Empathy, logophoricity and the nature of Chinese long-distance reflexive ziji

Abstract In this paper, we explore an explanatory theory for the Long-Distance Reflexive (LDR) ziji in Chinese from the semantic-pragmatic perspective. Although it is generally held that LDR ziji has the properties of de se interpretation, subject-orientation and the blocking effect, we discover some of its novel characteristics such as the possible non- de se readings in attitude reports, the backward binding phenomenon in extensional contexts, and in addition the blocking effect induced by the second person pronoun ni ‘you’ in sentences with the first person matrix subject wo ‘I’ which cannot be readily captured under the previous accounts. In the spirit of the empathy account originally due to Kuno and his colleagues ( Kuno 1987 ; Kuno & Kaburaki 1977 ), we propose a new empathy-based account of LDR ziji . Our main claim is this: LDR ziji is always an anaphor with the empathy requirement such that it requires the speaker to empathize with its referent in both intensional and extensional contexts; and in intensional contexts, it also tends to be a de se anaphor, or logophoric, though there are exceptions in some particular cases, e.g., indirect speech. In our account, we demonstrate that the distribution and properties of LDR ziji can receive a plausible explanation by resorting to a series of empathy constraints ( Kuno 1987 ; Oshima 2007b ) as well as its nature as the objective-self projection ( Hirose 2002 , 2014 ). Finally, comparing Chinese LDR ziji with Japanese LDR zibun , we point out the different pragmatic effects on them.