[Lingtyp] "Double reflexive" constructions
Riccardo Giomi
rgiomi at campus.ul.pt
Thu Dec 9 19:03:39 UTC 2021
Hi Alex,
Right, I probably should have been more explicit in formulating the second
leg of my new question. What I meant is whether an unambiguously reflexive
pronoun can co-occur with what Gast & Siemund (2006) refer to as an
*agent-oriented* intensifier (yielding a structure that would literally
translate as, e.g. *He himself killed himself *or *He killed himself by
himself*). Thus, emphatic reflexive anaphors of the type of Italian *se
stesso*, Greek *ἑαυτόν *etc. would not count. (Please also note that (i)
the Romance clitic pronouns, including *si/se,* are not reflexive-only
markers, since they also occur in a variety of 'middle' situations; and
(ii) in Italian the emphatic anaphoric pronoun *se stesso *cannot co-occur
with a reflexive/middle clitic: so one could have either *La guerra si
alimenterà *or *La guerra alimenterà se stessa *but never **La guerra si
alimenterà se stessa*. The agent-oriented intensifier *da sé / da solo*, on
the other hand, could indeed co-occur with the clitic pronoun, so one could
have *La guerra si alimenterà da sola / da sé, *lit. "The war will feed
itself alone/by itself". But then again, *si *is not a reflexive-only
marker.)
The second Latin example you give, on the other hand, is absolutely
relevant, since (i) in Classical Latin at least, the reflexive pronoun was
indeed (almost) exclusively used for the expression of reflexivity (plus
'grooming/body-motion', see Haspelmath 2003: 235) and (ii) the nominative
inflection on *ipse* clearly indicates that this element is apposed to the
subject-NP, and not to the reflexive pronoun. The situation in the first
example is more ambiguous, because with a neuter subject like *bellum*, the
intensifier *ipsum *could agree either with the latter or with the
reflexive anaphor *se*.
Ref.:
Haspelmath, Martin. 2003. The geometry of grammatical meaning: semantic
maps and crosslinguistic comparison. In Michael Tomasello (ed.), *The New
Psychology of Language: Cognitive and functional approaches to language
structure, Volume II*, 211-242. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Thank you very much, best,
R
Alex Francois <alex.francois.cnrs at gmail.com> escreveu no dia quinta,
9/12/2021 à(s) 19:24:
> hi Riccardo,
>
> > *So, my new question is: are there any constructions in which a marker
> that has reflexivity as its only attested function co-occurs with a pronoun
> or intensifier -- or, for that matter, in which a reflexive-only pronoun
> co-occurs with an intensifier?*
> Well, Classical Latin does come to mind:
> The pronouns *se*, *sibi* are inherently reflexive; and yet, it is not
> rare to have it co-occur with intensifier *ipse* / ipsum:
>
> e.g. in 195 BCE, as Rome was invading Hispania (Spain), the statesman Cato
> the Elder refused to send food supplies to Rome's army, and instead
> proposed that the army should simply pillage the invaded country to loot
> for provisions. Hence his famous quote
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellum_se_ipsum_alet>:
>
> 1) Bellum *se ips-um * al-e-t.
> war Refl:ACC Intsf-ACC feed-Fut-3sg
> “The war will just feed itself.”
>
> It's difficult to render the effect in English, as both *se* and *ipsum *would
> be translated as “itself”. In Italian, you'd have smtg like *La guerra
> si alimenterà se stessa.*
>
> Likewise, Emperor Marcus Aurelius' *Meditations
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditations>* had the original title Τὰ
> εἰς ἑαυτόν ('those to himself')
> which in Latin was sometimes rendered this way
> <https://books.google.fr/books?id=HTdTAAAAcAAJ&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false>
> :
>
> 2) Marci Antonini commentarii quos *ipse
> sibi *scrip-si-t
> Marcus:GEN Antoninus:GEN note:Nom:Pl REL:ACC:pl Intsf:NOM
> Refl:DAT write-PFT-3sg
> liter. “M. [Aurelius] Antoninus’ notes which he himself wrote to
> himself.”
>
> _______
>
> In fact, as I think about it, the reflexive pronoun in Classical Greek
> ἑαυτόν itself results from the univerbation of:
>
> - the archaic reflexive ἕ
> <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0072%3Aentry%3De(%2F>
> [he] < PIE *swé 'reflexive pronoun' (cognate with Lat. *se*)
> - the intensifier αὐτόν [Acc] < αὐτός
> <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=au%29tw%3D%7C&la=greek&can=au%29tw%3D%7C0&prior=oi(&d=Perseus:text:1999.04.0072:entry=e(/&i=1#lexicon>
> [Nom] 'himself / this very one / the same'
>
> The simple reflexive ἕ [he] or ἑέ [heé] is only attested in archaic texts,
> such as Homer
> <http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/cunliffe/#eid=2627&context=lsj>.
> Thus, *Iliad *19:384 has *ἕο αὐτοῦ* [Refl:M:Gen Intsf:M:Gen]
> '(Achilles…) of himself', in separate words.
>
> The univerbation / grammaticalization of {reflexive + intensifier} into a
> simplex {reflexive} pronoun (citation form: genitive ἑαυτοῦ
> <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0058:entry=e(autou=>)
> was completed by the time of Classical Attic (~500 BCE).
>
> best
> Alex
> ------------------------------
>
> Alex François
> LaTTiCe <http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/> — CNRS–
> <http://www.cnrs.fr/index.html>ENS
> <https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094>
> –Sorbonne nouvelle
> <http://www.univ-paris3.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp>
> Australian National University
> <https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/francois-a>
> Personal homepage <http://alex.francois.online.fr/>
> _________________________________________
>
>
> On Thu, 9 Dec 2021 at 18:13, Riccardo Giomi <rgiomi at campus.ul.pt> wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> Thank you very much for an impressive set of data and references -- with
>> some touches of fun, Joseph, which is always nice :)
>>
>> As a follow-up to my original question, I would now like to mention that,
>> as far as I can see, probably all the verbal markers used in combination
>> with a pronoun or intensifier have other functions besides reflexivity
>> (although I still need to check a few references, especially as regards
>> some of the South American languages referred to by Josh Birchall). This
>> makes sense, of course, because the function (or at least, the origin) of
>> the "double reflexive" is usually that of bringing out the reflexive
>> meaning unambiguously; on the other hand, it is not totally unconceivable
>> that a reflexive-only affix or particle could co-occur with a pronoun or
>> intensifier, although one would in principle expect such a situation to be
>> relatively rare. So, my new question is: are there any constructions in
>> which a marker that has reflexivity as its only attested function co-occurs
>> with a pronoun or intensifier -- or, for that matter, in which a
>> reflexive-only pronoun co-occurs with an intensifier?
>>
>> Again, many thanks in advance and best wishes to all!
>> R
>>
>> P.S.: @Randy: since the term "middle" is used in so many different ways
>> in the literature, I am not sure this is relevant to your consideration,
>> but indeed there are several languages in which the intransitivizer
>> occurring in "double reflexive" constructions also occurs in non-reflexive
>> (and non-middle?) situations. For instance, the marker *-ki *in Mosetén
>> is used for antipassive/object demotion (e.g. 'I eat-*ki*')*; *and then
>> of course we have the intransitivizing prefixes of Oceanic languages, which
>> have a remarkable variety of uses.
>>
>> Alex Francois <alex.francois.cnrs at gmail.com> escreveu no dia quinta,
>> 9/12/2021 à(s) 13:05:
>>
>>> Dear Riccardo,
>>>
>>> In Mwotlap (an Oceanic language of Vanuatu), the reflexive/reciprocal is
>>> usually unmarked: such interpretations are usually simply inferred from
>>> the co-reference between the agent and the patient [e.g. “I saw me”].
>>>
>>> With a 3rd non-singular pronoun (dual, trial or plural), there is an
>>> ambiguity between
>>> (a) a simple transitive clause with distinct referents for agent &
>>> patient
>>> (b) a reflexive interpretation
>>> (c) a reciprocal interpretation
>>>
>>> Thus ex (1) has three interpretations:
>>> 1) *Kōyō* mu-wuh mat *kōyō*.
>>> 3du PFT-hit dead 3du
>>> a/ “They killed them.” [2 people killed 2 other people, total 4
>>> participants]
>>> b/ “They killed themselves.” [2 people committing suicide]
>>> c/ “They killed each other.”
>>>
>>> Now, Mwotlap also has a reversive ('refactive'?) postverb *lok* 'back,
>>> again':
>>> 2) Nok so m̄ōl *lok * l-ēm̄.
>>> 1sg Prosp return REVERS Loc-house
>>> “Let me go *back* home.”
>>>
>>> 3) Vap *lok * se!
>>> say REVERS also
>>> “Say it *again*!”
>>>
>>> If you use that reversive *lok* in a sentence like (1) above, you
>>> disambiguate its meaning by ruling out interpretations (a) and (c);
>>> essentially you're left with an interpretation as a reflexive:
>>>
>>> 4) *Kōyō* mu-wuh mat *lok* *kōyō*.
>>> 3du PFT-hit dead REVERS 3du
>>> ? *a/ “They killed them.” [2 people killed 2 other people, total 4
>>> participants]*
>>> b/ “They killed themselves.” [2 people committing suicide]
>>> ? *a/ “They killed each other.” *
>>>
>>> This seems to be the sort of structure you were looking for.
>>> ____
>>> Reference: See page 372 of my dissertation:
>>>
>>> - François, Alexandre. 2001.
>>> *Contraintes de structures et liberté dans l'organisation du
>>> discours: Une description du mwotlap, langue océanienne du Vanuatu
>>> <http://alex.francois.online.fr/AFpub_books_e.htm#01>*.
>>> Doctoral dissertation in Linguistics, Université Paris-IV Sorbonne.
>>> 1078 pp.
>>>
>>> best,
>>> Alex
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> Alex François
>>> LaTTiCe <http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/> — CNRS–
>>> <http://www.cnrs.fr/index.html>ENS
>>> <https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094>
>>> –Sorbonne nouvelle
>>> <http://www.univ-paris3.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp>
>>> Australian National University
>>> <https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/francois-a>
>>> Personal homepage <http://alex.francois.online.fr/>
>>> _________________________________________
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, 8 Dec 2021 at 18:16, 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)
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Lingtyp mailing list
>>>> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>>>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>>>>
>>>
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