Review article
https://doi.org/10.22210/strjez/52-2/3
Honorific shimu (师母) in Chinese
Bojana Pavlović
orcid.org/0000-0003-3409-911X
; Faculty of Philology, University of Banja Luka
Abstract
The noun shimu (师母 ‘ teacher’s wife’) is defined in Chinese as a so-called honorific, i.e., chengweiyu (称谓语), one of many honorifics used in academic and educational contexts. We analyze this word through Chinese philology (wenzixue, 文字学), that is, the science of written language and characters, and through anthropological linguistics. The use of honorifics in Chinese culture is based on the Chinese concept of politeness, Confucian philosophy, and the understanding of hierarchy in Chinese society. In the end, we give a brief overview of the need to learn and acquire certain pragmatic (as well as anthropolinguistic) information about the honorific shimu (师母) when learning Chinese as a foreign language (some of this information is applicable in the use of other honorifics in the Chinese language). We also provide a short review of how this honorific is viewed in scholarship on Chinese culture, traditionally, and in modern Chinese society (especially in the context of the use of gender-sensitive language), as well as a short analysis of the frequency of use of the honorific shimu, based on examples from BCC, a contemporary Chinese corpus developed by the Beijing Language and Culture University.
Keywords
Chinese language; honorifics in the Chinese language; Chinese philology; honorific shimu (师母); anthropological linguistics
Hrčak ID:
313064
URI
Publication date:
28.12.2023.
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