reflexives in subject position

[Nino Amiridze]

>Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2000 15:47:40 +0100
>To: FUNKNET at LISTSERV.RICE.EDU
>From: Nino Amiridze <Nino.Amiridze at let.uu.nl>
>Subject: reflexives in subject position
>
>    Dear colleagues,
>
>I would really appreciate it if you could give me any references on
reflexives in subject position. Or perhaps any of you know a language(s)
allowing reflexives in subject position.
>
>My native language Georgian besides the "normal" reflexivization
>
>(1) prezident-ma       ixsna         tavis-i    tav-i
>    president-erg   he-saved-him   self's-nom  head-nom
>          "The president saved himself"
>
>allows subject reflexives as well:
>
>(2) tavis-ma     tav-ma       ixsna        president-i
>   self's-erg   head-erg   he-saved-him   president-nom
>(a) "It was the president who saved himself, no one else is responsible
for saving him" (emphatic reading);
>(b) "The president was out of the hard situation only because of himself
(his past doings, personal charm, etc.) but he could not even
imagine/know/accounted for that" (non-volitional reading).
>
>The sentence is ambiguous between the (a) and (b) readings. It can have
either of them but not both at the same time.
>
>The reflexive phrase in (2) has an ergative case marker and functions as
subject just like as the ergative noun phrase in (3):
>
>(3) mcvel-ma       ixsna      president-i
>   guard-erg   he-saved-him   president-nom
>      "The guard saved the president"
>
>It has to be noted that in (2) there are other meanings (emphatic and
non-volitional) more central than reflexive one. Of course, there is a
reflexive semantics there in (2) but normally no one pronounces it when one
needs to express only reflexive meaning. For expressing reflexivity (1) is
quite all right.
>
>Thank you very much.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>    Nino Amiridze
>