reflexives in subject position

[David Gil]

In Riau Indonesian, in a simple reflexive construction involving a
participant (eg. _Ali_), an activity (eg. _tembak_ "shoot"), and a
marker of reflexivity (eg. _sendiri_), each of the 6 logically possible
linear orders is grammatical, with the same basic meaning ("Ali shot
himself"):

(1) Ali tembak sendiri
(2) Sendiri tembak Ali
(3) Tembak Ali sendiri
(4) Tembak sendiri Ali
(5) Ali sendiri tembak
(6) Sendiri Ali tembak

So on the face of things it certainly looks like Riau Indonesian is a
language which might have reflexives in subject position.

However, appearances can be deceiving, and -- as argued in a number of
recent articles -- a more detailed analysis of the facts suggests that
(a) Riau Indonesian has no well-defined notion of subject; and (b)
_sendiri_ is actually not a reflexive anaphor but rather a "focus" or
"conjunctive operator" more akin to English expressions such as _only_
or _alone_.

All of which underscores the necessity for the comparison of
easily-observable systematic regularities across a wide range of
languages to be followed up by an in-depth analysis of individual
constructions in individual languages, in order to discover the deeper
and more general principles underlying those easily observable patterns.

David Gil