No subject

[Nino Amiridze]

      Dear Prof. Myhill,

>I guess I could better sum up my question by saying:
>Can the `reflexive' be used when there is NO coreference in the same sentence
>at all?
Yes, it is possible.
In Georgian the grammaticalized body-part noun for 'head' tav- preceded by
a possessive pronoun (POSS + tav-) can be used to express not only
reflexive action (see (1) but also the cases when none of the pairs of
arguments of the verb are coreferential (see (2):
(1) me      šen      chem-s    tav-s           gixat'av
  I(NOM)  you(DAT)   my(DAT)  head(DAT)   I-draw-him-for-you
                   'I draw myself for you'
(2) šen     mas     chem-s    tav-s    / *  me           uxat'av
  you(NOM) he(DAT)  my(DAT)  head(DAT) /  I(DAT)   you-draw-him-for-him
                        'You draw me for him'
The latter use (called object camouflage in literature (see Alice c.
Harris, Georgian Syntax, 1981, Cambridge University Press) is not anaphoric
as it has no antecedent within the clause. Neither it is logophoric since
the phrase refers to nothing else but the direct object argument of the
given verb. The thing is that the reflexive phrases are always
cross-referenced in the finite verb form as 3rd person items (see (6),
(7)), whatever person of the antecedent. They trigger 3rd person agreement
even in the cases of object camouflage. That is why the use of personal
pronouns instead of the phrases POSS + tav- is ungrammatical as, for
instance, the 1st/2nd personal pronouns will not be able to trigger 3rd
person agreement (see (7)).

But I think it has nothing to do with subject reflexives.

Sincerely,

    Nino Amiridze