Why is 自分 used instead of 私?

Question

For example:

自分の名前が呼ばれたとき、私は自分の耳を疑った。
I couldn't believe my ears when I heard my name called.

Would it be appropriate if I said 私? When is it appropriate to use 自分? What is the difference?

Answer 1

While the pronoun 私 has its own referent, meaning I, 自分 (in the Tokyo dialect) does not have its own referent, and it means self. That is the difference.

In this case, it will be somewhat redundant if you use 私 in place of 自分 because there will be two different instances of the pronoun 私 referring to the same thing:

私 の名前が呼ばれたとき、 私 は自分の耳を疑った。

If you have 自分 in the adverbial-clause 自分の...とき,

自分 の名前が呼ばれたとき、 私 は自分の耳を疑った。

then, there will be only one instance of 私, and 自分 can anaphorically receive the referent from 私. That is more "economical" from a linguistic point of view, and is preferrable.

An analogy in English (not be taken so strict, due to the difference between the languages; in fact, there is a categorical difference) is the fact that

When John's name was called, John could not believe what he heard.

sounds somewhat redundant, and

When his name was called, John could not believe what he heard.

is preferrable.