Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics

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Personal Pronouns
(4,047 words)

1. Introduction

This paper discusses the forms and usages of personal pronouns across Chinese dialects. We will provide a brief overview on the diachronic development of pronouns, forms of pronouns across modern dialects, and usages of pronouns in Mandarin and Cantonese.

2. Diachronic Development

The discussion in this section is mainly taken from Pulleyblank (1995) and Norman (1988).

2.1 First-person

There are two series of first-person pronouns…

Cite this page
Joanna SIO, “Personal Pronouns”, in: Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics, General Editor Rint Sybesma. Consulted online on 04 June 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2210-7363_ecll_COM_00000343>
First published online: 2015



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