reflexives in subject position

[Wolfgang Schulze]

Dear Nino,

you asked:

> 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.
>

I guess you will receive a considerable number of positive answers
referring to East Caucasian. In fact I think that the use of reflexives
in 'subject' position is documented in many (if not most) of these
languages. Let me just quote three examples from Udi (South East
Caucasian):

(1)    ich Baqi-x kar-re-xa
        REFL:ABS Baku-DAT2 live-3SG:S-LV-INTRANS:PRES
        '(S)he lives in Baku.'

(2)    ich-en ish'oun ash-ne-b-sa
        REFL-ERG at=night work-3SG:A-LV:TRANS-PRES
        '(S)he works at night'

(3)    ich-u ich a"iel-gh-ox gölö-t'u buq'-sa
        REFL-DAT REFL:POSS child-PL-DAT2 much-3SG:IO love-PRES
        '(S)he loves her children evry much'

(1) is intransitive, (2) is transitive [ergative case], (3) is
'indirect' (or 'inversion' or a verbum sentiendi construction'...]. Note
that agreement always is 'accusative' (S=A(=IO)).

The function of headless reflexives in Udi seems to be to emphasize
coreference in referential tracking (normally on an accusative basis
(S=A)). I have tested the use of 'headless reflexives' with other
persons than non-SAP. The results were ambigous. Some informants
accepted a construction like (4), others didn't.

(4)   ? ich Baqi-x kar-zu-exa
          REF:ABS Baku-DAT2 live-1SG:S-LV:INTRANS:PRES
          'I (myself) live in Baku.'

Most informants did not accept SAP-related 'headless reflexives' as A in
transitive constructions except in questions addressing SAP(2), cf.:

(5)    ich-en fi-n ugh-sa?
        REFL-ERG wine-2SG:A drink-PRES
        'Do YOU drink wine?'

I assume that the use of headless reflexives is related to the emphatic
function that reflexives have in East Cauacsian (esp. in Lezgian
languages), cf. Tabasaran:

(6)    dumu uchw chan bazhr-a-qadzhi shah-r-s ghush-nu
        he:ABS REFL:ABS REFL:GEN son-SA-COM town-SA-DAT go-AOR
        'He himself went with his son into the town.'

(7)    uzu uchw dzhanuwar k'unu-za
        I:ABS REFL:ABS wolf kill:past-1SG:A
        'I myself killed the wolf.'

In (7) the reflexive copies the 'accusative' behavior (ABS instead of
ERG) of the SAP(1) pronoun, contrary e.g. to Aghul (Kurag):

(8)    zun uch-i aq'une kar
        I:ABS REFL-ERG make:AOR work
        'I did the work myself.'

The dropping of the pronoun leads to either an ergative or absolutive
coding of the reflexive, depending on which strategy the language
prefers [(7) or (8)], cf. (9) which is an ambigous construction in Aghul
(Burshag) [no personal agreement]:

(9)    che k'inaw huch
        REFL:ERG kill:PAST wolf
        'I/you/(s)he.... killed the wolf.'

I hope that helps,

Wolfgang

--
*****************************
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulze
Institut fuer Allgemeine und Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet München
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1
D-80539 München
Tel.: +89-21805343 / Fax: +89-21805345
Email: W.Schulze at lrz.uni-muenchen.de
http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~wschulze/
*****************************

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