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'.