# Indexicals in Chinese

Zhuoyun Wu†, Sumiyo Nishiguchił, Lu Guo*, Yingxuan Wang*
Graduate School of Commerce, Otaru University of Commerce ${ }^{\text {†** }^{* *}}$
Center for Language Studies, Otaru University of Commerce:
wu304728096@163.com ${ }^{\dagger}$ nishiguchi@res.otaru-uc.ac.jp

## 1 Introduction

This is a research about monsters, the context-change functions, and the words that are indexicals like tense adverbs, pronouns, etc. in Chinese. There are many researchers who wrote about indexicals in their own languages, but there is not a lot of research on Chinese. This paper discusses the indexical words in Chinese by giving some examples.

## 2. Pronouns

Like English, pronouns can also cause ambiguity in different contexts in Chinese. Normally, as in the example in (1), the first person indexical wo "I" ambiguously refers either to the speaker or the matrix subject Li.

(1) Zuotian Li shuo wo qiantian
昨天, 李说我前天
yesterday Li said I the day before yesterday
Zhong-de hua kai-le
种的
planted 花 $\quad$ flower bloomed
"Yesterday, Li said the flower I planted the day
before yesterday bloomed."
$\sqrt{ }$ The flower was planted by Li.
$\sqrt{ }$ The flower was planted by I.

The agent wo "I" is shifted in the scope of shuo "say."

(2) Li shuo ni zuotian zhongde hua kai-le 李说你昨天种的花开了。

$\mathrm{Li}$ said you yesterday planted flower bloomed

"Li said the flower you planted yesterday bloomed."

$\sqrt{ } \mathrm{Li}$ is talking to me ---The flower was planted by me.

$\sqrt{ } \mathrm{Li}$ is talking to Ge ---The flower was planted by Ge.
The interpretation of the indexical $n i$ "you" depends on the context and it can be the person Li talking to, and it has two different meanings.

(3) Banzhang shuo ta bei tongzhi le mingtian 班长说他被通知了明天 monitor said he was informed tomorrow qu nide bangongshi kaihui 去你的办公室开会。

go your office meeting "The monitor said that he was informed to go to the meeting at your office tomorrow."

In English, the pronoun he is ambiguous between a bound and free pronouns, that is, he can be the monitor or someone else salient in the context. In Chinese, ta 他 "he" also means monitor or someone else dominated by the conversation.

(3) Meimei shuo ta/ta zuotian zhong-de 妹妹 ${ }_{i}$ 说她 $\mathrm{i}_{\mathrm{i}} /$ 他 $_{\mathrm{j}}$ 昨天种的

sister said she / he yesterday planted

hua kaile

花开了。

flower bloomed.

"My sister said the flower she/he planted yesterday bloomed."

When ta "he" is used in the sentence:

$\sqrt{ }$ The flower was planted by Ge.

When $t a$ "she" is the pronoun in the sentence (3):

$\sqrt{ }$ The flower was planted by Wang.

$\sqrt{ }$ The flower was planted by my sister.

The subject sister can only have a bound pronoun she. So, he is not ambiguous. The sentence with he has only one meaning. On the other hand, she is ambiguous and can be bound by the agent my sister:

The personal pronouns you and my are shiftable. The interpretation of my depends on you.

If [you] means [speaker], then [my] means [Li];

If [you] means [Wang], then [my] means [speaker]:

## 3. Tense Adverbs

(5) Zuotian Li shuo wo qiantian 昨天, 李说我前天

Yesterday Li said I the day before yesterday zhongde hua kaile

种的花开了

planted flower bloomed

"Yesterday, Li said the flower I planted the day before yesterday bloomed."

In English, tense adverbs, like yesterday, the day before yesterday, tomorrow etc. are not shiftable even when there is another tense adverb in the sentence. In Chinese, in (5), qiantian "the day before yesterday" can only mean "two days ago from now", and can not mean "two days ago from 'yesterday'.

$\sqrt{ }$ The flower was planted 2 days ago (from now)

* The flower was planted 3 days ago (from now)
(6) Banzhang shuo ta bei tongzhi-le mingtian monitor said he was informed tomorrow qu ni-de bangongshi kaihui

去你的办公室开会。

go your office meeting

Even though, in English, tomorrow cannot be shifted, in Chinese the reference of 明天 "tomorrow" is dominated by the timing of conversation.

(7) Li gangcai shuo Wu xianzai dei qu

李刚才说武现在得去

Li just said $\mathrm{Wu}$ now have to go to

laoshi-de bangongshi

老师的办公室

teacher's office.

"Li just said Wu have to go to teacher's office now."

$\sqrt{ }$ Wu have to go to teacher's office 3 minutes ago.

$\sqrt{ }$ Wu have to go to teacher's office right now.

Now is shifted by just in (7). Just means a past time, but not a very long time ago, i.e., 3 minutes ago. In contract, now means the time speaker said this sentence.

(8) Li shangzhouyi zaoshang shuo ta xianzai 李上周一早上说他现在

Li last Monday morning said he now

zai da lanqiu

在打篮球

Is playing basketball.

"Last Monday morning, Li said he was playing basketball now."

$\sqrt{ }$ Li was playing basketball last Monday’s morning.

* Li is playing basketball now.

Now only means last Monday morning

## 4. Location

(9) $\mathrm{Li}$ shuo ta zuotian zai zhe zhongde

李说他昨天在这种的

Li said he yesterday here planted

Hua kai-le

花开了

flower bloomed.

"Li said the flower he planted here bloomed."

$\sqrt{ }$ Li planted flower in my balcony.
* Li planted flower in his balcony.

Here can only mean the place the speaker is standing now. (If the speaker standing in my balcony now, the conversation happened in Li's balcony).

## 5. Conclusion:

For pronouns, words like $I$, you, me, he, his, can be ambiguous and determined by context in Chinese.

As for tense adverbs, words like yesterday, tomorrow, are shiftable when there is another tense adverb in the sentence may be shifted in Chinese.

Location adverbs like here and there are shiftable in Chinese.

## References

[1] Anand, Pranav and Andrew Nevins. 2004. Shifty Operators in Changing Contexts. R. Young (ed), SALT XIV 20-37, Ithaca, 2004. [2]Chierchia, Gennaro. 1989. Anaphora and Attitudes De Se. R. Bartsch, J. van Benthem, and B. van Emde (eds.) Language in context. Dordrecht: Foris.

[3]Cresswell, Maxwell J. 1985. Structured meanings: The semantics of propositional attitudes. MIT Press.

[4] Frajzyngier, Zygmunt. 1993. A grammar of Mupun. Dietrich Reimer Verlag.

[5]Heim, Irene, and Angelika Kratzer. 1998. Semantics in generative grammar. Blackwell.

[6]Hyman, Larry. 1979. Aghem Grammatical Structure. Southern California Occasional Papers in Linguistics 7

[7]Yang, Lili. 2020. The Change of "I" Perspective and Empathy in Indirect Speech. Soochow University College of Arts Central China Academic 2020,13(02)