自分・じぶん (2)

Pronoun (Basic ㊦ 161)

A reflexive pronoun that refers (back) to a human subject, the referent of which is contrasted with someone else.

Equivalent: ~ self; own

日本人は自分の国の文化をユニークだと思っている・います。: The Japanese think that their country's culture is unique.
メアリーは自分で何でもする・します。: Mary does everything by herself.
一男は自分を励ました・励ましました。: Kazuo braced himself.
自分を知ることが一番難しい。: To know yourself is the hardest.
マイクはいつも自分の寮の部屋で勉強している。: Mike is always studying in his own dorm room.
小林は自分からしたいと言った。: Kobayashi voluntarily (literally: from himself) said that he wanted to do it.
先生はご自分の家で私に会って下さった。: The professor kindly met me at his own house.

Notes

自分 is a contrastive marker if at least one of the following three conditions is met:

(1) its referent is an agent (as in Key Sentences (B), (C), Examples (b), (c) and (d)).
(2) the subject is generic (as in Key Sentences (A) and Example (a)).
(3) 自分 cannot be replaced by an implicit third person pronoun (Ø) or by an explicit third person pronoun (such as 彼 'he' and 彼女 'her').

Key Sentence (C) satisfies the condition (3), because if 自分 is replaced by Ø or 彼 'he', the meaning of the sentence changes into 'Kazuo encouraged him.'

【Related Expression】

自分 is 自分1 if the referent does not satisfy any of the three conditions given in Note; if it satisfies at least one of them it is 自分2.