The selective properties of verbs in reflexive constructions
This dissertation investigates the relationship between verbs and reflexive markers within reflexive constructions, setting forth the hypothesis that the verb plays a determining role in anaphoric binding. The work builds upon Dalrympleâs (1993) argument that binding constraints are lexically specified by anaphoric elements and demonstrates that reflexive requirements can be lexically specified for distinct groups of verbs, an approach which offers another level of descriptive clarity to theories of anaphoric binding and introduces a means of predicting reflexive selection in domains where syntactic constraints do not readily apply. This is shown to be particularly pertinent in languages with more than one reflexive type that have overlapping syntactic binding domains. The hypothesis is substantiated by data from five typologically distinct languages: English, Dutch, French, Russian, and Fijian. Contributing to this data set, new empirical evidence in favour of previously unrecognized reflexive forms in the Fijian language is introduced in this work. Following Sells et al. (1987), it is demonstrated that reflexive constructions are definable over four different components of linguistic representation and
Park, Karen Elizabeth
Linguistics ; reflexives ; Austronesian languages ; Fijian ; Anaphora ; binding theory ; lexical functional grammar ; Dutch ; Russian ; French ; English
The selective properties of verbs in reflexive constructions. This dissertation investigates the relationship between verbs and reflexive markers within reflexive constructions, setting forth the hypothesis that the verb plays a determining role in anaphoric binding. The work builds upon Dalrympleâs (1993) argument that binding constraints are lexically specified by anaphoric elements and demonstrates that reflexive requirements can be lexically specified for distinct groups of verbs, an approach which offers another level of descriptive clarity to theories of anaphoric binding and introduces a means of predicting reflexive selection in domains where syntactic constraints do not readily apply. This is shown to be particularly pertinent in languages with more than one reflexive type that have overlapping syntactic binding domains. The hypothesis is substantiated by data from five typologically distinct languages: English, Dutch, French, Russian, and Fijian. Contributing to this data set, new empirical evidence in favour of previously unrecognized reflexive forms in the Fijian language is introduced in this work. Following Sells et al. (1987), it is demonstrated that reflexive constructions are definable over four different components of linguistic representation and
selective property verbs reflexive construction investigates_relationship verbs reflexive marker within reflexive construction set_forth hypothesis verb play determine role anaphoric binding work build_upon argument bind constraint lexically specify anaphoric element demonstrate reflexive requirement lexically specify distinct group verb offer another level descriptive clarity theory anaphoric bind introduces mean predict reflexive selection domains syntactic constraint readily apply show particularly pertinent languages reflexive type overlap syntactic binding domain hypothesis substantiate data typologically distinct language english dutch french russian contributing data_set new empirical_evidence favour previously unrecognized reflexive form language introduce work following demonstrate reflexive construction definable four_different component linguistic representation