author argues that ziji, as a lexeme, has two types of senses, namely, the primary sense, i.e. “self” and the secondary sense, which includes speaker’s reflection, speaker’s identification, participant’s reflection, unexpectedness, exclusion of others, focused identity, etc. These secondary senses not only help ziji to be linked to a referent in discourse but also distinguish it from the three-way personal pronouns in Mandarin. By resorting to a group of randomly-generated examples from the BCC corpus, the author finds out that speaker’s reflection and speaker’s identification are the most frequent secondary senses of ziji (each accounts for 81% or 61% of ziji), whereas participant’s reflection (i.e. logophoricity) is the lest frequent one (i.e. 8% of ziji). Thus, the author defines the former two secondary senses as 常义habitual senses (i.e. senses that are most or very likely to be present when ziji is used in utterances) and the rest ones as偶义occasional senses (i.e. senses that are relatively less likely to be present when ziji is used in utterances). The significance of this demarcation lies in an understanding that there is always an asymmetrical distribution among the secondary senses of a lexeme, which, hopefully, predicts how it may be used or understood in the most relevant way.
VL - 8
IS - 6
ER -

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Author Information

Jianming Wu

Institute of Linguistics, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China

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APA Style

Jianming Wu. (2020). On the Habitual and Occasional Senses of Mandarin ziji. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 8(6), 246-250. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12

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ACS Style

Jianming Wu. On the Habitual and Occasional Senses of Mandarin ziji. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2020, 8(6), 246-250. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12

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Jianming Wu. On the Habitual and Occasional Senses of Mandarin ziji. Int J Lang Linguist. 2020;8(6):246-250. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12,
  author = {Jianming Wu},
  title = {On the Habitual and Occasional Senses of Mandarin ziji},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {8},
  number = {6},
  pages = {246-250},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20200806.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20200806.12},
  abstract = {In the literature，Mandarin ziji “self” has been fitted into various grammatical categories, such as reflexive pronoun, locally-bound anaphor, long-distance reflexive, adnominal/adverbial intensifier, etc. Different from previous grammatical analyses, the author argues that ziji, as a lexeme, has two types of senses, namely, the primary sense, i.e. “self” and the secondary sense, which includes speaker’s reflection, speaker’s identification, participant’s reflection, unexpectedness, exclusion of others, focused identity, etc. These secondary senses not only help ziji to be linked to a referent in discourse but also distinguish it from the three-way personal pronouns in Mandarin. By resorting to a group of randomly-generated examples from the BCC corpus, the author finds out that speaker’s reflection and speaker’s identification are the most frequent secondary senses of ziji (each accounts for 81% or 61% of ziji), whereas participant’s reflection (i.e. logophoricity) is the lest frequent one (i.e. 8% of ziji). Thus, the author defines the former two secondary senses as 常义habitual senses (i.e. senses that are most or very likely to be present when ziji is used in utterances) and the rest ones as偶义occasional senses (i.e. senses that are relatively less likely to be present when ziji is used in utterances). The significance of this demarcation lies in an understanding that there is always an asymmetrical distribution among the secondary senses of a lexeme, which, hopefully, predicts how it may be used or understood in the most relevant way.},
 year = {2020}
}

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