The Referential Shift of Personal Pronouns and The Pragmatic Effects

张敏 刘桂红

【Abstract】In semantics， the referential shift refers to the phenomenon of form deviating from its object orientation. Many researches focus on the overall types of personal pronoun shift but seldom go further. However， this paper focuses only on the shift from the first to second pronouns， aiming to give some enlightenment， pragmatically， for the conversational participants about how to influence others intentionally by the referential shift of personal pronouns， especially from the first to second pronouns.

【Key words】referential shift; personal pronouns; pragmatic effects

【作者簡介】张敏（1993.01-）， 女，汉族，陕西汉中人，黔南民族师范学院，硕士研究生，研究方向：外语教学;刘桂红（1984.11-），女，汉族，黑龙江大庆人，黔南民族师范学院，硕士研究生，研究方向：教学理论。

1. Introduction

According to the conceptual reference model of Wang Yina （2005， 2006a）， the degree of subjectivity follows the chain：  1S>1P>2S>2P>3S>3P. Thus， along this chain， the closer to the left side the shifting direction is， the higher degree of “empathy” （Kuno， 1987：206） is. This process corresponds to the “subjectivity” （Langacker， 1987， 1990）， which shows the psychological distance between the speaker and the listener. Therefore， pragmatically， the shift from the second-pronoun references to the first-pronoun references could create the intimate personal relationship between the both conversational participants. But as for the referential shift from the first pronoun to the second pronoun， few of the researches put concentration on it. This paper， based on the referential shift framework， analyses this type of shift and its effects， which brings this type of shift under the spot light and go deeper to explore what exactly the pragmatic effects the referential shift would cause， which will be analyzed in this paper in details.

2. Discussion 

The referential shift of personal pronouns can cause different the pragmatic effects， even in the same circumstance and context.

（a）（背景：晓梅跟晓花闹了不愉快，然后正在跟闺蜜晓燕抱怨这件事。）晓梅很委屈地跟闺蜜晓燕抱怨：“哎，我简直不知道该怎么跟晓花相处了！我对她有友好点吧，她觉得我虚伪;我对她冷淡点吧，她觉得我高傲。你说，我该怎么办啊？”

（b）晓梅很委屈地跟闺蜜晓燕抱怨：“哎，我简直不知道该怎么跟晓花相处了！你对她有友好点吧，她说你虚伪;你对她冷淡点吧，她说你高傲。你说，我该怎么办啊？”

2.1 Increasing the degree of speakers objectivity

In the example（b）， “你（ni， in Pinyin）”has the same meaning with “我（wo）”. However， the impact on the listener is different. The employment of “你（ni）” to replace “我（wo）” is to intentionally expand the psychological distance between the speaker，Xiao Mei， and the role she plays in his narration， the girl who has a fight with Xiao Hua. In other words， the fact is that Xiao Mei has a quarrel with Xiao Hua， and complains her own things to Xiao Yan. But， she changes the reference from the singular first-pronoun to the singular second-pronoun， which seems that she is just representing a thing from a impersonal perspective. Thus， it increases the degree of objectivity of the speakers utterances. In that case， its easier to convince the listener to believe what the speaker says is fact. Specifically， in this example， the speaker， Xiao Meis shift of pronoun references makes the listener， Xiao Yan to tend to believe that the speaker Xiao Mei is innocent but the Xiao Yan is the wrongdoer.

2.2 Creating more psychological interaction on the listener

Also， by comparison with （a） and （b）， the latter possess the more power to arouse the enthusiasm of the listener to participant the conversation. As we usually experience in daylily life， if the speak always begins with “我（I，in English）”， we tend to think he is more self-centered and we ， the listeners ， may do not have many opportunities to interact with him. In that case， the listeners subjective initiative is lowered， which is disadvantageous for the conversation progress. Thus， the shift from the first-pronoun references to second ones would inspire the listeners subjective initiative， and further the conversation.

3. Conclusion

To conclude， the referential shift from the first-pronouns to second-pronouns would cause the effects of increasing the degree of speakers objectivity and the degree of speakers objectivity. If these principles could be employed in our conversations and writing， they could be better serve their intentions and cause the amazing pragmatic effects.

Due to the constraints of passage length， this paper does not give enough examples to be as the tough evidence to illustrate the points， which could be improved in the later researches.

References：

[1]王義娜.指称的概念参照视点：认知语篇学的探索[M].北京：外文出版社，2006a.