[Lingtyp] "Double reflexive" constructions

Wed Dec 8 18:42:24 UTC 2021

In Yahgan (critically endangered genetic isolate from Tierra del Fuego),
the valence-reducing morpheme is verbal prefix ma(m)- (the second /m/ only
showing up when the next morpheme is either /h/ or vowel  initial.
Logophoric pronoun is me:am (colon marks tenseness of vowel preceding it).
SFAIK there isn't any true reflexive intensifier. ma(m)-..... -a:pai forms
the equivalent reciprocal, and there is also a logophoric hvngvmbai (v
represents schwa) for reciprocal.  But use of me:am isn't obligatory before
ma-, for example (me:am) ma-tu:-atama 'to feed oneself', where tu:- is
causative prefix, and atama is 'to eat'. The parentheses (from the
dictionary entry, penned in the 1870's, when most speakers were still
monolingual) shows that me:am  was a take-it-or-leave it affair. But my
readings of the three biblical translations (New Testament Gospels of Luke,
John, and Acts of the Apostles) leads me to believe that me:am makes the
construction emphatic. Yahgan also had a suffix on pronouns of shape -tu:
that rendered the meaning 'alone, only', probably from -tvpan  with the
same sense. For example ki:tu: 'he, she, it alone', with the ki:- from 3rd
person coreference pronoun prefix kv- (the free pronoun is kvnjin).

Jess Tauber

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On Wed, Dec 8, 2021 at 12:16 PM Riccardo Giomi <rgiomi at campus.ul.pt> wrote:

> Dear typologists,
>
> I am looking for languages in which, with some predicates at least,
> unambiguous expression of reflexivity is only attained by combining two
> separate markers. Typically, the elements participating in such
> "double-reflexive" constructions (quotes needed) belong to one of the
> following, broadly-defined classes:
>
> - a valency-decreasing "middle" marker / intransitivizer (usually, though
> not necessarily a bound morpheme);
>
> - a reflexive, personal or logophoric pronoun;
>
> - a so-called reflexive intensifier, i.e. an element that functions like
> English reflexive pronouns in appositional or adverbial position (e.g. *I
> myself swept the ground / I swept the ground myself*).
>
> Below are a few examples of possible combinations of such elements (I have
> harmonized the glosses used by the various authors):
>
> Intransitivizer + reflexive pronoun: Kuuk Thaayorre
> [image: immagine.png]
>
> Intransitivizer + personal pronoun: Hmwaveke
> [image: immagine.png]
>
> Intransitivizer + intensifier (attached to the (subject) nominal and
> glossed 'SELF'): Dyirbal
> [image: immagine.png]
>
> Intransitivizer + intensifier (attached to the verb): Mezquital Otomí
> [image: immagine.png]
>
> (Gast & Siemund 2006: 368. The authors also give an example in which the
> intensifier takes the longer form *sε̌hε̒ *and occurs as an unbound
> adverb-like element.)
>
> Intensifier (marked ergative, in apposition to the (subject) nominal) +
> personal/logophoric pronoun (marked absolutive) : Tsakhur
> [image: immagine.png]
>
> If any of you is aware of a language in which "double marking" of
> reflexivity is the only option, that would be especially helpful; but, more
> generally, I am interested in all such constructions -- or possibly other,
> comparable ones which I may be leaving out of the picture. (Please don't
> bother signalling Germanic or Romance data like German *sich + selbst* or
> Spanish *si + a si mismo* -- I am already taking those into account.)
>
> Many thanks in advance, best wishes,
> Riccardo
>
> References
> Dik, Simon C. 1983. The Status of verbal reflexives. In Liliane Tasmowski
> & Dominique Willems (eds.), *Problems in syntax*, 231–255. New York &
> London: Plenum Press.
> Gaby, Alice. 2006. *A grammar of Kuuk Thaayorre.* Melbourne: University
> of Melbourne dissertation.
> Gast, Volker & Peter Siemund. 2006. Rethinking the relationship between
> SELF-intensifiers and reflexives". *Linguistics* 44(2), 343-381.
> Lyutikova, Ekaterina A. 2000. Reflexives and emphasis in Tsaxur
> (Nakh-Dagestanian). In Z. Frajzyngier and T. Curl (eds.), *Reflexives:
> Forms and Functions, *227-255. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
> Moyse-Faurie, Claire. 2008. Constructions expressing middle, reflexive and
> reciprocal situations in some Oceanic languages. In Ekkehard König & Volker
> Gast (eds.), *Reciprocals* *and reflexives: Theoretical and typological
> explorations*, 105–168. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
>
> --
> Riccardo Giomi, Ph.D.
> University of Liège
> Département de langues modernes : linguistique, littérature et traduction
> Research group *Linguistique contrastive et typologie des langues*
> F.R.S.-FNRS Postdoctoral fellow (CR - FC 43095)
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