4.9: Surnames and pronouns
- Page ID
- 89626
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)| 王 | 李 | 毛 | 周 | 白 | 林 |
| 4+0 | 4+3 | 4+0 | 2+6 | 5+0 | 4+4 |
| Wáng | Lĭ | Máo | Zhōu | Bái | Lín |
| king | plum | fine hair | circle | white | woods |
The characters used for these six surnames also represent words whose meanings (written in italics above) are only very tangentially related to their surname functions.
| 姓 | 她 | 他 | 也 |
| 3+5 | 3+3 | 2+3 | 1+2 |
| xìng | tā | tā | yě |
| surname | she; her | he; him | also; too |
Notes
姓 xìng ‘surname’ and 她 tā ‘she; her’ both have 女 (which is used to write nǚ ‘female’) as ‘radical’. (Early forms of 女 are said to depict a woman crouching or kneeling.) In 姓, 女 is combined with 生 shēng ‘be born’, suggesting a notion such as ‘children are born of woman and given a surname’. 她 was created in relatively recent times as a counterpart to 他 (a contrast not represented in the spoken language). The right element of 他 and 她 was originally distinct from the graph, 也, used to write the word yě ‘too; also’; the modern identity is fortuitous, probably a result of scribal confusion. Now it causes confusion for modern students of the language.
Read aloud, beginning with 1 (and citing the number):
| 三 | 她姓毛。 | 七 | 他也姓周。 |
| 五 | 他姓李。 | 二 | 她姓王。 |
| 一 | 她姓白。 | 十 | 她也姓白 |
| 八 | 他也姓林。 | 四 | 她姓林。 |
| 九 | 她也姓毛。 | 六 | 他姓周。 |
Exercise 4.
a) The following list is out of numerical order. Read it in order, and following the information given, read out the surname and the birthday (shēngrì), along the following lines:
“Dì-yī ge: <Tā> xìng Wáng; <shēngrì ne:> yījiǔbā’èr nián, yíyuè sì rì”
| 六： | 王；1946 年 8 月 23 日 |
| 八： | 李；1981 年 6 月 8 日 |
| 三： | 毛；1979 年 10 月 29 日 |
| 九： | 周；1966 年 2 月 30 日 |
| 十： | 白；1961 年 10 月 2 日 |
| 十一： | 林；1942 年 8 月 17 日 |
| 二： | 毛；1983 年 4 月 14 日 |
| 一： | 王；1982 年 1 月 4 日 |
| 十二： | 周；1976 年 11 月 21 日 |
| 四： | 白；1959 年 9 月 21 日 |
| 七： | 林；1967 年 3 月 16 日 |
| 五： | 李；1951 年 11 月 7 日 |
b) The table can also provide data for a conversation along the following lines:
Cue: Dì-yī ge ne?
Response: Dì-yī ge: Xìng Wáng; shēngrì: yī-jiǔ-bā-èr nián, yíyuè sì hào.