Reflexive pronoun

A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that refers to another noun or pronoun (its antecedent) within the same sentence.

In the English language specifically, a reflexive pronoun will end in ''-self'' or ''-selves'', and refer to a previously named noun or pronoun (''myself'', ''yourself'', ''ourselves'', ''themselves'', etc.). English intensive pronouns, used for emphasis, take the same form.

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. Different languages have different binding domains for reflexive pronouns, according to their structure.

Origins and usage of reflexive pronouns

In Indo-European languages, the reflexive pronoun has its origins in Proto-Indo-European. In some languages, some distinction exists between normal object and reflexive pronouns, 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 normally used when the object of a sentence is the same as the subject. Each personal pronoun (such as ''I'', ''you'', ''he'' and ''she'') has its own reflexive form:

* ''I — myself''
* ''thou — thyself/thyselves'' (archaic)
* ''he — himself''
* ''she — herself''
* ''it — itself''
* ''we — ourselves''
* ''you — yourself/yourselves''
* ''they — themself/themselves''
* ''one — oneself''

These pronouns can also be used ''intensively'', to emphasize the identity of whomever or whatever is being talked about:

* Jim bought himself a book (reflexive)
* Jim himself bought a book (intensive)

Intensive pronouns usually appear near and/or before the subject of the sentence.

Usually after prepositions of locality it is preferred to use a personal object pronoun rather than a reflexive pronoun:

* Close the door ''after you.'' (NOT ''... after yourself.'')
* He was pulling a small cart ''behind him.'' (NOT ''... behind himself.'')
* She took her dog ''with her.'' (NOT ... ''with herself.'')

Compare:

* She's very pleased ''with herself.'' (NOT ... ''with her.'')

Certain verbs have reflexive pronouns in some languages but not in English:

* Do you ''shave'' on Sundays? (NOT Do you ''shave yourself'' on Sundays?)
* Try to ''concentrate.'' (NOT Try to ''concentrate yourself'')
* I ''feel'' strange''.'' (NOT I ''feel myself'' strange.)

Compare to French:

* (''te'' is the second person singular reflexive pronoun in French, but it can serve as an object pronoun)
*
*

The list of such verbs:

* ''acclimatize, adapt, behave, complain, concentrate, hide, get up/hot/tired, lie down, meet, move, relax, remember, shave, sit down, undress, wake up, wash...''

Non-reflexive usage in English

Non-reflexive use of reflexive pronouns is rather common in English. Most of the time, reflexive pronouns function as emphatic pronouns that highlight or emphasize the individuality or particularity of the noun. Grammatically, the position of reflexive pronouns in this usage is either right after the noun the pronouns are emphasizing or, if the noun is subject, after-verb-or-object position is also possible. For example, "Why don't you ''yourself'' do the job?", "Why don't you do the job ''yourself''?", or "I want to fix my phone ''itself''; I will not fix your watch as well."

Some speakers 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'', Anything else for ''yourself'' today?" Within the linguistics literature, reflexives with discourse antecedents are often referred to as logophors. Standard English allows 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. 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.

It is also common in informal speech to use ''myself'' in a conjunctive phrase when 'me' would suffice: "She stood by Jane and myself." Also ''myself'' is used when 'I' would also be appropriate; for example, Thomas Jefferson was quoted as saying, "Hamilton and myself were daily pitted in the cabinet like two cocks."

In languages other than English

Chinese

In Mandarin Chinese, the reflexive pronoun is , meaning "self". The antecedent it refers to can be inferred by context, which is generally the subject of the sentence:

* 。(Take care of ''(your)self''.)
* 。(''Ill take care of ''(my)self''.)

The antecedent can be reiterated before the reflexive pronoun; this can be used to refer to an antecedent that's not the subject:

* 。(I gave him ''his own'' book.)
* 。(I gave him ''my own'' book.)

Like English, the reflexive can also be used to emphasize the antecedent:

* 。(''He'' took it ''(him)self''.)

The reflexive can also be the subject of an embedded clause.

* 。 (''He'' considers ''(him)self'' very clever. ''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:

* 。(I feel that ''Mr. Wang'' likes you more than he likes ''(him)self''.)
* 。(I feel that ''Mr. Wang'' likes you more than he likes ''myself''.)

The reflexive pronoun in Cantonese Chinese, ''jihgéi'', cognate to Mandarin ''zìjǐ'' (and thus also written as ), also follows the same rules. This was also the case in Classical Chinese, which simply used (Old Chinese: *''kəʔ'').

Danish

Danish uses the separate reflexive pronoun '' sig'' for third person pronouns, and 'selv' to mark intensive.

* (''I protect myself'')

In Danish, there is also a difference between normal and reflexive genitives, the latter being used only in the singular:

* (Anna gave Maria her 'Maria's, or possibly some unknown third person's''book.)
* (Anna gave Maria her 'Anna's''book.)

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 , or for the possessive (to which can be added ''-j'' for plural agreement and ''-n'' for direct object).

* (''He reads his (someone else's) books.'')
* (''He reads his (own) books.'')

French

In French, the main reflexive pronoun is , with its indefinite form .

There are also intensifying reflexive pronouns, such as , , , , and , similar in meaning (but not often used) to myself, yourself, etc.

French also uses reflexive verbs to express actions that somebody is doing to themselves. Many of these are related to daily routine. For example,

* (I get washed, lit "I wash myself")

German

In German, the reflexive case is not distinguishable from the accusative and dative cases except in the third person reflexive. 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 the first and second persons, it is clear: ''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 nonstandard English.

Because the accusative and dative cases 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 memorised to ensure that the correct grammar is used. The most notable one is (to hurt oneself): (I hurt myself.) See also German pronouns.

Hindi/Urdu

In Hindi, there are two primary reflexive pronouns, the reflexive pronoun () rom PIE meaning "self" and pronoun () PII "self"">Proto-Indo-Iranian_language.html" ;"title="rom Proto-Indo-Iranian language">PII "self"which is the possessive reflexive pronoun and both these pronouns are used with all the three, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, persons. There is also the pronoun () which is used with either the Inessive case">inessive case-marker () forming the reflexive pronoun () meaning "among ourselves" or the genitive postpostion () forming the reflexing pronoun () meaning "of ourselves". The genitive reflexive pronoun can also be used to emphasise when used with the personal genitive pronouns, so e.g. () "mine" becomes () "my very own". Alternatively, using the genitive postposition () with () gives () meaning the same as ().
These reflexive pronouns can be used with case-marking postpositions as shown below in the table to the right.

Hungarian

Hungarian has two primary means of expressing reflexivity.

Mag-

The most common is by means of the stem ''mag-'' which behaves much like standard postpositions and case endings in Hungarian in that it can take the six personal suffixes to form the following personal pronouns:
* ''magam'' (myself)
* ''magad'' (yourself)
* ''maga'' (himself/herself)
* ''magunk'' (ourselves)
* ''magatok'' (yourselves)
* ''maguk'' (themselves)

Thus formed, these reflexive pronouns are in the nominative (i.e. subject) case and can take any case ending or postposition: ''magamnak'' (for myself), ''magunk előtt'' (in front of ourselves), ''magát'' (himself/herself (acc.)). However the accusative case marking ''-t'' is often omitted in ''magamat'' (myself), and ''magadat'' (yourself) remaining ''magam'' and ''magad'' respectively. This is also the case with possessed nouns using the same personal endings e.g. ''házam'' (my house), and ''kocsid'' (your car) both of which can be interpreted in less formal language as either nominative or accusative depending on context. Nonetheless, using the accusative ending ''-t'' (as in ''házamat'' and ''kocsidat'') is still considered formal and correct.

Relfexive pronouns in the nominative case exist but have no logical reflexive function. Rather they have an intensifying purpose and follow the subject (if given):
* ''ő maga csinálta'' (He himself did it)
* ''a kutya maga ásta a gödröt'' (the dog himself dug the hole)
* ''magam is így gondoltam'' (I myself am also of this mind)
note the absence of non-reflexive subject pronoun in the latter case where the verb marking implies the subject. In order to intensify a relfexive pronoun in any other case, i.e. a reflexive pronoun with a genuine reflexive grammatical function the word ''saját'' (one's own) is added before the reflexive pronoun:
* ''saját magának okoz gondot'' (he's making trouble for his own self).

Ön

The second reflexive mechanism in Hungarian is the word ''ön'' (self) which is most commonly used as a prefix with the meaning of ''(one)self-'', For example ''öngyilkos'' (suicide victim, lit. "self-murderer") and ''önfeláldozni'' (to sacrifice oneself). This can be combined with the reflexive pronouns above to express intensity or formality:
* ''önmagam'' (myself)
* ''önmagad'' (yourself)
* ''önmaga'' (himself/herself)
* ''önmagunk'' (ourselves)
* ''önmagatok'' (yourselves)
* ''önmaguk'' (themselves)
The prefix ''ön'' can also be used in the manner of ''saját'', above, but the sense is more formal than intensive.

Formal Pronouns

Hungarian does not have a T-V distinction as in many European languages, rather it uses third person reflexive pronouns and third person verbs to indicate politeness. The singular pronouns ''ön'' (self) and ''maga'' (himself/herself) and the plural pronouns ''önök'' (selves) and ''maguk'' (themselves) are used when addressing one or more people (respectively) in a formal context, whether written or spoken. Largely seen as interchangeable, ''ön'' and ''önök'' are less common and perceived as somewhat more formal than ''maga'' and ''maguk''. The combined forms ''önmaga'' and ''önmaguk'' are only used to express intensity and genuine reflexivity as laid out above, but are not used as non-reflexive formal/polite pronouns.

Grammatically, when using ''ön'', ''maga'', ''önök'', or ''maguk'' as subject pronouns, they will be treated as though they were non-reflexive third person pronouns. This means verbs agree with a third person subject (despite having a second person referent in reality) but unlike a true reflexive object pronoun (which requires a definite verb ending), verbs using formal/polite pronouns conjugate for definite or indefinite objects as that verb's actual object requires. Compare the following:

* ''(ti) mostok'' (you (pl.) are washing nformal
Here the verb uses the second person plural indefinite ending -tok indicating that the object of the verb is unclear or non-existent.
* ''(ti) magatokat mossátok'' (you (pl.) are washing yourselves nformal
Here the verb has changed from the second person plural indefinite ending to the definite ending -játok to indicate the reflexive object.
* ''(ők) mosnak'' (they are washing nformal
Here the verb uses the third person plural indefinite ending -nak
* ''maguk mosnak'' or ''önök mosnak'' (you (pl.) are washing ormal
Here the verb also uses the third person plural indefinite ending -nak as the formal pronoun is third person, but unlike true reflexives, it does not require a definite verb ending.
* ''magukat mossák'' ("they are washing themselves" or "you (pl.) are washing yourselves" ormal
Here the verb is conjugated with the third person plural definite ending -ják as the pronoun is a genuine reflexive. In this case, it is not possible to tell from the sentence alone whether the intention is third person informal, or second person formal. In reality however when clarity is required an explicit subject pronoun can be used to express informal third person (''ők magukat mossák''), or more formal language can be used to express formal second person usage (''magukat tetszik mosni'' lit. "it pleases to wash oneselves").

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: (himself/itself/herself/themselves)
* reflexive possessive pronoun: (his/her/its/their)

Examples

The reflexive pronoun refers to the third person:

* .(masc. sing.) (He talks about ''himself'')

Italian

The reflexive pronouns in Italian are:

* (first person singular)
* (second person singular)
* (third person singular)
* (first person plural)
* (second person plural)
* (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.

* , or (I wash myself): reflexive proper, because the subject is at the same time the object of the sentence.

Notice that the sentence ''I wash myself'' could also be translated in Italian as , stressing the reflexiveness much more than English.

The complete list of intensifying reflexive pronouns is:

* (first person masculine singular)
* (first person feminine singular)
* (second person masculine singular)
* (second person feminine singular)
* (third person masculine singular)
* (third person feminine singular)
* (first person masculine plural)
* (first person feminine plural)
* (second person masculine plural)
* (second person feminine plural)
* (third person masculine plural)
* (third person feminine plural)

Japanese

In the Japanese language, () and () are reflexive pronouns that correspond roughly to 'oneself'. They differ from English in some ways; for example, and do not have to agree in gender or number where English reflexives do. 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, and are used as reflexive pronouns that refer to 'myself', 'himself', 'herself', and 'ourselves'. is also a reflexive pronoun but it usually corresponds only to the first person (myself).

Latin

In the first and second persons, Latin uses the ordinary oblique forms of the personal pronouns as reflexive pronouns. In the third person, Latin uses the special reflexive pronoun , which is the same for all genders and numbers, and declined in all cases except the nominative and the vocative.

Example

* '' per se''

Macedonian

An alternative full form, , is used for emphasis.

* (Ana gave her 'Maria's''book to Maria.)
* (Ana gave her 'Ana's''book to Maria.)

Novial

( Novial is a constructed language, mostly based on Romance languages.)

* (He sees him.)

Polish

Oblique

In Polish the oblique reflexive pronouns is and it declines as above. It is used with 1st, 2nd and 3rd person:

* "I wash myself"
* "You wash yourself"
* "Peter washes himself"

It has been grammaticalized to a high degree, becoming also a marker of medial and/or anti-causative voice:

* "Door opened", lit. "Door opened itself"
* "We fell", lit. "We turned ourselves over"

Similarly, the dative gained an additional, volitional/liberative meaning, usually used in informal speech:

* "So, I'm casually walking down the street and suddenly I see 10 zloty just lying there.", lit. "I'm walking for myself, I'm looking for myself, and there lies for itself 10 zloty"
* "I'm a kindergartner" (from children's song)

Moreover, the phrase has been lexicalized and means "to leave" (cf. French ):

* "This party's boring, I'm leaving"

Possessive

Polish also has a possessive reflexive pronoun . It assumes the gender of the possessed object, not that of the possessor.

* "He took his (own) things and went out."
* "He looked at his (own) phone."
* "Anna gave her (Anna's) book to Cathy."

Not using a reflexive pronoun might indicate the other party's possession of the object:

* "Anna returned Cathy's book"

Intensive

The intensive meaning is done by the pronoun (inflecting for case, gender and number):

Usually inflected is added in obliques:

* (fem.) "I listen to myself"
* (fem.) "I believe myself"

Emphatically the accusative can be replaced with dative:

* (masc.) "I did it myself", "I did it alone"
* (masc.) "I did it myself", "I did it personally"

Portuguese

* (''When he sees him.'')
* (''When he sees himself.'')

There are two ways to make a reflexive sentence in Portuguese. The first way is by attaching the reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nos - also vos) to the verb. The second way is by also attaching the words or , masc/fem. (plural) (="self"), immediately after the verb to add stress/intensity :

* (I hurt myself.)

Romanian

* Dative: himself, herself
* Accusative: himself, herself

Russian

In Russian, the pronoun 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, . (It does not have a nominative form.)

* . . ("He has wounded himself.")

Emphasized forms are "sam sebya" - masculine, "sama sebya" - feminine, "sami sebya" - plural. However, the word "sam" usually comes after the noun it is emphasizing.

* . . ("He has wounded himself." Literally: "He himself has wounded himself.")

This sentence underlines that the subject inflicted the wounds while in the previous example, "sebya" merely indicates that the subject was wounded.

In addition, the reflexive pronoun gave rise the reflexive affix () used to generate reflexive verbs, but in this context the affix indicates that the action happened accidentally:

* (He has wounded himself by accident.)

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:

* . . ("He brought a bottle of vodka with himself.") - instrumental case
* . ("He dropped a bag on his (own) foot." Literally: "He dropped a bag to himself on the foot.") - dative case

Compare:

* . . ("He dropped a bag on his (someone else's) foot.")

Russian has a reflexive possessive as well.

* (''He loves his wife (his own).'' - Reflexive possessive)
* (''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:

* . . ("He has wounded him (someone else).")

Serbo-Croatian

Serbo-Croatian uses the reflexive pronoun , which is the same for all persons, numbers and genders, and declined as follows:ContentsSummary
rammar book

* ("Ana gave ''her'' aria'sbook to Maria.")
* ("Ana gave ''her'' na'sbook to Maria.")

The words that modify the reflexive pronoun do show gender and number:

* "He wondered at himself."

The enclitic form of the reflexive pronoun, ''se'', has been grammaticalized to a high degree:

* lit. "Door opened itself" ("Door opened")
* lit. "We turned ourselves over" ("We fell")

Spanish

In Spanish, the reflexive pronouns are: (first person singular/plural), (second person) or (third person). In Latin America, is not used, being replaced by for the pronoun . For clarity, there are optional intensifying adjuncts for reflexive pronouns, accompanied by (masculine and feminine forms for "self"). They are not strictly adjuncts: (instead of ), (in the Río de la Plata region, it is replaced by ), —they usually postpend the genitive.

Example with "wash oneself":

* ''(I wash myself.)''

Note that the indirect object "le"/"les" does ''not'' override "se" in the reflexive.

Slovene

The Slovene language has reflexive pronouns as well:
* (''Ana gave her'' 'Maria's''''book to Maria.'')
* (''Ana gave her'' 'Ana's''''book to Maria.'')

Uzbek

In Uzbek, the pronoun (), refers to ''oneself'' and, to create a person specific forms, it requires certain affixes:

''myself'' - + => (); to ''myself'' - + => (); from ''myself'' - + => ();

''yourself'' - + => (); to ''yourself'' - + => (); from ''yourself'' - + => ();

''himself''/ ''herself''/ ''itself'' - + => (); to ''himself''/ ''herself''/ ''itself''- + => (); from ''himself''/ ''herself''/ ''itself''- + => ();

''ourselves'' - + => (); to ''ourselves''- + => (); from ''ourselves'' - + => ();

''yourselves'' - + => (); to ''yourselves'' - + => (); from ''yourselves'' - + => ();

''themselves'' - + => (); to ''themselves''- + => (); from ''themselves''- + => ();

Emphatic-pronoun use:

''myself'' - + => ()

''yourself'' - + => ()

''himself''/ ''herself''/ ''itself'' - + => ()

''ourselves'' - + => ()

''yourselves'' - + => ()

''themselves'' - + => ()

Basically, the suffixes change based on the preposition used:

* (John bought ''himself'' a car)
* (We hurt ''ourselves'' playing football)
* (This refrigerator defrosts ''itself'' )
* (I'm annoyed ''with myself'')
* (They looked ''at themselves'')
* (Take care ''of yourselves'')

Vietnamese

In Vietnamese, the reflexive pronoun is whose meaning can be ''myself'', ''herself'', ''himself'', ''themselves'' etc. depending on the number/gender of its antecedent.

* (John hit himself.)

Guugu Yimithirr

A Pama–Nyungan language, Guugu Yimithirr uses the suffix ''/-gu/'' on pronouns—much like ''-self'' in English, to emphasize that the action of the verb is performed by the subject and not someone else. Take for example, the following exchange.

A:

B:

See also

Grammar

* Reflexive verb
* Reciprocal pronoun
* Reciprocal construction
* Logophoricity

Works

* Myself (disambiguation)
* ''Yourself'' (song), the twelfth single by Dream
* ''Herself'' (film), a 2020 drama film directed by Phyllida Lloyd
* Herself the Elf, a franchise line for young girls similar to Strawberry Shortcake
* Himself (disambiguation)

Further reading

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reflexive Pronoun
Personal pronouns
Transitivity and valency