Natural languages routinely make use of morpho-syntactic formatives that lead to obligatory reflexivization. Let us take reflexive interpretations to be descriptions of events in which two participants (broadly understood) are identified as a single individual and let us call the morpho-syntactic construals/ formatives that are used to achieve reflexive interpretations, reflexivization strategies. In this talk, I discuss in some detail the grammar of a particular reflexivization strategy, the use of the complex reflexive anaphor herself in English. I first lay down the commitments of the three major analyses that have been proposed in the literature: (a) an analysis that treats herself as a (bound) variable, (b) an analysis that treats (her)self as an identity relation, and (c) an analysis that treats herself as an arity reducer. I then proceed to discuss some of the empirical domains that have been argued to discriminate between the competing analyses (ellipsis, focus, intensional contexts, proxy readings, etc.) and argue that the choice ultimately hinges on whether anaphors like herself should be allowed to license coreferential readings. In the course of the discussion, I briefly compare English herself with two other anaphoric reflexivization strategies, German sich and Greek o eaftos tis ‘the self hers’, arguing for a non-uniform analysis of anaphoric reflexivization strategies.
Datum und Uhrzeit: 18.11.2026, 17:00h - 18:30h
Ort: Merangasse 70, 8010 Graz, SR 33.3.211
Teilnahme auch über Zoom möglich: https://uni-graz.zoom.us/j/66653336109?pwd=R8R1wzjPQUyvNU01vmstGC4MmzQh4x.1
Meeting-ID: 666 5333 6109
Kenncode: 950932
