UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics Title Reflexivization: A Study in Universal Syntax Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3sv079tk Author Faltz, Leonard M Publication Date 1977 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph end reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. 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FALTZ ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reflexivization: A Study in Universal Syntax By Leonard M. Faltz B.S. (The City College of the City University of New York) 1961 M.A. (Harvard University) 1962 C.Phil. (University of California) 1974 DISSERTATION Submitted in nartial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of N DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Linguistics in the GRADUATE DIVISION of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Approved: • • i i j • • • »*T • • • Committee in Charge D f d f f CONFBKED JUNE 18, 1977 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. i To Maureen Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Foreword In October of 197*+ > having passed my doctoral examinations some eleven months previously, and having gone through what I am told is the usual process of depression and a long period of indecision, I finally set about to find a dissertation topic. By December of that year I had not only settled upon a universal study of reflexives as the topic, but had collected enough guiding ideas to present myself to prospective employers as one who had the dissertation "almost finished". More than two years have passed since then. Wow, the dissertation is really "almost finished", and I am still presenting myself to prospective employers. But if the externals of my life seem to have changed little, I have at least learned something about reflexives. What I have learned can, I hope, be found in the succeeding pages. The organization of the dissertation follows a fairly elementary progression. The basic definitions in Chapter I lead to a discussion of morphological types in Chapter II. Chapter III contains discussions about syntax; it is in this chapter that most of the results of my study are to be found. Chapter IV consists of speculations on the historical origins and destinies of the various kinds of reflexives. The general underlying point of view is that a grammar may be thought of as provid­ ing strategies for carrying out various linguistic functions. Reflexi- vization is taken as one particular function, and the strategies found in various languages to carry it out are examined. In fact, the func­ tions of the different reflexivization strategies discussed are not coincident; but this just adds spice to the flavor of grammatical variety in which the universal grammarian wishes to indulge himself. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A few principles (what are called these days "universals") emerge, in Chapter III mostly. But the real value of a study like this is to shed light on the opposing sensations of strangeness and familiarity which arise in the course of exposure to new languages. The avowed task of universal grammar as a discipline might he stated as the reduction of the points of familiarity to a complete set of laws; hut surely the points of strangeness, that is, the ways languages really differ from one another, are also governed hy principles. The "universals" given in Section III.U can he regarded as examples of the latter. But do not raise your hopes too high: the paltry content of those universals is a far cry from the richness of the variety of real grammar. We have a long way to go. One problem facing a study such as this is the matter of obtaining data of uniform scope from many languages. Since written grammars vary widely in what they will give, I have had to rely on informants for much of my data. The availability of informants has been in general good; but still some language families (e.g. Mayan, Nilo-Saharan, etc.) are not represented. In addition, the difficulties of arranging personal schedules has not always allowed me to see an informant as much as I would have liked. Nevertheless, there is quite a bit of data to be found here, even if not to a uniform depth for each language. My hope is that there is enough data to insure that the generalizations drawn are not spurious. It would be a true service to the study of universal grammar to produce a test which would insure that a set of languages was broad enough to serve as the basis for a generalization. Unfortunately, I know of none, other than the obvious one that lan­ guages representing families, geographic areas, word-order types, etc. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of the greatest variety possible should he used. A work of this scope owes its existence to many people besides its author. There are, firstly, those who provided me with information about particular languages, either those that they spoke, or else those that they had themselves studied. For such services I wish to thank Katsue Akiba (Japanese), Saeed Ali (Hindi), Raimo Anttila (Finnish), Dauda Bagari (Hausa), Eva Brown (Lakhota), Sarah Effiong (Efik), Baruch Elimelech (Yoruba), Eser Erguvanli (Turkish), Barnabas Forson (Akan), Andres Gallardo (Spanish), Michele Gans (French), Amnon Gordon (Hebrew) Masayoshi Hirose (Japanese), Jean-Marie Hombert (French), Edward Hope (Lisu), Alexandre Kimenyi (Kinyarwanda), Dorothy Lannon and her friend (Tuscarora), Martine Mazaudon (French), Dick Mowrey (Vietnamese), Pam Munro (Mojave), Jeanne van Oosten (Dutch), Velma Pickett (isthmus Zapotec), Tina Porcuna (Tagalog), Etheleen Rosero (Pima), Jilali Saib (Tamazight), Alice Schliehter (German), Midori Shimizu (Japanese), Michael C. Smith (Irish), Yero Sylla (Fula), Sandra Thompson (Wappo), Eric Zee (Cantonese), Karl Zimmer (Turkish, German). Secondly, there are other linguists who were kind enough to dis­ cuss various ideas with me, who read portions of the dissertation, or who made suggestions or corrections. For such help I wish to thank Wallace Chafe, Joe Emonds, Charles Fillmore, Paul Garvin, David Hays, Gary Holland, Joan Hooper, Larry Hyman, Ed Keenan, George Lakoff, Buffalo Bill Pagliuca, Maureen Schmid, Sandra Thompson, and Karl Zimmer I am also grateful for the opportunity of presenting portions of the study to the Syntax and Semantics Seminar and to the Colloquium of the Linguistics Department at UCLA, and to the Linguistics Department at SULJY Buffalo at one of their Colloquium Series talks. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. V Thirdly, I wish to thank Teddy Graham for her excellent job of typing the manuscript. Fourthly, my thanks to the Phillips Fund of the American Philo­ sophical Society, and to the Academic Senate of the University of Cali­ fornia at Los Angeles, for money to pay for portions of the research whose results are contained herein. Finally, I am grateful to my many friends for their encouragement (many of those listed above are in this group, too). I especially thank my wife Maureen and my stepchildren Danny and Laura for hitting the right balance between restraint and nagging me to get the damn thing written. If I have left anyone off the above listings, my sincere apologies to them. It has become customary for the author of a piece of research to accept all responsibility for errors contained in it. I prefer to think that you, dear reader, are not the sort who goes around fixing blame for the lapses from perfection which abound in earthly life.