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In a conversation, when the speaker wants to refer to something that has been said, should he use 「その/それ」or「あの/あれ」or「この/これ」?

Example 1

先週怖い新聞記事を見た。その/あの/この記事ではある男が人を傷つけて逃げたということが述べられていた。その/あの/この犯人はまだ見つかっていないようだ。

Example 2

先週怖い新聞記事を見た。ある男が人を傷つけて逃げたということがそれ/あれ/これ (referring to 新聞記事) に書かれていた。私はそれ/あれ/これ (referring to the whole incident) を知って夜眠れなくなった。

naruto
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vincentlin
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    Great question! I’m also wondering about this one for a while. There is a third example I want to add: which こそあ is appropriate if I want to modify the first instance of 新聞 and what about the second one?「先週 その/あの/この 怖い新聞を見た。その/あの/この 新聞は｡｡｡」 – Jimmy Yang Jun 27 '22 at 19:52
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    Not related to the question but is your first language Chinese? – aguijonazo Jun 28 '22 at 02:58
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    @JimmyYang What do you mean to say in English by "先週その怖い新聞を見た。" ? Are you referring to a newspaper already know to the listener? Otherwise it doesn't make sense to me. – mamster Jun 28 '22 at 14:58
  • @aguijonazo Yes, my native language is Chinese. – vincentlin Jun 28 '22 at 17:01
  • 新聞 in Japanese doesn't mean news like in Chinese but only physical newspaper. – aguijonazo Jun 28 '22 at 17:48
  • @mamster It might be used to grab listener’s attention and make them curious about what newspaper I’m talking about? – Jimmy Yang Jun 28 '22 at 20:01
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    I took the liberty to fix the grammar mistakes unrelated to your main concern. 新聞 does not actively speak like a human. – naruto Jun 29 '22 at 02:21
  • @naruto: Do people really say 新聞記事を[見た]{LL} instead of 「読んだ」? Seems odd to me. – istrasci Jun 29 '22 at 19:47
  • @istrasci Yes they do. Perhaps 見た is more common than 読んだ. – naruto Jun 30 '22 at 00:12

1 Answers1

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Specifically in your examples, その/それ is the natural and neutral choice, but この/これ can be used, too. その/それ is often the safest choice that corresponds to English "the", "it" or "its".

あの/あれ and この/これ are chosen depending on the "psychological distance" between the speaker and the object in question. It's hard to generalize, but if the object is psychologically close only to the speaker (e.g., when it's natural to make a gesture of holding it), この/これ tends to be chosen. あれ is used to explicitly indicate there is a distance.

  • あの人とは先週会ったが、二度と会いたくない。
    I met that person a week ago, and I never want to see him again.
  • あの本の名前ってなんだっけ。先週一緒に読んだあれ。
    What's the name of that book? The one we read together last week.
  • ええ、その曲は3年前に私が作りました。これは私のお気に入りの曲です。
    Yes, I made that song three years ago, and it's my favorite.
naruto
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