Beyond the deferential view of the Chinese V pronoun nin 您

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we revisit the long-held assumption that the Chinese second-person V pronoun nin 您 is an essentially ‘deferential’ pronoun. We examine uses of nin in settings where disagreement occurs and where conventionally the T pronoun ni would be preferred. Our research follows a bipartite design. First, we used a Discourse Completion Test to discover under what circumstances Chinese speakers use nin if disagreement emerges. The results revealed that uses of nin in disagreements are preferred in informal computer-mediated communication and by members of the younger generation. Second, based on this outcome we examined naturally occurring uses of nin in online data featuring disagreement. Here we relied on an interactional approach, which helped us to identify patterns of uses of nin. The existence of patterns in seemingly ad hoc occurrences of online disagreement shows that expressing deference is not the only pragmatic function of nin.