汉语女性第三人称指代词 “她”字的发展、使用和教学

第三人称指代词的基本功能是替代一个实体专用名词，避免表述的累赘重复。在1919年新文化运动之前，汉语中的“他”一直是一个中性第三人称指代词，既可指代男性,也可指代女性, 还可指代一切其他事物。汉语女性第三人称指代词的 “她” 直到二十世纪早期才出现。在现代社会中，“她” 字笔画简单，运用易教易学，但是为人所忽略的是由人字旁的“他”到女字旁的“她”紧密联系着近代中国社会和语言的变化。本文旨在结合文化史、语言学和语言认知来描述女性第三人称指代词在书面语、口语中的发展。通过讨论中国早期作品中关于女性人物的叙述，分析新文化运动后“她”字的产生、确立和使用，作者认为在现代汉语中，“她”字的存在，不仅可以避免专用名词的累赘重复，还能够降低第三人称代词在文本中回指关系的模糊性。然而，在汉语教学中，由于汉语省略主语和中性“他”在近现代汉语指代范围不清的特点，汉语学习者时不时在阅读和写作中有第三人称指代对象模糊现象。因此，汉语老师需要在教学实践中帮助学生特别厘清“他”与“她”的指代关系。

The basic function of personal pronouns is to replace the use of a substantive noun and avoid repetition. Until the New Culture Movement in 1919, “ta” (他) in Mandarin Chinese was a neutral pronoun, which could refer to a male, female, or any non-human things. The female third-person pronoun did not appear until the early 20th century. In modern society, although the use of female “ta” (她) is frequent and easy, the third personal female pronoun deeply embodies the revolution of Chinese language and society. Combining the fields of cultural history, linguistics, and language acquisition, this article discusses the evolution of “她” in both written and oral Chinese. Through tracing how “她” was created, established, and used, the authors argue that the existence and use of “她,” beyond avoiding repetition of a substantive proper noun, help to decrease the ambiguity of anaphoric reference. In pedagogical practice, learners who study Chinese as a second language often confuse the subject of a chain of sentences. This is because Chinese typically drops the subject, and the third-person pronoun “他”was gender neutral before early modern China. Therefore, Chinese language instructors need to particularly assist students to clarify the third-person male and female pronoun references in passages.