<div style="line-height:1.7;color:#000000;font-size:14px;font-family:Arial"><div style="margin: 0;">Dear Ian,</div><div style="margin: 0;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0;">Thank you for the question, here's the example agian,</div><div style="margin: 0;"><div style="margin: 0px;">我把這東西送給人家。</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><div>Wo ba zhe dongxi song gei renjia</div><div>1SG ACC this thing send BEN someone</div></div></div><div style="margin: 0;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0;">"我把這東西送給人家" will fail to be felicitous IF it not in a context such that <i>renjia </i>is the justified receiver, beneficiary, or lawful creditor. </div><div style="margin: 0;">That is why '*我真想给人家一个耳光 ( i want to give <i>renjia </i>one slap on the face)' is totally absurd.</div><div style="margin: 0;">That is why '你必须给人家道歉(you must apologize to renjia)' is good and '人家必须给你道歉(Renjia must apologize to you)' is bad.</div><div style="margin: 0;">Renjia is never subject to any duty, obligation, necessary condition, submission.</div><div style="margin: 0;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0;"><br></div><p style="margin: 0;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0;"><br></p><div style="position:relative;zoom:1"><p style="margin: 0">--</p><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><div><br></div><div>Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,</div><div>No.5 Jianguomennei Dajie, Beijing, China; 100732</div><div style="clear:both"></div></div><div id="divNeteaseMailCard"></div><p style="margin: 0;"><br></p><p>在 2022-07-05 11:06:39，"JOO, Ian [Student]" <ian.joo@connect.polyu.hk> 写道：</p><blockquote id="isReplyContent" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
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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