| In modern Chinese,the reflexive pronouns "Ziji","Benren","Benshen" and "Zishen"have similar meanings and usages,but are somewhat different.The four pronouns are sometimes used interchangeably,but sometimes not.The existing literature on the Chinese reflexive pronouns focuses mostly on the word "Ziji",but lacks attention to other reflexive pronouns,and the comparative study between them is not sufficient.The existing dictionaries tend to interpret the meaning of "Ziji","Benren","Benshen" and"Zishen" as each other.There is also no clear distinction in the existing textbooks.Therefore,international students often make mistakes when using the term.In this paper,based on the corpus,we examine the similarities and differences between "Ziji","Benren","Benshen" and "Zishen" from three aspects:syntax,semantics and pragmatics."It also proposes several teaching suggestions in the context of international Chinese language teaching.After analyzing and describing the corpus,we found that the reflexive pronouns of"Ziji" have syntactic,semantic and pragmatic aspects in common and differences.In terms of syntax,they can be used as subjects,objects,determiners and partitives,and"Ziji" can also be used as a gerund.However,there are differences in the syntactic tendencies of "Ziji","Benren","Benshen" and "Zishen"."Ziji" and "Zishen" are used most often as determiners,while "Benren" and "Benshen" are used most often as subjects.In terms of semantics,"Ziji","Benren","Benshen" and "Zishen" all have the basic semantic features of[+self-referential][+human][± abstract].in addition to "Benren","Ziji","Benshen" and "Zishen" can all be used to refer to things.However,"Ziji" is generally used to refer to a person,while "Benshen" and "Zishen" is more commonly used to refer to things.In addition to this,each reflexive pronoun has its distinctive semantic meaning.It is found that "Benren" has the semantic features of[+alone][+personally][+relying on benren];"Benren" has the semantic feature of[+self-referential],and "Benren" can only refer to a human being,not a non-human.The semantic feature of "Benshen" is[+original];and "Zishen" is[+not other].In terms of pragmatics,it was found that "Ziji","Benren","Benshen" and "Zishen" all reflect the subjectivity of the speaker,and have an emphatic function,can they also have a significant stylistic dimension.However,the different reflexive pronouns have their focus.For example,the emphasis of these reflexive pronouns is linked to their respective semantics,with "Ziji" emphasizing "alone","of one’s own volition","on one’s initiative"and "relying on oneself";"Benren" emphasizes the person involved,emphasizing the"self";"Benshen" emphasizes the "original";and "Zishen" emphasizes the object involved,emphasizing something other than others or something else.In terms of focus function,"Ziji" and "Benren" can form the natural focus,the contrasting focus,and "Benshen" and"Zishen " can constitute a contrastive focus.In terms of stylistic color,all four have strong written overtones,but in the oral genre,"Ziji" is more common than "Benren","Benshen"and "Zishen" in the verbal style.Finally,the paper also proposes some ideas for teaching the reflexive pronouns of the "Ziji" category in the context of international Chinese language teaching,both in terms of textbook development and teachers. |
