Reflexivization: A Study in Universal Syntax

Abstract

course) in contrast to the English equivalent:(13) John saw a snake near him/?*himself.which is most natural with a nonreflexive pronoun, even when that pro noun is intended to he coreferent with J o h n .We could of course just collect all the contexts that are handled by reflexives in at least one language and then claim that the universal process of reflexivization is defined by that set of contexts.Then we would say that in (13) English requires a nonreflexive pronoun for this particular reflexive context, or, that in Japanese, the reflexive is lexicrlized in (<?)•However, in order to collect these reflexive con texts, we have to have a place to start.For example, how do we know that the German pronoun sich, whose required presence in (12) was inter preted as signalling a reflexive context, is in fact a reflexive pronoun?My approach will be to give an archetypical reflexive context which can be examined in any language.This context will provide the starting point for deciding what grammatical devices will be considered reflex ives in the language in question.Specifically, I assume that, given any language, we can isolate a class of simple clauses expressing a two-argument predication, the argu ments being a human agent or experiencer on the one hand and a patient on the other.Such clauses will consist of a verb, denoting the predi cate, two noun phrases, referring to the arguments, and any tense-aspect, modal, agreement, or other grammatical material required by the syntax.(Of course, one or both of the noun phrases may be reduced to a pronoun or deleted entirely (depending on the language) if the reference is ana phoric, deictic, or unspecified.)Now, if the language has a

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