Chinese pronouns are
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (Interlinear gloss, glossed ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the part of speech, parts of speech, but so ...
s in the
Chinese languages
The Sinitic languages (), often synonymous with the Chinese languages, are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute a major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is a primary split b ...
. This article highlights
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...
pronouns. There are also
Cantonese pronouns
Pronouns in Cantonese are less numerous than their Indo-European languages counterparts. Cantonese uses pronouns that apply the same meaning to function as both subjective (English: I, he, we) and objective (me, him, us) just like many other Sini ...
and
Hokkien pronouns.
Chinese pronouns differ somewhat from
English pronouns
The English pronouns form a relatively small category of words in Modern English whose primary semantic function is that of a pro-form for a noun phrase. Traditional grammars consider them to be a distinct part of speech, while most modern gramm ...
and those of other
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
. For instance, there is no differentiation in the spoken language between "he", "she" and "it" (though a written difference was introduced after contact with the West), and pronouns are not inflected to indicate whether they are the subject or object of a sentence.
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...
further lacks a distinction between the possessive adjective ("my") and possessive pronoun ("mine"); both are formed by appending the
particle
In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscle in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass.
They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
''de''. Pronouns in Chinese are often substituted by
honorific
An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an Honorary title (academic), h ...
alternatives.
Personal pronouns
In Mandarin
:
* / can be either
inclusive or exclusive, depending on the circumstance where it is used.
:
† / is mainly used by northern speakers.
Following the iconoclastic
May Fourth Movement
The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese cultural and anti-imperialist political movement which grew out of student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919. Students gathered in front of Tiananmen to protest the Chinese government's weak response ...
in 1919, and to accommodate the translation of Western literature,
written vernacular Chinese
Written vernacular Chinese, also known as ''baihua'', comprises forms of written Chinese based on the vernacular varieties of the language spoken throughout China. It is contrasted with Literary Chinese, which was the predominant written form ...
developed separate pronouns for gender-differentiated speech, and to address animals, deities, and inanimate objects.
This can be traced back to colonialism and Western-oriented linguistics in the early 1900s, where Eurocentric standardization of language and culture emerged to purify and create "effective governance.” English was seen as progressive, while Chinese was characterized as a delayed language. Before written Chinese, spoken Chinese did not differentiate between genders in regard to pronouns. Written Chinese was only relevant to the public under imperial decrees, and literacy was a privilege that ordinary citizens rarely had access to, due to
Confucianist
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...
ideals. There was an assumption that alphabetic literacy was superior in nature, and the assimilation of the Chinese language was initiated by Catholic missionaries from the West. During the transition from the
Qing Dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
to the
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
, the modern nation urgently moved to adopt European ideologies, which translated to culture and linguistics.
“The focus on building a unified state was a driver in standardizing the Chinese language, which largely pushed ''
Putonghua
Standard Chinese ( zh, s=现代标准汉语, t=現代標準漢語, p=Xiàndài biāozhǔn hànyǔ, l=modern standard Han speech) is a modern standard form of Mandarin Chinese that was first codified during the republican era (1912–1949). ...
'' to be the dominant dialect. On the other hand, China’s minority languages suffered a huge blow—with diversity and culture being eradicated in the name of assimilation. Language standardization, thus, became the norm as it was seen as a positive and rational step towards industrialization.
Throughout the 1920s, a debate continued between three camps: those that preferred to preserve the preexisting use of without distinction between genders, those that wished to preserve the spoken non-gendered pronoun but introduce a new female pronoun in writing, and those that wished to introduce a differently pronounced female pronoun . The pronoun enjoyed widespread support in the 1920s and 1930s but lost out to after the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...
. Currently, written pronouns are divided between the masculine human (he, him), feminine human (she, her), and non-human (it), and similarly in the plural. This distinction does not exist in the spoken language, where moreover ''tā'' is restricted to animate reference; inanimate entities are usually referred to with demonstrative pronouns for 'this' (这/這 ''zhè'') and 'that' (那 ''nà'').
Other, rarer new written pronouns in the second person are ''nǐ'' ( "you, a deity"), ''nǐ'' ( "you, a male"), and ''nǐ'' ( "you, a female"). In the third person, they are ''tā'' ( "it, an animal"), ''tā'' ( "it, a deity"), and ''tā'' ( "it, an inanimate object"). Among users of traditional Chinese characters, these distinctions are only made in
Taiwanese Mandarin
Taiwanese Mandarin, frequently referred to as ''Guoyu'' () or ''Huayu'' (), is the variety of Mandarin Chinese spoken in Taiwan. A large majority of the Taiwanese population is fluent in Mandarin, though many also speak a variety of Min Chinese ...
; in simplified Chinese, ''tā'' () is the only third-person non-human form and ''nǐ'' () is the only second person form. The third person distinction between "he" () and "she" () remain in use in all forms of written standard Mandarin.
In the early 21st century, some members of genderfluid and queer Chinese online communities started using X也 and TA to refer to a generic, anonymous, or non-binary third person. As of June 2022, neither have been encoded as a single code point in Unicode, and neither are considered standard usage. Since at least 2014,
Bilibili
Bilibili (stylized in all lowercase), nicknamed B Site, is a Chinese online video sharing website based in Shanghai where users can submit, view, and add overlaid commentary on videos.
Bilibili hosts videos on various themes, including ...
has used TA in its user pages.
Additional notes
* The first-person pronouns ''ǎn'' and ''ǒu'' "I" are infrequently used in Mandarin conversation. They are of dialectal origin. However, their usage is gaining popularity among the young, most notably in online communications.
* According to Wang Li, the second person formal pronoun ''nín'' ( "you, formal; polite") is derived from the fusion of the second person plural ''nǐmen'' ( "you, formal; polite"), making it somewhat analogous to the
T-V distinction
TV or television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images and sound.
TV may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* .tv (TV channel), a British TV channel
* '' TV (The Book)'', a 2016 collection of essays by A ...
in Romance languages. Consistent with this hypothesized origin, ''*nínmen'' is traditionally considered to be a grammatically incorrect expression for the formal second person plural. Instead, the alternative phrases ''dàjiā'' (大家, "you, formal plural") and ''gèwèi'' (各位, "you, formal plural") are used, with the latter being somewhat more formal than the former. In addition, some dialects use an analogous formal third person pronoun ''tān'' (怹, "he/she, formal; polite").
*
Traditional Chinese character
Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages. In Taiwan, the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the '' Standard Form of ...
s, as influenced by translations from Western languages and the Bible in the nineteenth century, occasionally distinguished gender in pronouns, although that distinction is abandoned in
simplified Characters
Simplified Chinese characters are one of two standardized character sets widely used to write the Chinese language, with the other being traditional characters. Their mass standardization during the 20th century was part of an initiative by t ...
. Those traditional characters developed after Western contact include both masculine and feminine forms of "you" ( and ). In the simplified system, is rare.
In other Sinitic languages
There are many other pronouns in modern Sinitic languages, such as
Taiwanese Hokkien
Taiwanese Hokkien ( , ), or simply Taiwanese, also known as Taigi ( zh, c=臺語, tl=Tâi-gí), Taiwanese Southern Min ( zh, c=臺灣閩南語, tl=Tâi-uân Bân-lâm-gí), Hoklo and Holo, is a variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively ...
() "you" and
Written Cantonese
Written Cantonese is the most complete written form of a Chinese language after that for Mandarin Chinese and Classical Chinese. Written Chinese was the main literary language of China until the 19th century. Written vernacular Chinese first ap ...
(keúih deih) "they." There exist many more pronouns in
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary ...
and in literary works, including (rǔ) or (ěr) for "you", and (wú) for "I" (see
Chinese honorifics
Chinese honorifics () and honorific language are words, word constructs, and expressions in the Chinese language that convey self-deprecation, social respect, politeness, or deference. Once ubiquitously employed in ancient China, a large percent h ...
). They are not routinely encountered in colloquial speech.
Possessives
To indicate
alienable possession, (''de'') is appended to the pronoun. For
inalienable possession
In linguistics, inalienable possession ( abbreviated ) is a type of possession in which a noun is obligatorily possessed by its possessor. Nouns or nominal affixes in an inalienable possession relationship cannot exist independently or be "al ...
, such as family and entities very close to the owner, this may be omitted, e.g. (''wǒ mā'') "my mother". For older generations, (''lìng'') is the equivalent to the modern form (''nínde''), as in (''lìngzūn'') "your father". In literary style, (''qí'') is sometimes used for "his" or "her" or as a gender-neutral pronoun; e.g. means "his father" or "her father".
In Cantonese, for possessive, (''ge3'') is appended to the pronoun. It is used in the same way as in Mandarin.
In Taiwanese Hokkien, possessive pronouns are homophonous with plural pronouns. For example, () can mean either "your" or "you (plural)".
Demonstrative pronouns
The demonstrative pronouns work the same as in English.
The distinction between singular and plural are made by the classifier (gè) and (xiē), and the following nouns remain the same. Usually inanimate objects are referred using these pronouns rather than the personal pronouns (tā) and (tāmen). Traditional forms of these pronouns are: (zhège), (zhèxiē), (nàge), and (nàxiē).
Interrogative pronouns
Indefinite pronouns
Pronouns in imperial times
:''See also
Chinese honorifics
Chinese honorifics () and honorific language are words, word constructs, and expressions in the Chinese language that convey self-deprecation, social respect, politeness, or deference. Once ubiquitously employed in ancient China, a large percent h ...
.''
In imperial times, the pronoun for "I" was commonly omitted when speaking politely or to someone with higher social status. "I" was usually replaced with special pronouns to address specific situations. Examples include ''guǎrén'' () during
early Chinese history and ''zhèn'' () after the
Qin dynasty
The Qin dynasty ( ) was the first Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China. It is named for its progenitor state of Qin, a fief of the confederal Zhou dynasty (256 BC). Beginning in 230 BC, the Qin under King Ying Zheng enga ...
when the
Emperor
The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...
is speaking to his subjects. When the subjects speak to the Emperor, they address themselves as ''chén'' (), or "your official". It was extremely impolite and
taboo
A taboo is a social group's ban, prohibition or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, offensive, sacred or allowed only for certain people.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...
to address the Emperor as "you" or to refer to oneself as "I".
In modern times, the practice of self-deprecatory terms is still used in specific formal situations. In
résumé
A résumé or resume (or alternatively resumé), is a document created and used by a person to present their background, skills, and accomplishments. Résumés can be used for a variety of reasons, but most often are used to secure new jobs, wh ...
s, the term ''guì'' (; lit. ''noble'') is used for "you" and "your"; e.g., ''guì gōngsī'' () refers to "your company". Běnrén (; lit. ''this person'') is used to refer to oneself.
See also
*
Chinese honorifics
Chinese honorifics () and honorific language are words, word constructs, and expressions in the Chinese language that convey self-deprecation, social respect, politeness, or deference. Once ubiquitously employed in ancient China, a large percent h ...
*
Chinese grammar
The grammar of Standard Chinese shares many features with other varieties of Chinese. The language almost entirely lacks inflection; words typically have only one grammatical form. Categories such as Grammatical number, number (singular or plura ...
*
Chinese language
Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...
*
Cantonese pronouns
Pronouns in Cantonese are less numerous than their Indo-European languages counterparts. Cantonese uses pronouns that apply the same meaning to function as both subjective (English: I, he, we) and objective (me, him, us) just like many other Sini ...
*
Hokkien pronouns
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
Pronouns by language
Pronouns
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( glossed ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not con ...
{{Language pronouns