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Dear Zhengda,
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<div>I never had the impression that renja had some power connotation - could you provide an example?</div>
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<div>For example,</div>
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<div>我把這東西送給人家。</div>
<div>Wo ba zhe dongxi song gei renjia</div>
<div>1SG ACC this thing send BEN someone</div>
<div>‘I will give this to someone.’</div>
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<div>In this phrase renjia simply means ‘someone’, with no connotation to power.</div>
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<div>Regards,</div>
<div>Ian<br>
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<blockquote type="cite">05.07.2022 12:03, tangzhengda <tangzhengda@126.com> 작성:<br>
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<div style="margin:0;">Dear typologists,</div>
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<div style="margin:0;">Chinese has a commonly used pronoun <i>renjia </i>(人家,people-home), roughly referring to a third party in dialogues. Elusive as it may be, this socially deictic pronoun is used on the condition that the
<i>renjia</i>-referring person <b><i>takes a priority over</i></b> (e.g. taller, richer, more dominant, or more justified than) a reference party involved in a certain state or event, be it addressor, addressee, or other third parties. </div>
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<div style="margin:0;">It means that once <i>renjia</i> is used, the main clause predicate somewhere is obliged to ensure that
<i>renjia </i>takes the priority, which constitutes a special case of 'agreement' in some sense. </div>
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<div style="margin:0;">Brown and Gilman (1960)'s Solidarity and Power indices prove powerful in explaining T-V divisions.
<i>Renjia</i> is special in its third-party denotation. </div>
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<div style="margin:0;">May I have the honor of your remindings of some similar terms for the 'Powerful, Autonomous Other' in other languages, or some literature.</div>
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<div style="margin:0;">Many thanks,</div>
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<div style="margin:0;">Zhengda</div>
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<div>唐正大</div>
<div>中国社会科学院语言研究所《中国语文》编辑部</div>
<div>北京市建国门内大街5号,100732</div>
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<div>Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,</div>
<div>No.5 Jianguomennei Dajie, Beijing, China; 100732</div>
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