diff options
Diffstat (limited to '')
| -rw-r--r-- | chinese-pronouns.html | 145 |
1 files changed, 145 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/chinese-pronouns.html b/chinese-pronouns.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..612f968 --- /dev/null +++ b/chinese-pronouns.html @@ -0,0 +1,145 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8" /> + <title>Reclaiming "他" as a gender-inclusive pronoun</title> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="./style.css" /> + <link rel="icon" href="./favicon.ico" sizes="any" /> + <!--link rel="icon" href="./icon.svg" type="image/svg+xml" / --> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> + <meta name="theme-color" content="#241504" /> + <meta name="color-scheme" content="light dark"> + +</head> +<body> +<header> + <h1>Reclaiming "他" as a gender-inclusive pronoun</h1> +</header> + +<article> + <p> + <a href="#en">English</a> <a href="#zh">中文</a> + </p> + <section id="en"> +<p>tl;dr: "他" uses the "人" (person) radical, and should cover all +people, because not all people are male.</p> +<p>In contemporary English, the traditional plural pronoun "they" is +often used as a gender-inclusive singular pronoun, alongside the +feminine singular "she" and the masculine singular "he". However, there +is no equivalent in Chinese. "他" is considered a masculine pronouns in +contemporary Chinese, despite its "人" radical and its history of +traditionally being a gender-inclusive pronoun until the 1920s. This +article argues for the reclaiming of "他" as a gender-inclusive +pronoun.</p> +<p>Prior to the May Fourth Movement and the broader New Culture +Movement, "他" was a generic pronoun for all entities, including people +of any gender, and inanimate objects. In the movements’ efforts to +"modernize" the Chinese language and culture, a separate feminine +pronoun "她" was created by the poet and linguist 刘半农, becoming an +established linguistic norm after the Chinese Civil War. (A separate +"它" was created for inanimate objects; however this has little +relevance to the arguments in this article.)</p> +<p>A distinct feminine pronoun "她" along with "他" being a masculine +pronoun poses three problems: (1) the annoyances caused by the lack of a +inclusive placeholder pronoun, (2) the reinforcement of gender binary +normatives and the lack of a neutral pronoun, and (3) the +marginalization of the feminine from the concept of personhood.</p> +<p>When referring to a placeholder of unknown gender in contemporary +English, singular they pronouns are often used, such as in "someone left +their laptop here". Such colloquial conversations are generally +unproblematic as all normative third-person pronouns in Mandarin sound +the same: tā. However, in written contexts, many use "他/她" resembling +"he/she". Aside from how this reinforces gender binary and alienates +women (see the next two paragraphs), it is visually unappealing (as +half-width slashes look particularly distinct from full-width CJK +ideographs and break typographical uniformity) and adds unnecessary +syntactic sugar.</p> +<p>Individuals who are not comfortable with any gendered pronoun +often prefer singular they pronouns. (I do not wish to turn +this article into a detailed discussion of non-binary gender, please +read Leah Rowe’s article "<a +href="https://vimuser.org/pronouns.html">Better respect for non-binary +people, in defense of human rights</a>" if this concept seems +unfamiliar.) The status quo of "她" being solely a feminine pronoun and +"他" being solely a masculine pronoun reinforces gender binary and +leaves no gender-neutral/inclusive pronoun for non-binary people who +would prefer such pronouns.</p> +<p>The more fundamental issue with "他" as a masculine pronoun lies in +its character composition and etymology. "他" is a compound character +consisting of a "人" (person) radical and "也", while "她" consists of a +"女" (female) radical and "也". Limiting "他" as a male pronoun assumes +the male gender as dominant in "people", and marginalizes other genders, +most prominently the female gender, as groups distinct from "people". +This aligns with the development of the "她" pronoun as a distinct +subset of what used to be covered by "他". I believe that a character’s +composition should not be deceptive to its meaning, and therefore, the +"他" with the "人" radical should describe any person, not just any male +person.</p> +<p>While I believe that "他" should be truly gender inclusive, its current +masculine standing does make it similar to +<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_neutrality_in_languages_with_gendered_third-person_pronouns#Generic_he">Generic he</a> +to some extent. I dislike generic he as it reflects bias towards men, but +an inclusive "他" does carry these risks. Therefore I propose that +those who prefer a unique masculine pronoun may choose to use one +with a "男" (male) radical instead. While "男也" (read that as one character) has not been given a +Unicode code-point yet, I find this solution to be much more ideal than +stereotypical generalizations with "他".</p> +<p> +Please share your thoughts. +</p> + +</section> +<section id="zh"> +<p> +<b> +将"他"恢复为性别包容性代词 +</b> +</p> + +<p> +一句话："他"字的偏旁为单人旁，应该要涵盖所有人，因为并非所有人皆为男性。 +</p> + +<p> +现代英语中，传统的复数代词 "they" 常用作性别包容的单数代词，伴以 "she" 作阴性单数代词及 "he" 作阳性单数代词。然而，汉语中却没有等效的词语。现代汉语将"他"视为阳性代词，尽管其偏旁为单人旁，且在二十世纪二十年代以前，其曾有过用作性别包容性代词的历史。本文的论点为，将"他"恢复为性别包容性代词。 +</p> + +<p> +在五四运动及更为广泛的新文化运动以前，"他"曾通用作所有实体的代词，包括任何性别的人，及无生命的物体。这场运动为中国语言和文化的"现代化"做出了许多努力，其中之一就是单独创造了一个阴性代词 "她"。这个字由诗人、语言学家刘半农创造，并在国共内战后成为了公认的语言规范。（对无生命的物体，也创造了一个单独的"它"；但这与本文的论点无关。） +</p> + +<p> +在"他"作阳性代词时，分立阴性代词"她"，引发了三个问题：（1）因缺乏包容性占位代词而产生的困扰，（2）强化了性别二元规范，缺少了中性代词，及（3）将女性在人格概念中边缘化。 +</p> + +<p> +现代英语中，常常使用单数 they 代词来充当未知性别的占位词，例如 "someone left their laptop here"。这种口头对话一般不会出现问题，因为普通话中所有规范的第三人称代词发音都相同：tā。然而，在书面语中，许多人会像 "he/she" 一样使用 "他/她"。除了强化了性别二元论、排斥了女性（见后两段）外，这在视觉上也不显美观（在全角 CJK 象形文字中插入半角斜杆尤显突兀，且破坏了排版的一致性），还添加了不必要的语法糖。 +</p> + +<p> +有些人并不喜欢分性别代词（我在这个 commit 前亦是如此），所以他们常偏向使用单数 they 代词。（我无意图在本文详细讨论非二元性别，如果你不熟悉这个概念，请阅读 Leah Rowe 的文章 "Better respect for non-binary people, in defense of human rights"）"她"单独用作阴性代词，同时"他"单独用作阳性代词，这种现状强化了性别二元论，并使得偏好性别中性或性别包容性代词的人无法使用这类代词。 +</p> + +<p> +将"他"用作阳性代词，更为关键的问题在于这个字的组成及词源。"他"字由单人旁和"也"组成，而"她"字由女字旁和"也"组成。将"他"限定为男性代词，假定了男性在"人"中占了主导地位，同时还将其他性别（最明显的是女性）边缘化，将其视作有别于"人"的群体。自从原本被"他"涵盖的这个子集有了单独的代词"她"，前述问题也随着这个代词的发展而发展。我认为，一个字的构成不应该欺骗它的含义，因此，单人旁的"他"应该用于描述任何人，而不仅仅是任何男性。 +</p> + +<p> +虽然我认为"他"应该要具有真正的性别包容性，但这个词目前男性化的程度，使得它在某种程度上类似于将 he 通用化了。我并不喜欢通用化的"他"，因为这体现了对男性的偏见，但包容性的"他"确实也有这些风险。因此，我提议，偏好使用单独的阳性代词的人，可以转而选择一个有男字旁的字。虽然"男也"（读成一个字）目前还没有 Unicode 码点，但比起刻板地将"他"字一般化，我认为这才是更加理想的解决方案。 +</p> + +<p> +This Chinese translation was translated from the <a href="#en">English original</a> by <a href="https://peaksol.org/">Peaksol</a>. Thanks! +</p> +</section> +</article> + +<footer> + <ul role="list"> + <li><a href="./">Home</a></li> + <li>Runxi Yu</li> + <li><a rel="license" href="./pubdom.html">Public Domain</a></li> + </ul> +</footer> +</body> +</html> |