중국어 3인칭대명사의 변화와 유형학적 의미

Personal pronouns constitute a grammatical category in most languages worldwide and perform the function of designation in very diverse ways. In particular, as languages around the globe can be classified into two-person languages and three-person languages depending on the answer to the question of whether or not third-person pronouns are to be acknowledged as personal pronouns, the ways in which third-person pronouns are realized in a language undeniably are important data revealing the particularity of that language. According to the research conducted for the present study, third-person pronouns in ancient Chinese originated from demonstrative pronouns. This was because most third-person pronouns existing at the time had been generated from the expansion of demonstrative pronouns. In other words, zhi (之), qi (其), bi (彼), and jue (厥) used as third-person pronouns were strongly like demonstrative pronouns. Consequently, they came to be different from first- and second-person pronouns existing at the time in morphology, syntax, and phonology and to be similar to demonstrative pronouns. As a result, in the period, perfect third-person pronouns did not exist, unlike in contemporary Chinese. For these reasons, Chinese in the Ancient Chinese must be seen having the characteristics of a two-person language.