The Interrelationship and Development of Deixis in Classical Chinese: A Case Study of Pronouns in Shishuo xinyu

The Interrelationship and Development of Deixis in Classical Chinese: A Case Study of Pronouns in Shishuo xinyu

The evolution of deictic words occurs in every language. The development from spatial to person and temporal deixis is a more common trajectory than the opposite, but both progressions are apparent when the deictic words zhi and er are examined in the Shishuo xinyu. In the text, zhi is used mainly as third person or anaphoric pronoun. Historically, it was the first lexical item used to avoid naming a frequently-mentioned place or object and it gradually developed into a third person pronoun consistently referring to specified individuals. Another deictic word, er, developed in the opposite direction, from person deixis to place deixis. Since the second person er is usually an addressee, who is distant from the viewpoint of the addresser, the distal meaning was derived first and proximal usage arose later. In the text, er is used mainly as a second person, distal, or anaphoric pronoun. My investigation into zhi and er demonstrates that all the deictic functions are historically interrelated, and that later usages still reflect earlier usages to some degree.