✩ ✪ Reflexives and Control Constructions in Real English [Linguistics 128/228: Real English: The Syntax of Language Use] ✬ ✫
✩ ✪ 1 Reflexives Kroeger, Chapter 4. Reflexives: In English, all pronouns must agree with their antecedents in person, number, and gender. Reflexives must find an antecedent within their immediate clause. The antecedent must be an argument of the clause. The antecedent must outrank the reflexive in the Relational Hierarchy: subject > object > oblique argument > non-argument ✬ ✫
✩ ✪ Switchboard examples... S > O They lead themselves down hopeless tunnels . You can work yourself to death . Really , I could just kick myself for even starting it, because I have a feeling I ’m never going to get it done. ✬ ✫
✩ ✪ S > Obl And, it really pays for itself because, oh, then the city gets the money from the recycling. And the company took it upon itself to find a position for these people. Are they driven by themselves . I would much prefer that they keep their analysis to themselves . You know, why do you do this to yourself ? You know, I think to myself , what did I do. ✬ ✫
✩ ✪ S > A I think, you know for myself I see that as probably what every- thing would hinge upon. all by itself it won’t be adequate for my situation . And he ’d never been outside, like, you know, by himself outside. ✬ ✫
✩ ✪ O > A kind of gives you some space for yourself , Like if I put her in a room all by herself and close the door and leave her there for a few hours, uh, because I was going out. ✬ ✫
✩ ✪ 2 Implicit antecedents (i) Imperatives. Kroeger, p. 84. Do not deny yourself the New York experience, but go with people that you know. (ii) ‘Understood’ subjects of nonfinite verbs. Kroeger, Ch. 5. ✬ ✫
✩ ✪ Switchboard examples of controlled antecedent. .. Adjuncts (XADJ): [Speaking for myself ] S I don’t sleep as well, when I am not exercising. Here the overt antecedent I is not an argument of the minimal clause that contains the reflexive myself . Solution: The participle finite verb speaking has an implicit subject coreferential with the reflexive and controlled by I : [ pro i speaking for myself ] S I i don’t sleep as well , when I am not exercising. ✬ ✫
✩ ✪ Subject Equi: See I do that [to make myself go to sleep at night] S Again the overt antecedent I is not an argument of the minimal clause that contains the reflexive myself . Solution: The infinitive verb in the purpose clause— to make —has an implicit subject coreferential with the reflexive and controlled by the subject of do : See I i do that [ pro i to make myself i go to sleep at night] S ✬ ✫
✩ ✪ Switchboard examples of raised reflexives... Object Raising: So, he considered [ himself to be, you know, a true Vietnam soldier] S . now my daughter, there’s no way that she can imagine [ herself married at the age that she’s at now.] S But, uh, I find [ myself listening to popular music,] S Here the antecedents he, she, I are not arguments of the minimal clause that contains the reflexives himself, herself, myself . Solution: the reflexives are ‘raised’ arguments of the main verbs consider, imagine, find : they are non-semantic objects of the main clauses in the constituent structure but are functionally controlled subjects of the complement clauses in functional structure: So, [ he ] SUBJ considered [ himself ] OBJ [ XCOMP SUBJ to be, you ✬ ✫ know, a true Vietnam soldier] OBJ = XCOMP SUBJ
✩ ✪ Kroeger problem, p. 118–119: transitive equi vs. raising examples (go over in class) ✬ ✫
✩ ✪ Anaphoric Control: Yeah. I ’m an accountant presently working as a contractor liquidating a failed savings and loan. So, Trying [to work myself out of a job] The overt antecedent I is not an argument of the minimal clause that contains the reflexive myself , and not even in the same sentence. Solution: The verb trying is an ‘equi’ verb whose subject (according to Kroeger) functionally controls the subject of its infinitival complement ( SUBJ = XCOMP SUBJ ): So, [ pro ] SUBJ trying [ SUBJ to work myself out of a job] XCOMP The subject of trying is itself a null pronoun which is anaphorically controlled in the discourse context: Yeah. I i ’m an accountant presently working as a contractor liquidating a failed savings and loan. ✬ ✫ So, [ pro i ] SUBJ trying [ SUBJ to work myself out of a job] XCOMP
✩ ✪ The anaphoric controller may be outside or inside the sentence: It’s just hard [to make yourself go] S But it’s still be quite a bit cheaper [to do it yourself ] S and then usually after I’m done riding the bike, [just to cool myself down] S , I usually take a walk, you know, ✬ ✫
✩ ✪ 3 Reflexives in Real English Agreement: the person who sells the gun ought to protect themselves because if that gun’s registered to them and somebody else uses that gun in something, the cops are going to come to you. ✬ ✫
✩ ✪ No antecedent (even null) in minimal clause: I wondered if it would help you sometimes fill in the gaps or recognize discrepancies that [people like myself might not pick up on] S But, um, in many cases whether or not an individual has a problem with drugs, [it’s not even going to effect[sic] anybody but uh, you know, himself and his own family, perhaps, um, depending on the kind of drug he might be on] S ✬ ✫
✩ ✪ No antecedent (even null) in sentence: I’m being single, and no other responsibilities for yourself , I guess, you know, there was no incentive for myself to leave, How about yourself ? What about yourself ? and that’s like myself and it’s the honest citizens like ourselves that are responsible about use of guns ✬ ✫
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