reciprocals as subjects

[Jon Aske]

> I will remind you that some languages allow reflexives to appear as
> subjects. For instance,
> Basque (cf. (1), Xabier Artiagoitia (p.c.)), Nepali (Bickel&Yadava
> 2000), Greek (Anagnostopoulou&Everaert 1999), Dargwa (Kibrik 1997),
> Georgian (cf. (2))...:
>
>  (1)     neure buruak hilko nau
>          my head-DET-ERG it.kills.me aux
>          Lit.: Myself kills me
>
>  "Something like my personality, the things I do and worry
>  about... that is going to kill me"

I don't know about the other examples but, interesting as it is, the
Basque one doesn't strike me as one with a reflexive subject.  The
"reflexive" ergative 'neure buruak' (lit. my head) here would seem to be
very different from the reflexive (absolutive) neure burua in a
reflexive sentence (cf. I'm going to kill myself; example (1) is also
future, by the way).  Much like the fact that not every example of
'myself' is a reflexive.

-Jon