Chinese pronouns

Chinese pronouns (Chinese: 代词/代詞; pinyin: dàicí or Chinese: 代名詞; pinyin: dàimíngcí) differ somewhat from pronouns in English and other Indo-European languages. 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 further lacks a distinction between the possessive adjective ("my") and possessive pronoun ("mine"); both are formed by appending the particle 的 de. Pronouns in Chinese are often substituted by honorific alternatives.

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns^[1]
Person	Singular		Plural*
First person	我 wǒ I, me		Exclusive	Inclusive
First person	我 wǒ I, me		我們** wǒmen we, us	咱們^† zánmen we, us
Second person	Informal	Formal	你們 nǐmen you
Second person	你 nǐ you	您 nín you	你們 nǐmen you
Third person	他 / 她 / 它 tā he/him (Mainland China)^{[clarification needed]} he/she/him/her (Taiwan and Hong Kong) she/her, it^‡		他們 / 她們 / 它們 tāmen they, them^‡

* The character to indicate plurality is 們 (men) in Traditional Chinese characters.

** 我們 can be either inclusive or exclusive, depending on the circumstance where it is used.

^†Used to indicate 'you and I' (two people) only, and can only be used as a subject (not an object);^[2] in all other cases wǒmen is used. This form has fallen into disuse outside Beijing, and may be a Manchu influence.^[3]

^‡In written Chinese, a distinction between masculine human 他 (he, him), feminine human 她 (she, her), and non-human 它 (it) [and similarly in the plural] was introduced in the early 20th century under European influence.^[4] 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' and 'that'.^[5]

Following the iconoclastic May Fourth Movement in 1919, and to accommodate the translation of Western literature, written vernacular Chinese developed separate pronouns for gender-differentiated speech, and to address animals, deities, and inanimate objects. In the second person, they are nǐ (祢 "you, a deity"), nǐ (你 "you, a male"), and nǐ (妳 "you, a female"). In the third person, they are tā (牠 "it, an animal"), tā (祂 "it, a deity"), and tā (它 "it, an inanimate object"). Among users of traditional Chinese characters, these distinctions are only made in Taiwanese Mandarin; in simplified Chinese, tā (它) is the only third-person non-human form and nǐ (你) is the only second person form. The third person distinction between "he" (他) and "she" (她) remain in use in all forms of written standard Mandarin.^[6]

The first-person pronouns 俺 ǎn and 偶 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.

Traditional Chinese characters, 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. Those traditional characters developed after Western contact include both masculine and feminine forms of "you" (你 and 妳), rarely used today even in writings in traditional characters; in the simplified system, 妳 is rare.

There are many other pronouns in modern Sinitic languages, such as Taiwanese Minnan 恁 (pinyin: nín; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: lín) "you" and Written Cantonese 佢哋 (keúih deih) "they." There exist many more pronouns in Classical Chinese and in literary works, including 汝 (rǔ) or 爾 (ěr) for "you", and 吾 (wú) for "I" (see Chinese honorifics). They are not routinely encountered in colloquial speech.

Historical development of personal pronouns

		Historical			Modern
		Shang and early Zhou period^[7]^[8]	Classical Chinese^[9]^[8]	Southern and Northern Dynasties period and Tang Dynasty^[10]	Standard Chinese (Mandarin Chinese)	Shanghainese (Wu Chinese)	Taiwanese Hokkien (Min Chinese)^[11]	Sixian Hakka (Hakka Chinese)^[12]^[13]	Cantonese (Yue Chinese)
Singular	1.	余 la, 予 laʔ, 朕 *lrəmʔ	我 ŋˤajʔ, 吾 ŋˤa (subjective and possessive only), 余 la, 予 laʔ	我 ngaX, 吾 ngu	我 wǒ	吾 ŋu˩˧	我 gua, ua	𠊎 ŋai¹¹	我 ŋɔː˩˧
	2.	汝/女 naʔ, 乃 nˤəʔ	爾 neʔ, 汝/女 naʔ, 而 nə, 若 nak	爾 nejX, 汝/女 nyoX, 你 nejX	你 nǐ	儂 noŋ˩˧	你 li, 汝 lɯ	你 n¹¹, ŋ¹¹, ɲi¹¹	你 nei˩˧
	3.	厥 kot (possessive), 之 tə (objective), 其 gə (possessive), third person subject pronoun did not exist*	之 tə (objective), 其 gə (possessive), third person subject pronoun did not exist	其 gi, 渠 gjo; 伊 ’jij, 之 tsyi, 他 tha	他, 她, 它 tā	伊 ɦi˩˧	伊 i	佢 ɡi¹¹, i¹¹	佢 kʰɵy˩˧
Plural	1.	我 *ŋˤajʔ	same as singular	Singular + 等 tongX, 曹 dzaw, 輩 pwojH	Both INCL. and EXCL. 我們 wǒmen INCL. 咱們 zánmen	阿拉 ɐʔ˧ lɐʔ˦	EXCL. 阮 gun, un INCL. 咱 lan	EXCL. 𠊎兜/𠊎等 ŋai¹¹ deu²⁴/ŋai¹¹ nen²⁴ INCL. 這兜/大家 en²⁴ ia³¹ deu²⁴/en²⁴ tai⁵⁵ ga²⁴	我哋 ŋɔː˩˧ tei˨
	2.	爾 *neʔ			你們 nǐmen	㑚 na˩˧	恁 lin	你兜/你等 ŋ¹¹ deu²⁴/ŋ¹¹ nen²⁴	你哋 nei˩˧ tei˨
	3.	(not used)			他們, 她們, 它們 tāmen	伊拉 ɦi˩ lɐʔ˧	𪜶 in	佢兜/佢等 ɡi¹¹ deu²⁴/i¹¹ nen²⁴	佢哋 kʰɵy˩˧ tei˨

Possessives

To indicate alienable possession, 的 (de) is appended to the pronoun. For inalienable possession, such as family and entities very close to the owner, this may be omitted, e.g. 我妈/我媽 (wǒ mā) "my mother". For older generations, 令 (lìng) is the equivalent to the modern form 您的 (nínde), as in 令尊 (lìngzūn) "your father". In literary style, 其 (qí) is sometimes used for "his" or "her"; e.g. 其父 means "his father" or "her father".

In Cantonese, for possessive, 嘅 (ge3) is appended to the pronoun. It is used in the same way as 的 in Mandarin.

In Taiwanese Minnan the character for "your" is 恁 (pinyin: rèn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: lín); although this would be pronounced the same as the personal pronoun 汝 lín, it is represented by a different character when used as the equivalent of 你的 in Standard Chinese.

Demonstrative pronouns

The demonstrative pronouns work the same as in English.

	Singular	Plural
Proximal	这个 / 這個 zhège this	这些 / 這些 zhèxiē these
Distal	那个 / 那個 nàge that	那些 nàxiē those

The distinction between singular and plural are made by the classifier 个/個 (gè) and 些 (xiē), and the following nouns remain the same. Usually inanimate objects are referred using these pronouns rather than the personal pronouns 它 (tā) and 它們 (tāmen). Traditional forms of these pronouns are: 這個 (zhège), 這些 (zhèxiē), 那個 (nàge), 那些 (nàxiē), and 它們 tāmen.

Interrogative pronouns

Pronoun	Alternative HE-system	English
誰 shéi	何人 hérén (what person)	who
哪個 nǎge	何個 hége (what one)	which one
甚麼 shénme	何 / 何物 hé / héwù (what)	what
哪裡 or 哪兒 nǎlǐ or nǎr	何處 / 何地 héchù / hédì (what location)	where
甚麼時候 shénme shíhou	何時 héshí (what time)	when
爲甚麼 wèi shénme	爲何 wèihé (for what)	why
怎麼 zěnme	如何 rúhé (what to follow)	how
多少 or 幾 duōshǎo or jǐ	幾何 jǐhé (what the amount)	how much

Indefinite pronouns

Pronoun	English
大家 dàjiā 誰都 shéidōu 誰也 shéiyě	everybody
誰都不 shéidōubù	nobody

Pronouns in imperial times

See also Chinese honorifics.

In imperial times, the pronoun for "I" was commonly omitted when speaking politely or to someone with higher social status.^{[citation needed]} "I" was usually replaced with special pronouns to address specific situations.^{[citation needed]} Examples include guǎrén (寡人) during early Chinese history and zhèn (朕) after the Qin dynasty when the Emperor is speaking to his subjects. When the subjects speak to the Emperor, they address themselves as chén (臣), or "your official". It was extremely impolite and taboo to address the Emperor as "you" or to address oneself as "I".

In modern times, the practice of self-deprecatory terms is still used in specific formal situations. In résumés, the term guì (贵/貴; lit. noble) is used for "you" and "your"; e.g., gùi gōngsī (贵公司/貴公司) refers to "your company". Běnrén (本人; lit. this person) is used to refer to oneself.

References

^ Adapted from Yip, p. 47.
^ Ross, Claudia; Sheng Ma, Jing-heng (2006). Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide. Psychology Press. p. 25.
^ Matthews, 2010. "Language Contact and Chinese". In Hickey, ed., The Handbook of Language Contact, p 760. doi:10.1002/9781444318159.ch37.
^ Attempts to introduce audibly different forms for she (yī) and it (tuō) in the first half of the 20th century were unsuccessful (Kane, p. 107).
^ Sun, pp. 166-167.
^ Shei, Chris (2019). The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Discourse Analysis. Routledge. p. 200.
^ Laurent Sagart: The Roots of Old Chinese. (Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, Series IV, Volume 184) John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia 1999. ISBN 90-272-3690-9, S. 142–147; W. A. C. H. Dobson: Early Archaic Chinese. A Descriptive Grammar. University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1962, S. 112–114.
^ ^a ^b Ancient Chinese reconstructions according to Baxter and Sagart Archived September 27, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
^ Note: The specified forms represent only a small selection.
^ Note: Middle Chinese pronunciations given in Baxter's notation.
^ Shi, Q.-S. (2016). Personal Pronouns in Southern Min Dialect. In P.-H. Ting et al. (Eds.). New Horizons in the Study of Chinese: Dialectology, Grammar, and Philology (pp. 181-190). Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.
^ Mataro J. Hashimoto: The Hakka Dialect. A linguistic study of Its Phonology, Syntax and Lexicon. University Press, Cambridge 1973. ISBN 0-521-20037-7
^ Hakka Affairs Council. (2017). Vocabulary Words for the Hakka Proficiency Test: Elementary (Sixian Dialect) [客語能力認證基本詞彙-初級(四縣腔)]. Retrieved from https://elearning.hakka.gov.tw/ver2015

Bibliography

Kane, Daniel (2006). The Chinese Language: Its History and Usage. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle. ISBN 0-8048-3853-4. OCLC 77522617.
Sun, Chaofen (2006). Chinese: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 166–169. ISBN 0-521-82380-3. OCLC 70671780.
Yip, Po-Ching; Rimmington, Don (2004). Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar. London; New York: Routledge. pp. 47–58. ISBN 978-0-415-15031-6. OCLC 52178249.

[Yip_pronoun_table-1] Adapted from Yip, p. 47.

[2] Ross, Claudia; Sheng Ma, Jing-heng (2006). Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar: A Practical Guide. Psychology Press. p. 25.

[3] Matthews, 2010. "Language Contact and Chinese". In Hickey, ed., The Handbook of Language Contact, p 760. doi:10.1002/9781444318159.ch37.

[Kane-4] Attempts to introduce audibly different forms for she (yī) and it (tuō) in the first half of the 20th century were unsuccessful (Kane, p. 107).

[5] Sun, pp. 166-167.

[6] Shei, Chris (2019). The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Discourse Analysis. Routledge. p. 200.

[7] Laurent Sagart: The Roots of Old Chinese. (Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, Series IV, Volume 184) John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia 1999. ISBN 90-272-3690-9, S. 142–147; W. A. C. H. Dobson: Early Archaic Chinese. A Descriptive Grammar. University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1962, S. 112–114.

[Rekonstruktionen_Baxter_Sagart-8] Ancient Chinese reconstructions according to Baxter and Sagart Archived September 27, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.

[9] Note: The specified forms represent only a small selection.

[10] Note: Middle Chinese pronunciations given in Baxter's notation.

[11] Shi, Q.-S. (2016). Personal Pronouns in Southern Min Dialect. In P.-H. Ting et al. (Eds.). New Horizons in the Study of Chinese: Dialectology, Grammar, and Philology (pp. 181-190). Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.

[12] Mataro J. Hashimoto: The Hakka Dialect. A linguistic study of Its Phonology, Syntax and Lexicon. University Press, Cambridge 1973. ISBN 0-521-20037-7

[13] Hakka Affairs Council. (2017). Vocabulary Words for the Hakka Proficiency Test: Elementary (Sixian Dialect) [客語能力認證基本詞彙-初級(四縣腔)]. Retrieved from https://elearning.hakka.gov.tw/ver2015

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