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reflexives and reciprocals

From:Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Date:Wednesday, July 12, 2000, 16:00
Inadvertently, this got sent privately to Jim Grossmann (apologies for
cluttering up your email, Jim):

The question is:

>> > What are other ways that con- and nat-langs make such distinctions?
Reflexives in Kash: 1st and 2nd person simply use the regular accusative forms of the pronouns: man matikas ri alañu 'I see myself in the mirror', han hatikas ri alañu 'you see yourself in the mirror'. (ACC Subj+verb in mirror(acc., unmarked in neut.)). Or, for a dative, me makotasa... 'I said to myself...' 3rd person adds the particle -tu: yandu yatikas ri alañu 'he/she sees him/herself...'; nindu ilolasa 'they protected themselves'. This construction would be odd with verbs like 'hurt', yandu yakundisa 'he hurt himself' would refer to a deliberate act; the accidental form would be more appropriate-- yacakundi 'he got hurt', yacakrop cakundi 'he fell and hurt himself'. At least one verb is inherently reflexive: ungesha 'to commit suicide, kill oneself', considered a voluntary and honorable action. Reciprocals: most commonly by reduplicating liya 'other' (no case marking): Erek i Rana inunji liya-liya anju hendekani 'Erek and Rana met each other while in college'. Or: iwelesa liya-liya etengi 'they gave each other a book'. There is a no-longer productive construction VERB mañ+VERB that implies reciprocal action. The only ones in common use are tikas-mandikas 'see e.o. (on a regular basis)', kota-mangota ~ shindi-macindi 'talk to e.o., converse, chat'; sisa-matisa 'love e.o.' And the maritime handa-makanda 'load and unload cargo'.