Reflexive Verbs

"This dissertation is about the elements that build verbs, the elements that introduce arguments, and how these elements interact to determine the interpretation of arguments and events. A theory of argument structure is a theory how arguments are introduced syntactically, interpreted semantically, and marked morphologically, and how this information is linked to predicates and their morphological shape. Through a detailed empirical study of Icelandic verbal alternations, this dissertation contributes to a line of research in which much of the work of argument structure is handled by the syntax, the component of language responsible for combining elements into larger structures, rather than a pre-syntactic lexicon.

The major theoretical contribution of this thesis is a syntactic theory of argument structure which is much more syntactically autonomous than its closest relatives. The system proposed shares with construction-based approaches to argument structure the assumption that structures generate meanings independent of the lexical roots embedded in them. That is, lexical roots play a secondary role in effecting argument structures. However, it differs from most syntactic approaches in that the syntax is far less deterministic of semantics, much as late insertion theories of morphology take syntax to underdetermine morphophonology.

In the present theory, syntactic structure may underdetermine interpretation in three ways. First, a functional head may be compatible with multiple ‘allosemes’, or denotations, which are decided post-syntactically on the basis of surrounding material. The categorial v head, for example, may have the interpretation of an activity or a cause (among other possible interpretations), depending on the interpretation of its complement. Second, a DP may be interpreted as an entity, or may be type-shifted to be interpreted as a (stative) eventuality. Third, a lexical root is associated with a web of possible semantic contributions, but the selection from among them is made on the basis of surrounding structure, after such structure has been built."

Chapter overview: preliminaries; Middle as a cluster of deagentivized (Intransitivized) syntactic patterns; Middle types/patterns; Middle voice in Indo-European and beyond: The range of variation; Middle and reflexive in a diachronic perspective
Concluding terminological remarks: Reflexive sensu stricto vs.
"reflexive" as a cover term

В статье рассматривается функционирование в чешском языке специфического типа славянских рефлексивных конструкций, общие контуры изучения которых были намечены Р. Мразеком, определившим их в работе 1971 г. как «реляционные», или «диспозиционные» (relační / dispoziční). Указанные кон- струкции, в интерпретации исследователя, обозначают то или иное оценочное отношение говорящего к действию, причем «агенс становится по сути дела носителем этого отношения, т.е. в известном смысле пациенсом, объектом» (Mrázek 1971:119). Такой семантический субъект-агенс зачастую выражается предметным именем в дательном падеже; другой характерной чертой является распространение большинства рассматриваемых конструкций адвербиальными квалификаторами типа dobře / špatně ‘хорошо / плохо’, lehce / těžce ‘легко / тяжело’ и т.п.

The object of analysis is a special type of reflexive constructions in Modern Czech. This type is constructed by the reflexive verbal form, the dative form of a noun or pronoun and an adverbial qualifier: Žije se mi dobře (impersonal construction); Písnička se mi zpívá dobře (personal construction).

Резюме. В работе сопоставляются два основных подхода, используемых при семантическом анализе и классификации русских рефлексивных глаголов: «логический», при котором рефлексивные глаголы рассматриваются и классифицируются сами по себе, и «деривационный», при котором такие глаголы рассматриваются в связи с теми семантическими и синтаксическими отношениями, которые устанавливаются между самими этими глаголами и производящими нерефлексивными глаголами. Показывается, что, несмотря на то, что в современных исследованиях второй подход стал преобладающим, в рамках антропоцентрического построения грамматического описания «логический» анализ позволяет заметить важные закономерности функционировния рефлексивных глаголов. В качестве иллюстративной базы используются речевые ошибки, допускаемые носителями русского языка, некоторые диахронические процессы, касающиеся рефлексивных глаголов и др.

In this paper I provide a description of the reflexive syncretism found in some Spanish and Catalan neighbouring varieties. In these varieties, the 3rd person reflexive pronoun se can also appear with 1st person plural and 2nd person plural verbs. With dialectal data from the Audible and Spoken Corpus of Rural Spanish (COSER), the Linguistic Atlas of the Iberian Peninsula (ALPI) and from works of other scholars I analyse the distribution of the syncretism in order to establish what person (the 1st plural or the 2nd plural) it affected first. I also analyse this syncretism in other Romance languages, in order to see if the person hierarchies previously proposed in the literature are confirmed by these varieties.

L'articolo analizza l'uso del riflessivo all'interno di un manuale di economia in lingua tedesca edito nel 2015 in sedicesima edizione e adottato in molti corsi universitari germanofoni. Dopo alcune considerazioni generali su come la più autorevole linguistica contemporanea, sia tedesca che italiana, affronta la forma riflessiva, si delinea il campo di indagine: all'interno del corpus prescelto sono considerate tutte le forme verbali collegate al pronome riflessivo. Si passa poi alla disamina dei verbi utilizzati raggruppandoli a seconda della reggenza e delle caratteristiche semantiche. Queste ultime in particolare svelano l'opportunità di rimeditare la diatesi media del greco antico. La forma media infatti si rivela tuttora un'utile categoria per una migliore comprensione del riflessivo, che altrimenti appare piuttosto farraginoso e difficilmente riconducibile a un pensiero coerente. A partire da questi aspetti semantici, sono poi messi in luce alcuni nessi con il passivo e sono proposte alcune possibilità traduttive di forme le quali, a causa delle sottili sfumature rivelate dal riflessivo, sfuggono a criteri unitari e utilizzabili in modo costante. Parole chiave: diatesi riflessiva in tedesco, verbo riflessivo nei testi di economia, problemi traduttivi della forma riflessiva dal tedesco vs. italiano Abstract The article analyzes the use of reflexive in a German handbook for Economics published in 2015 (16. ed.) and adopted in many university courses. After some general considerations on how the most authoritative contemporary scholars, both German and Italian, consider the reflexive form, the field of investigation is clarified: all the verbal forms connected to the reflexive pronoun are considered. We then move on to the examination of the verbs actually used in the corpus, grouping them according to the regency and the semantic characteristics. The latter in particular reveal the opportunity to refer to the middle voice of the ancient Greek. In fact, the middle voice is still a useful category for a better understanding of the reflexive, which otherwise appears rather cumbersome and unable to be subsumed under a coherent thought. Starting from these semantic aspects, some connections with the passive voice are highlighted and some translation possibilities are proposed which, due to the subtle nuances revealed by the reflective, escape uniform criteria of translation (especially automatic one).

Się w gramatykach języka polskiego jest najczęściej charakteryzowane jako zaimek zwrotny [Drogosz 2008, s. 40–56]. Niemniej jednak, się jest często używane w sytuacjach, w których semantyczna zwrotność wcale nie występuje. W tej pracy się scharakteryzowane zostanie jako wyznacznik nie strony zwrotnej, lecz strony medialnej, co odbiega znacznie od opisów tradycyjnych, w których strony medialnej albo nie wymienia się w ogóle, albo traktuje się ją jako przypadek marginalny. Największy nacisk w pracy położony został na użycia strony medialnej, które służą usunięciu wykonawcy czynności z pojmowanej sceny i, jako takie, mogą się zaliczać do pewnego rodzaju konstrukcji bezosobowych.

L2 acquisition of reflexive verbs in Slavic languages is a challenging issue. There is much more variation in form and meaning as compared to such languages, as English, German, or French. While Polish, for example, uses a reflexive particle siẹ that has a high sonority value and can be freely placed in a sentence, Russian uses a reflexive suffix which is placed directly after the finite verb ending and has two articulatorily reduced variants -sja and -s’ which depend on the phonological context. Previous research showed that perceptual salience, morphophonological regularity, semantic complexity, and frequency significantly contribute to a successful acquisition of morphemes (Goldschneider & DeKeyser 2001). Although Polish and Russian are similar with respect to semantic categories and functions of reflexive verbs, these cognate languages differ dramatically regarding perceptual salience and morphosyntactic regularity and predictability.
This pilot study investigates whether or not the abovementioned features are predictors in the acquisition of reflexive verbs in adult L2 Polish and Russian. We hypothesized that perception and sentence repetition would be favored by higher sonority and morphophonological uniformity of the reflexive particle (siẹ), on the one hand. On the other hand, the morphosyntactic regularity of the bound morpheme (-sja) would positively affect written production.
Two groups of Dutch first-year students learning Russian (n=10) and Polish (n=6) as L2 at the University of Amsterdam were recruited. Both groups had no previous knowledge of Russian or Polish. Russian (n=5) and Polish (n=5) native speakers were used as controls.
A sentence repetition task (SRT) was used to test comprehension and production of reflexive verbs in L2. The task consisted of a set of 15 target sentences and 10 fillers for each language, and was administered in E-prime (syllable length: 20–25). In a paper-and-pencil translation task (TT), L2 learners were given 15 Dutch sentences to test their written production. The position of the target structure in a sentence and semantic categories of reflexive verbs were taken into account. Accuracy scores were used as a measure of students’ ability to correctly produce 1) the target structure, and 2) the full sentence.
For the controls, accuracy in both tasks was almost at ceiling, whereas the Dutch-L2 groups performed significantly more poorly. In the STR, almost no difference was observed between the two languages on full sentence accuracy (33% for Polish vs. 31% for Russian). However, the results on target structure accuracy were better in Polish (61%) than in Russian (40%). In the TT, on the contrary, the L2 Russian students significantly outperformed the L2 Polish students on full sentence accuracy and scored much better on target structure accuracy (84% vs. 58%).
The results of this pilot study support the idea that perceptual salience and morphophonological regularity are relevant in acquisition of morphemes (with respect to perception and repetition), while morphosyntactic regularity (boundness) and predictability are influential in (written) production.

This article focuses on Slovenian impersonal verbal constructions and compares them
with those in other South Slavic languages. Impersonal verbal constructions comprise verbal forms in the third-person neuter that express a general agent (Sln. Delalo se je dan in noč ‘work went on day and night’) or experiencer of the state (Sln. Vrti se mi ‘I’m dizzy’).
The main message in both types remains centered on the act or condition, and therefore
reflexivity is used, which modifies the predication to some extent. A very productive type
of these constructions in Slovenian and other South Slavic languages is the type with a
general agent (e.g., Sln. Vprašal naju je, ali je res, kar se govori, da je . . . ‘He asked us
whether it was true what was being said, [namely] that . . .’). Because the precondition
for this type is an unnamed human agent, it can be concluded that the selection of verbal
meanings is limited to human activity: verbs of conscious activity strongly predominate
over verbs of state.
A special type of construction with a general agent and an accusative object is used in Slovenian and Croatian (e.g., Sln. Kavo se dobi za dva evra ‘Coffee can be bought
for two euros’), which differs from the passive proper (Sln. Kava se dobi za deset evrov) because the semantic patient is in a non-nominative case. The use of constructions with a general agent and an accusative object is especially justified from the viewpoint of making the message unambiguous, whereby with regard to an animate participant in the role of the patient a distinction is made between Sln. Otroke se preverja ‘The children are being checked (by someone)’ and Sln. Otroci se preverjajo ‘The children are being checked’.
The second type of construction studied (i.e., reflexive impersonal verbal constructions with a dative experiencer) is characterized by the fact that the dative experiencer reduces the degree of agency of the entire sentence (which is lower than in constructions with a general agent).
Russian reflexive impersonal verbal constructions with the dative (Rus. Мне сегодня тяжело работается ‘Work is difficult for me today’) express the evaluation of
the degree of success of a specific action, process, or state, which is manifested through the obligatory use of deadjectival qualitative adverbs, the negative, or the interrogative как ‘how?’. In South Slavic languages, except for Slovenian, the expression of inclination (an optative construction with an emphasized internal need) using the dative and a reflexive form of originally non-reflexive (transitive or intransitive) verbs is productive; e.g., BCS Putuje mi se ‘I feel like travelling’. Omitting the dative agent, however, changes the meaning of the construction: for example, the optative construction BCS Svako l(j)eto mi se putuje na more ‘I like to travel to the seaside every year’ instead turns into a construction with a general agent, BCS Svako l(j)eto se putuje na more ‘People travel to the seaside every year’.
The Slovenian equivalents confirm that, compared to other South Slavic languages, the dative optative construction is marginal and significantly less common in Slovenian. A
reflexive impersonal construction with an obligatory dative is active in Slovenian, denoting the agent’s uncontrolled inclination toward the state verbalized (e.g., Sln. Spi se mi ‘I’m sleepy’).

This article takes an analogy-based approach to the analysis of morphological derivation in the framework of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG), giving an account of English verbs with the prefix self-. Such self-prefixed verbs call on different lexical frames, namely one-place, two-place and two- and three-place reflexive frames. Their use stands in a complex relation with either reflexive or intensifying interpretations, or indeed both. In two-place frames, where the self-prefixed verb takes an object or other complement, that object/complement is bound by the subject. Various factors predisposing speakers to use self-prefixed verbs are considered, outlining how these relate to other self-prefixed lexemes in a network of analogical relations.

L'aspect, ne devrait pas être perçu comme un trait fonctionnel du tour passif et du tour neutre, étant donné que même des éléments syntaxiques contribuent à la généricité des énoncés au sein de ce
dernier. L'apparition du SN +humain, fortement contraint en se Neu. paraît néanmoins possible là, où le verbe remplit certaines conditions qui restent tout de même à préciser. On n ’est donc pas en droit de poser que cet élément marque une limite entre les tours subjectifs et l'emploi neutre. Il serait également erroné de voir dans se Neu un tour lexicalement homogène. D 'abord parce que certains verbes échappent à des catégorisations quelconques, deuxièmement parce que la prépondérance des verbes «aspectuellement marqués«, traditionnellement associables au tour, n ’est pas décisive.

Предметом анализа в статье являются встречающиеся случаи образования и употребления возвратных объектных форм непереходных объектных (за это платилось должностями и званиями), а иногда и безобъектных глаголов (берется ранец и идется в школу; в Париж ехалось три месяца). Рассматривается также проблема включения этих потенциальных и окказиональных образований в систему залоговых противопоставлений (значение данных форм признается пассивным, а конструкции с ними - безлично-пассивными).

Reflexive expressions used with transitive verbs convey events in which the same participant fills the agent and the patient role in the action, e.g. ‘John saw himself on TV’. Polish, like other Slavonic languages (e.g. Czech and Russian), has two markers of reflexive-like relations: się and siebie. Within cognitive linguistics Dancygier (1997) and Tabakowska (2003), in the spirit of Kemmer (1993), have argued that the heavy reflexive marker siebie encodes situations in which the agent and the patient roles are filled by the same participant and the transitive meaning is still perceivable. In contrast, the light reflexive (or middle) marker się denotes situations in which the agent and the patient merge into one entity — it has a role-neutralising function (Dąbrowska 1997: 325). The distinction between heavy and light reflexives explains a large portion of the variation in linguistic data. Nevertheless, in some types of contexts the choice of pronoun appears arbitrary — especially with verbs of emotion (kochać ‘love’, nienawidzić ‘hate’, etc.) and sensory perception (widzieć ‘see’, słyszeć ‘hear’, obserwować ‘observe’, etc.). On the cognitive linguistic tenet that a difference in form entails a difference in meaning, the choice of the marker should be motivated (Langacker 1987: 294). In fact, native speakers of Polish acquire these markers felicitously and use them in a non-random way. I will test the hypothesis that some more typical contexts exist for these verbs and on the basis of these contexts speakers build up a prototypical use for each marker. To establish the factors that determine the choice of the marker with these verbs, I conduct a corpus analysis based on data drawn from the ~7.8bn words plTenTen corpus. 250 independent examples of each construction are extracted and annotated: a Behavioral Profile-type analysis (Divjak & Gries 2006) that captures morphosyntactic, syntactic and semantic properties is supplemented with information on discourse coherence and event construal. A binary logistic regression model is fit to the data. Preliminary results suggest that the key factors which influence the choice of się versus siebie are negation, the number of participants in the discourse as well as the temporal or spatial distance between the agent and the patient of the action denoted by the verb. The latter two factors go beyond clauses or sentences and function on the discourse level. Moreover, even though these factors significantly affect the selection of the marker, they do not predict or explain the choice in all contexts. I will argue that the choice made by the speaker affords a different perspective of the situation described. This finding lends support to the hypothesis that speakers build up a prototypical usage of lexeme on the basis of multiple exemplars that share similar contexts and they infer this information even if the context does not constrain the choice (Divjak & Arppe 2013: 252).

... Middle Indo-Aryan witnesses the rise of double causatives, and in some New Indo-Aryanlanguages the system of causatives may include as many as tlrree members. ... Page 10. Bridgingtypology and diachrony ... 145 4. Methodology: diachronic typological questionnaires ...