Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Empathy and Chinese long distance reflexive ziji—remarks on Giorgi (2006, 2007)

  • Published:
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

With the assumption that long distance anaphors (LDAs) are unsaturated positions, Giorgi (Nat. Lang. Linguist. Theory 24:1009–1047, 2006, Linguist. Inq. 38(2):321–342, 2007) argues that the machinery independently needed for temporal anchoring—i.e., the syntactic representation of the coordinate of the bearer-of-attitude and that of the speaker—can also account for long distance binding. In this paper, we claim that the interpretative similarity between temporal anchoring and anaphoric binding suggested by Giorgi cannot be maintained, especially for Chinese, after pointing out the limitations of Giorgi’s theory concerning Chinese LDA ziji. With the recognition of the fact that Chinese long distance reflexive ziji also has an empathic use based on Kuno and Kaburaki’s (Linguist. Inq. 8(4):625–672, 1977) notion of empathy, we argue that a minimal revision to Giorgi’s theory, namely replacing the speaker’s coordinate with the empathy locus which encodes the information of the speaker’s empathy in the embedded clause, will help account for all the difficulties that Giorgi’s theory faces concerning Chinese LDA ziji.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. According to Tsai (2002), sentence-free ziji can be used as an adverb, instead of a reflexive pronoun, as in (i):

    1. (i)
      figure f

    Hence, one may think it is possible that all the occurrences of sentence-free ziji are adverbs, and the subject is just deleted for short. For instance, (6) can be treated as a reduced form of (ii):

    1. (ii)
      figure g

    However, this is not true, for the analysis of sentence-free ziji as an adverb may be harmless for cases with ziji in subject positions, but not for cases with ziji in other positions. For instance, it is obvious that ziji used in (5) as a complement to chule ‘except for’ is not an adverb. In this paper, we follow Pan’s (1997, 2001) analysis of sentence-free ziji as a reflexive pronoun.

  2. Some researchers believe that the deictic third-person NP can also block long distance binding of ziji. Below is an example mentioned in Huang and Liu (2001), though the acceptability of such cases is debatable.

    1. (iii)
      figure q

    We do know that an inanimate deictic expression such as zhe fen baogao ‘this report’ cannot induce the blocking effect on LDA ziji, as in the sentence Zhangsan i shuo zhe fen baogao j hai-le ziji i/j ‘John said that this report hurt him’. In this paper, we leave this issue outside the scope of discussion. It suffices to say that not all third-person deictic expressions can induce the blocking effect on LDA ziji.

  3. In Oshima (2004), he actually distinguishes three uses of Japanese zibun—reflexive, logophoric and empathic. Since the reflexive use is locally bound, we neglect it for the present purpose. Note that Oshima also discusses the relation between these three uses of zibun. According to him, it may be plausible to treat logophoric zibun as a separate lexical item and reflexive and empathic zibun as a single lexical item, because only logophoric zibun is exempt from the subjecthood condition, and in some languages logophoric expressions have distinct forms from regular pronouns.

  4. According to Kuno and Kaburaki (1977), the empathy relation among participants correlates with various factors, such as person, topicality, animacy, social situation, etc. For now, we leave out the description of these constraints on the empathy relation. In the later argumentation, we will introduce some of them (e.g., the Speech-Act Participant Empathy Hierarchy and the Humanness Hierarchy) when necessary.

  5. The hypothesis in (23) is originally due to Kuno and Kaburaki (1977). According to them, the decrease in the degree of acceptability in the following triplets leads to this hypothesis.

    1. (iv)
      figure u

    In Oshima (2007), he argues that the inappropriate use of kureta below can also justify the hierarchy in question.

    1. (v)
      figure v

  6. One reviewer mentions that it would be good if an example is given to show the situation where a structurally possible antecedent is ruled out due to the absence of empathy, though it is a potential empathy locus. We think the following example provided by Huang and Liu (2001) can illustrate this point:

    1. (vi)
      figure z

    According to Huang and Liu, (vi) is acceptable just in the situation that the speaker empathizes with the internal protagonist Zhangsan, i.e., Zhangsan is regarded as the empathy locus within the clause. If the speaker retains a completely neutral position, this sentence is hardly acceptable under the relevant interpretation.

References

  • Anand, Pranav. 2006. De de se. PhD thesis, MIT, Cambridge, MA.

  • Battistella, Edwin. 1989. Chinese reflexivization. Linguistics 27: 987–1012.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, Noam. 1981. Lectures on government and binding. Dordrecht: Foris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole, Peter, Gabriella Hermon, and Li-May Sung. 1990. Principles and parameters of long-distance reflexives. Linguistic Inquiry 21: 1–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi, Alessandra. 2006. From temporal anchoring to long distance anaphors. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 24: 1009–1047.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi, Alessandra. 2007. On the nature of long-distance anaphors. Linguistic Inquiry 38(2): 321–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi, Alessandra, and Fabio Pianesi. 2001. Tense, attitudes and subjects. In Proceedings of SALT XI, eds. Rachel Hastings, Brendan Jackson, and Zsofia Zvolenszky, 212–230. Ithaca: Cornell University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi, Alessandra, and Fabio Pianesi. 2004a. Temporal perspective of the speaker and the subject: from semantics to morphosyntax. In The syntax of time, eds. Jacqueline Gueron and Alexander Lecarme, 129–152. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giorgi, Alessandra, and Fabio Pianesi. 2004b. Complementizer deletion in Italian. In The structure of CP and IP, ed. Luigi Rizzi, 190–210. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huang, C.-T. James, and C.-S. Luther Liu. 2001. Logophoricity, attitudes, and ziji at the interface. In Long-distance reflexives, eds. Peter Cole, C.-T. James Huang, and Gabrielle Hermon. Vol. 33 of Syntax and semantics, 141–195. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huang, C.-T. James, and C.-C. Jane Tang. 1991. The local nature of the long distance reflexives in Chinese. In Long-distance Anaphora, eds. Jan Koster and Eric Reuland, 263–282. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kuno, Susumu. 1972. Pronominalization, reflexivization, and direct discourse. Linguistic Inquiry 3: 161–195.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuno, Susumu, and Etsuko Kaburaki. 1977. Empathy and syntax. Linguistic Inquiry 8(4): 625–672.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larson, Richard, and Gabriel Segal. 1995. Knowledge of meaning. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, Yafei. 1993. What makes long-distance reflexives possible? Journal of East Asian Linguistics 2: 135–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lidz, Jeffrey. 2001. Anti-antilocality. In Long-distance reflexives, eds. Peter Cole, C.-T. James Huang, and Gabrielle Hermon. Vol. 33 of Syntax and semantics, 227–254. New York: Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Manzini, Maria Rita, and Kenneth Wexler. 1987. Parameters, binding theory, and learnability. Linguistic Inquiry 18: 413–444.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oshima, David Y. 2004. Zibun revisited: empathy, logophoricity and binding. Vol. 23 of University of Washington working papers in linguistics, 175–190.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oshima, David Y. 2006. Perspectives in reported discourse. PhD diss., Stanford University.

  • Oshima, David Y. 2007. On empathic and logophoric binding. Research on Language and Computation 5: 19–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pan, Haihua. 1997. Constraints on reflexivization in Mandarin Chinese. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pan, Haihua. 2001. Why the blocking effect? In Long-distance reflexives, eds. Peter Cole, C.-T. James Huang, and Gabrielle Hermon. Vol. 33 of Syntax and semantics, 279–316. New York: Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Pica, Pierre. 1985. Subject, tense and truth: towards a modular approach to binding. In Grammatical representation, eds. J. Guéron, Hans Georg Obenauer, and Jean Yves Pollock, 259–291. Dordrecht: Foris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollard, Carl, and Ping Xue. 2001. Syntactic and non-syntactic constraints on long-distance binding. In Long-distance reflexives, eds. Peter Cole, C.-T. James Huang, and Gabrielle Hermon. Vol. 33 of Syntax and semantics, 317–342. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prognovac, Ljiljana. 1993. Long-distance reflexives: movement-to-infl versus relativized SUBJECT. Linguistic Inquiry 24(4): 755–772.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinhart, Tanya, and Eric Reuland. 1993. Reflexivity. Linguistic Inquiry 24: 657–720.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlenker, Philippe. 2010. Indexicality and de se reports. In Handbook of semantics, eds. Klaus von Heusinger, Claudia Maienborn, and Paul Portner. Vol. 2, 1561–1604. Berlin: de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sells, Peter. 1987. Aspects of logophoricity. Linguistic Inquiry 18: 445–479.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsai, W.-T. Dylan. 2002. Ziji, zixing yu ziran: tan hanyu zhong de fanshen zhuangyu (Self, selfhood and nature—on reflexive adverbials in Chinese). Zhongguoyuwen 289: 357–362.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang, Dong-Whee. 1983. The extended binding theory of anaphora. Linguistic Research 19: 169–192.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This paper is supported by a GRF grant from Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (No. CityU 148610), the Humanity and Social Science Youth Foundation of Ministry of Education, China (No. 13YJC740102) and Sun Yat-Sen University Start-up Programme for Junior Scholars (No. 11300-1188141), and the generous support of the relevant parties are thus acknowledged. We also appreciate the helpful suggestions and comments made by the editor-in-chief and two anonymous reviewers, though we take full responsibility of any remaining errors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Logic and Cognition, Department of Philosophy, Sun Yat-Sen University, Xingangxi Rd 135, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Yingying Wang

  2. Department of Linguistics and Translation, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue 83, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Haihua Pan

  3. Department of linguistics, Faculty of language Sciences, Beijing Language and Culture University, College Rd 15, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China

    Haihua Pan

Authors
  1. Yingying Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Haihua Pan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Haihua Pan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wang, Y., Pan, H. Empathy and Chinese long distance reflexive ziji—remarks on Giorgi (2006, 2007). Nat Lang Linguist Theory 33, 307–322 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-014-9257-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-014-9257-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation