"Herself" redirects here. For the toy elf, see Herself the Elf.
"Yourself" redirects here. For the song by Dream, see Yourself (song).
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"Myself", "Oneself", and "Himself" redirect here. For other uses, see Myself (disambiguation), Oneself (disambiguation), and Himself (disambiguation).
| Transitivity and Valency |
| Transitivity |
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- Reflexives and reciprocals
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Reflexive pronoun
Reflexive verb
Reciprocal (grammar)
Reciprocal pronoun |
| Linguistics portal |
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A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that is preceded or followed by the noun, adjective, adverb or pronoun to which it refers (its antecedent) within the same clause. In generative grammar, a reflexive pronoun is an anaphor that must be bound by its antecedent (see binding). In a general sense, it is a noun phrase that obligatorily gets its meaning from another noun phrase in the sentence.[1] Different languages will have different binding domains for reflexive pronouns, according to their structure.
In English, the function of a reflexive pronoun is among the meanings of the words myself, yourself, thyself (archaic), himself (in some dialects, "hisself"), herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, ourself (as majestic plural), yourselves, themself, and themselves (in some dialects, "theirselves"). In the statements "I see him" and "She sees you", the objects are not the same persons as the subjects and non-reflexive pronouns are used. However, when the person being seen is the same as the person who is seeing, the reflexive pronoun is used: "I see myself" or "She sees herself".
Contents
- 1 Origins and usage
- 2 Non-reflexive usage in English
- 3 Reflexive pronouns in languages other than English
- 3.1 Chinese
- 3.2 Danish
- 3.3 Esperanto
- 3.4 French
- 3.5 German
- 3.6 Hungarian
- 3.7 Icelandic
- 3.8 Italian
- 3.9 Japanese
- 3.10 Korean
- 3.11 Latin
- 3.12 Macedonian
- 3.13 Novial
- 3.14 Polish
- 3.15 Portuguese
- 3.16 Romanian
- 3.17 Russian
- 3.18 Serbo-Croatian
- 3.19 Spanish
- 3.20 Slovene
- 4 See also
- 5 References
Origins and usage
In Indo-European languages, the reflexive pronoun has its origins in Proto-Indo-European. In some languages, the distinction between the normal object and reflexive pronouns exists mainly in the third person: whether one says "I like me" or "I like myself", there is no question that the object is the same person as the subject; but, in "They like them(selves)", there can be uncertainty about the identity of the object unless a distinction exists between the reflexive and the nonreflexive. In some languages, this distinction includes genitive forms: see, for instance, the Danish examples below. In languages with a distinct reflexive pronoun form, it is often gender-neutral.
A reflexive pronoun is a special kind of pronoun that is usually used when the object of a sentence is the same as the subject. Each personal pronoun (such as "I", "you" and "she") has its own reflexive form:
- I — myself (intensive) [clarification needed (Why are most of these labeled intensive?)]
- you (singular) — yourself (intensive)
- he — himself (intensive)
- she — herself (intensive)
- one — oneself (intensive)
- it — itself (intensive)
- we — ourselves (reflexive)
- you (plural) — yourselves (reflexive)
- they — themselves (reflexive)
Non-reflexive usage in English
It is increasingly common to use reflexive pronouns without local linguistic antecedents to refer to discourse participants or people already referenced in a discourse: for example, "Please, forward the information to myself." Such formulations are usually considered non-standard and incorrect. These can often be found in writing where the author has tried to formulate a more professional looking text without a true understanding of the language they are using. Within the linguistics literature, reflexives with discourse antecedents are often referred to as logophors. Standard English does allow the use of logophors in some contexts: for example, "John was angry. Embarrassing pictures of himself were on display." However, within Standard English, this logophoric use of reflexives is generally limited to positions where the reflexive does not have a coargument.[2] The newer non-standard usage does not respect this limitation. In some cases, reflexives without local antecedents may be better analyzed as emphatic pronouns without any true reflexive sense.
It is common in some dialects of English to use standard object pronouns to express reflexive relations, especially in the first and sometimes second persons, and especially for a recipient: for example, "I want to get me some supper." While this was seemingly standard in Old English through the Early Modern Period (with "self" constructs primarily used for emphatic purposes), it is held to be dialectal or nonstandard in Modern English.[3][4]
Reflexive pronouns in languages other than English
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Chinese
In Mandarin Chinese, the reflexive pronoun is zìjǐ (自己), meaning "self".[5] The antecedent to which it refers can be inferred by context, which is generally the subject of the sentence:
- Wǒ bǎohù zìjǐ. (我保护自己。) (I protect myself.)
- Tā bǎohù zìjǐ. (他保护自己。) (He protects himself.)
- Wǒ gěi tā zìjǐ de shū. (我给他自己的书。) (I gave him my own book.)
- Tā gěi wǒ zìjǐ de shū. (他给我自己的书。) (He gave me his own book.)
The antecedent can be reiterated before the reflexive pronoun; this can be used to refer to an antecedent that's not the subject:
- Wǒ gěi tā wǒ zìjǐ de shū. (我给他我自己的书。) (I gave him my own book.)
- Wǒ gěi tā tā zìjǐ de shū. (我给他他自己的书。) (I gave him his own book.)
Like English, the reflexive can also be used to emphasize the antecedent:[5]
- Wáng xiānshēng zìjǐ zuò le. (王先生自己做了。) (Mr. Wang himself did it.)
The reflexive can also be the subject of an embedded clause, unlike English, which must use the non-reflexive form:
- Tā juédé zìjǐ hěn cōngmíng. (他觉得自己很聪明。) (He feels that he is very clever.)
Also unlike English, the reflexive can refer to antecedents outside of the embedded clause. Because of this, it may be ambiguous whether the antecedent refers to the subject of the main clause or the embedded clause, in which case it may be necessary to reiterate the antecedent:
- Wǒ juédé Wáng xiānshēng bù xǐhuān zìjǐ. (我觉得王先生不喜欢自己。) (I feel that Mr. Wang doesn't like me/himself.)
- Wǒ juédé Wáng xiānshēng bù xǐhuān wǒ zìjǐ. (我觉得王先生不喜欢我自己。) (I feel that Mr. Wang doesn't like me.)
- Wǒ juédé Wáng xiānshēng bù xǐhuān tā zìjǐ. (我觉得王先生不喜欢他自己。) (I feel that Mr. Wang doesn't like himself.)
The reflexive pronoun in Cantonese Chinese, jihgéi, cognate to Mandarin zìjǐ (and thus also written as 自己), also follows the same rules.[6] This was also the case in Classical Chinese, which simply used 己[7] (Old Chinese: *kəʔ[8]).
Danish
- Jeg beskytter ham. (I protect him.)
- Han beskytter ham. (He protects him. Him designates a person other than the one designated by He.)
- Han beskytter sig (selv). (He protects himself.)
In Danish, there is also a difference between normal and reflexive genitives:
- Anna gav Maria hendes bog. (Anna gave her [Maria's] book to Maria.)
- Anna gav Maria sin bog. (Anna gave her [Anna's] book to Maria.)
In the latter case, "sin" is a case of a reflexive possessive pronoun, i.e. it reflects that the subject in the phrase (Anna) owns the object (the book).
Esperanto
The Esperanto third-person reflexive pronoun is si, or sia for the possessive (to which can be added -j for plural agreement and -n for direct object).
- Li legas liajn librojn. (He reads his (someone else's) books.)
- Li legas siajn librojn. (He reads his (own) books.)
- Ŝi legas siajn librojn. (She reads her (own) books.)
- Ili legas siajn librojn. (They read their (own) books.)
- Li amas lin. (He loves him (someone else).)
- Li amas sin. (He loves himself.)
- Li rimarkis ŝian amon al si. (He noticed her love for herself (reflexive).)
- Li rimarkis ŝian amon al li. (He noticed her love for him (using a normal pronoun).)
- Li rimarkis sian amon al si. (He noticed his (own, reflexive) love for himself (reflexive).)
- Li rimarkis sian amon al li. (He noticed his (own, reflexive) love for him (someone else, not reflexive).)
- Li diras, ke la hundo lavas sian vizaĝon. (He says that the dog is washing its (the dog's) face.)
- Li diras, ke la hundo lavas lian vizaĝon. (He says that the dog is washing his (the speaker's or someone else's, but not the dog's) face.)
French
In French, the main reflexive pronoun is 'se', with its indefinite form soi.
There are also intensifying reflexive pronouns, such as moi-même, toi-même, lui-même/elle-même/soi-même, nous-mêmes, vous-mêmes and eux-mêmes/elles-mêmes, exactly similar in meaning (but not in use) to myself, yourself….
German
In German, the reflexive case is only distinguishable from accusative and dative case in the third person reflexive.[9] As discussed above, the reflexive case is most useful when handling third person, because it is not always clear that pronouns refer to the same person, whereas in first and second person, this is clear. (E.g. He hit him and he hit himself have different meanings, but I hit me and I hit myself mean the same thing, although the former is improper English.)
Because accusative and dative case are different, the speaker must know whether the verb is reflexive accusative or reflexive dative. There are very few reflexive dative verbs, which must be memorized to ensure correct grammar is used. The most notable of which is (sich) weh tun—to hurt oneself. Ich tue mir weh. (I hurt myself.) See also German pronouns
Hungarian
- Beszélek magamról. (I talk about myself.)
- Beszélsz magadról. (You talk about yourself.)
- Beszél magáról. (He talks about himself. But also: She talks about herself. It talks about itself. And formal version of you: You talk about yourself.)
- Beszélünk magunkról. (We talk about ourselves.)
- Beszéltek magatokról. (You talk about yourselves.)
- Beszélnek magukról. (They talk about themselves.)
Icelandic
There is only one reflexive pronoun in Icelandic and that is the word sig. It does not differ between genders nor number.
The reflexive pronouns are as such:
- Reflexive pronoun: sig (himself/itself/herself/themselves)
- reflexive possessive pronoun: sinn (his/her/its/their)
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Singular and plural |
| Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter |
| Nominative |
(hann/hún/það/þeir/þær/þau) ("he/she/it/they") |
| Accusative |
sig |
| Dative |
sér |
| Genitive |
sín |
Examples
The reflexive pronoun refers to the third person:
- Hann talar um sig.(masc. sing.) (He talks about himself)
- Þeir tala um sig. (masc. plur.) (They talk about themselves)
- Stúlkan flýtti sér heim. (fem. sing.) (the girl hurried [herself] home)
- Þær flýttu sér heim. (neut. plur.) (they [the girls] hurried [themselves] home)
- Barnið naut sín. (neut. sing.) (the child enjoyed itself)
- Börnin nutu sín. (neut. plur.) (the children enjoyed themselves)
Italian
The reflexive pronouns in Italian are:
- mi (first person singular)
- ti (second person singular)
- si (third person singular)
- ci (first person plural)
- vi (second person plural)
- si (third person plural)
Reflexive pronouns are usually employed when the direct object in a sentence is also its subject, thus reflecting the action as expressed in the verb on the subject itself.
This pronoun allows the building of three kinds of reflexive verbal forms: proper, non-proper (or ostensible), and reciprocal.
- Io mi lavo, or io lavo me (I wash myself): reflexive proper, because the subject is at the same time the object of the sentence.
- Lui si lava i capelli (He washes his hair): reflexive non-proper, as he does not wash himself but his hair, the real object of the action.
- Noi due ci sposiamo oggi (the two of us get [are getting] married [to each other] today): reflexive reciprocal, since the action is performed by the two subjects reciprocally.
Notice that the sentence I wash myself could also be translated in Italian as "io lavo me stesso", that stresses the reflexiveness way more than English.
The complete list of intensifying reflexive pronouns is:
- me stesso (first person masculine singular)
- me stessa (first person feminine singular)
- te stesso (second person masculine singular)
- te stessa (second person feminine singular)
- se stesso (third person masculine singular)
- se stessa (third person feminine singular)
- noi stessi (first person masculine plural)
- noi stesse (first person feminine plural)
- voi stessi (second person masculine plural)
- voi stesse (second person feminine plural)
- loro stessi (third person masculine plural)
- loro stesse (third person feminine plural)
Japanese
In the Japanese language, jibun 自分 and jibunjishin 自分自身 are reflexive pronouns that correspond roughly to 'herself' and 'himself'. They differ from English in some ways; for example, jibun and jibunjishin do not have to agree in gender or number where English reflexives do. Jibun can further be bound locally or long distance where English reflexives must always occur locally. Although both English and Japanese pronouns must be c-commanded by their antecedents, because of the syntactic structure of Japanese, long distance binding is allowed.
Korean
In Korean, jagi 자기(自己) and jasin 자신(自身) are used as reflexive pronouns that refer to 'myself', 'himself', 'herself', and 'ourselves'. Jagijasin 자기자신(自己自身) is also a reflexive pronun but it usually corresponds only to the first person (myself).
Latin
In the 1st and 2nd person, Latin uses the ordinary oblique forms of the personal pronouns as reflexive pronouns. In the 3rd person, Latin uses the special reflexive pronoun se, which is the same for all genders and numbers, and declined in all cases except the nominative and the vocative.
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Singular or Plural |
| Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter |
| Nominative |
— |
| Vocative |
— |
| Accusative |
sē, sēsē |
| Genitive |
suī |
| Dative |
sibi |
| Ablative |
sē, sēsē |
| Locative |
sē, sēsē |
Example
Macedonian
Main article: Macedonian pronouns
| Accusative |
Dative |
| Full |
Short |
Full |
Short |
| себе |
се |
себе |
си |
An alternative full form, себеси, is used for emphasis.
- Ана ѝ ја даде нејзината книга на Марија. (Ana gave her [Maria's] book to Maria.)
- Ана ѝ ја даде својата книга на Марија. (Ana gave her [Ana's] book to Maria.)
Novial
(Novial is a constructed language, mostly based on Romance languages.)
- Lo vida lo. (He sees him.)
- Lo vida se. (He sees himself.)
- Anna donad lan libre a Maria. (Anna gave her [Maria's] book to Maria.)
- Anna donad sen libre a Maria. (Anna gave her [Anna's] book to Maria.)
Polish
| N. |
– |
| G. |
siebie |
| D. |
sobie |
| A. |
się, siebie |
| I. |
sobą |
| L. |
sobie |
In Polish the oblique reflexive pronouns is się and it declines as above. It is used with 1st, 2nd and 3rd person:
- Myję się "I wash myself"
- Myjesz się "You wash yourself"
- Piotr myje się "Peter washes himself"
It has been grammaticalized to a high degree, becoming also a marker of medial and/or anticausative voice:
- Drzwi się otworzyły "Door opened", lit. "Door opened itself"
- Przewróciliśmy się "We fell", lit. "We turned ourselves over"
Similarly the dative sobie gained an additional, volitional/liberative meaning:
- Idę sobie "I go (being not forced; for internal purpose)"
The intensive meaning is done by the pronoun sam (inflecting for case, gender and number):
| N. |
sam m |
samo n |
sama f |
sami v pl |
same nv pl |
| G. |
samego |
samej |
samych |
| D. |
samemu |
samej |
samym |
| A. |
samego, sam |
samo |
samą |
samych |
same |
| I. |
samym |
samą |
samymi |
| L. |
samym |
samej |
samych |
Usually inflected się is added in obliques:
- Słucham siebie samej (fem.) "I listen to myself"
- Wierzę sobie samej (fem.) "I believe myself"
Emphatically the accusative can be replaced with dative:
- Zrobiłem to sam (masc.) "I did it myself", "I did it alone"
- Zrobiłem to samemu (masc.) "I did it myself", "I did it personally"
Portuguese
- Quando ele o vir. (When he sees him.)
- Quando ele se vir. (When he sees himself.)
There are two ways to make a reflexive sentence in Portuguese. The first way is adding the reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nos - also vos). The second form is used to stress the reflexive action, especially when using the words "mesmo(s)" or "próprio(s)", masculine (plural), "mesma(s)" or "própria(s)", feminine (plural), which mean "self":
- Eu me machuquei. (I hurt myself.)
- Eu machuquei a mim [mesmo/mesma/próprio/própria]. (I hurt myself.)
- Tu sempre te machucas . (You always hurt yourself.)
- Tu sempre machucas a ti [mesmo/mesma/próprio/própria]. (You always hurt yourself)
- Ele se machucou ontem. (He hurt himself yesterday.)
- Ela se machucou ontem. (She hurt herself yesterday.)
- Ele machucou a si [mesmo/próprio]. (He hurt himself.)
- Ela machucou a si [mesma/própria]. (She hurt herself.)
- Nós nos machucamos. (We hurt ourselves.)
- Nós machucamos a nós' [mesmos/mesmas/próprios/próprias]. (We hurt ourselves)
- Eles se machucam todos os dias. (They [masc] hurt themselves everyday.)
- Elas machucam a si [mesmas/próprias] todos os dias. (They [fem] hurt themselves everyday.)
- Vós nunca vos machucais [unusual, almost nonexistent] (You never hurt yourselves.)
- Vocês nunca se machucam. (You never hurt yourselves.)
Romanian
- sieşi, sie, îşi, şi- Dative: himself, herself
- pe sine, se, s- Accusative: himself, herself
Russian
The pronoun sebya universally means "oneself"/"myself"/"himself", etc. It is inflected depending on the case.
When used to indicate that the person is the direct object of the verb, one uses the accusative form, sebya. (It does not have a nominative form.)
- Он поранил себя. On poranil sebya. ("He has wounded himself.")
Emphasized forms are "sam sebya" - masculine, "sama sebya" - feminine, "sami sebya" - plural.
- Он поранил сам себя. On poranil sam sebya. ("He has wounded himself." Literally: "He himself has wounded himself.")
In addition, the reflective pronoun sebya gave rise the reflective affix -sya (-ся) used to generate reflexive verbs:
- Он поранился (He has wounded himself.)
There are certain stylistic differences between the three usages, despite being rendered in the same way in English.
When the person is not a direct object of the verb, other cases are used:
- Он принес с собой бутылку водки. On prines s soboi butylku vodki. ("He brought a bottle of vodka with himself.") - instrumental case
- Он уронил сумку себе на ногу. On uronil sumku sebe na nogu. ("He dropped a bag on his (own) foot." Literally: "He dropped a bag to himself on the foot.") - dative case
Compare:
- Он уронил сумку ему на ногу. On uronil sumku emu na nogu. ("He dropped a bag on his (someone else's) foot.")
Russian has a reflexive possessive as well.
- Он любит свою жену. On lyubit svoyu zhenu. (He loves his wife (his own). - Reflective possessive)
- Он любит его жену. On lyubit yego zhenu (He loves his wife (someone else's). - It is ambiguous in English, but less so in Russian.)
Because of the existence of reflexive forms, the use of a non-reflexive pronoun indicates a subject that is different from the object. If it is impossible, the sentence is invalid or at least irregular:
- Он поранил его. On poranil ego. ("He has wounded him (someone else).")
- Ты видишь себя в зеркале. Ty vidish sebya v zerkale ("You see yourself in the mirror") - proper
- Tы видишь тебя в зеркале. Ty vidish tebya v zerkale ("You see you in the mirror") - invalid
- Ты любишь свою жену? Ty lyubish svoyu zhenu? ("Do you love your (own) wife?") - proper
- Ты любишь твою жену? Ty lyubish tvoyu zhenu? ("Do you love your wife?") - irregular
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian uses the reflexive pronoun sebe/se, which is the same for all persons, numbers and genders, and declined as follows:[10]
| N. |
– |
| G. |
sebe |
| D. |
sebi/si |
| A. |
sebe/se |
| V. |
– |
| I. |
sobom |
| L. |
sebi |
- Ana je dala Mariji njenu knjigu. ("Ana gave her [Maria's] book to Maria.")
- Ana je dala Mariji svoju knjigu. ("Ana gave her [Ana's] book to Maria.")
The words that modify the reflexive pronoun do show gender and number:[10]
- Čudio se samom sebi. "He wondered at himself."
- Čudila se samoj sebi. "She wondered at herself."
The enclitic form of the reflexive pronoun, se, has been grammaticalized to a high degree:[10]
- Vrata su se otvorila. lit. "Door opened itself" ("Door opened")
- Prevrnuli smo se. lit. "We turned ourselves over" ("We fell")
Spanish
In Spanish, the reflexive pronouns are: me/nos (first person singular/plural), te/os (second person) or se (third person). In Latin America, "os" is not used, being replaced by "se" for the pronoun "ustedes". For clarity, there are optional intensifying adjuncts for reflexive pronouns, accompanied by "mismo/a" (masculine and feminine forms for "self"). These are not strictly adjuncts: "si mismo/a" (instead of "se"), "ti mismo/a" (in the Silver River region, it is replaced by "vos mismo/a"), but "mi mismo" — that is, they usually postpend the genitive.
Examples with "wash oneself":
- yo me lavo (I wash myself.)
- nosotros nos lavamos (We wash ourselves.)
- tú te lavas (You wash yourself.)
- vos te lavás (You wash yourself, Rioplatense Spanish)
- usted ("Ud.") se lava (You wash yourself. [Formal])
- ustedes ("Uds.") se lavan (You wash yourselves. [Formal, plural])
- vosotros os laváis (in Spain)
- él se lava (He washes himself.)
- ella se lava (She washes herself.)
- ellos se lavan (They wash themselves. [Masculine])
- ellas se lavan (They wash themselves. [Feminine])
Note that the indirect object "le"/"les" do not override "se" in the reflexive.
Slovene
- Ana je dala Mariji njeno knjigo. (Ana gave her [Maria's] book to Maria.)
- Ana je dala Mariji svojo knjigo. (Ana gave her [Ana's] book to Maria.)
See also
|
Look up reflexive pronoun in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Intensive pronoun
- Reciprocal (grammar)
- Reciprocal pronoun
- Reflexive verb
- Logophoricity
References
- ^ Carnie, Andrew (2013). Syntax: A Generative Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell.
- ^ Pollard, Carl & Ivan Sag (1992). "Anaphors in English and the Scope of the Binding Theory". Linguistic Inquiry (23): 261–303.
- ^ Old English#Charter of Cnut
- ^ http://public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/english-in-time/grammar-in-early-modern-english/
- ^ a b Yip, Po-Ching; Rimmington, Don (2004). Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge. pp. 56–7. ISBN 0-415-15032-9.
- ^ Matthews, Stephen; Yip, Virginia (1994). Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar. Routledge. pp. 84–7. ISBN 0-415-08945-X.
- ^ Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (1995). Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar. UBC Press. p. 83. ISBN 0-7748-0541-2.
- ^ Schuessler, Axel (2007). "jǐ2 己". ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese. University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-2975-9.
- ^ http://class.georgiasouthern.edu/german/grammar/gr-refl.htm[dead link]
- ^ a b c Kordić, Snježana (2006) [1st pub. 1997]. Serbo-Croatian. Languages of the World/Materials ; 148. Munich & Newcastle: Lincom Europa. p. 23. ISBN 3-89586-161-8. OCLC 37959860. OL 2863538W. Contents. Summary. [Grammar book].
