Complement agreement in Czech reflexive constructions Cover Image

Shoda doplňku v reflexivních konstrukcích v češtině
Complement agreement in Czech reflexive constructions

Author(s): Václava Kettnerová, Jarmila Panevová, Markéta Lopatková
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: AV ČR - Akademie věd České republiky - Ústav pro jazyk český
Keywords: clitic and long variants of the reflexive pronoun; syntactic reflexivity; agreement of complement

Summary/Abstract: The Czech reflexives <i>se/si</i> present a great challenge for linguistic description due to their ambiguous character. In this paper, we deal with syntactic reflexivity. In this case, the reflexives represent the clitic forms of the reflexive pronoun expressing the referential identity of the valency complementation realized in the subject (usually of ACTor) and of the valency complementation lexically expressed by the given pronoun. This linguistic phenomenon is studied here especially in relation to the agreement of a surface syntactic complement (with the function of EFF or COMPL). We aim to demonstrate that the case of the complement is determined rather by the meaning of the reflexive construction (as in non-reflexive structures) than by the distinction of the clitic vs. the long form of the reflexives. The agreement of the complement in reflexive constructions with the accusative reflexives <i>se/sebe</i> is compared with the same phenomenon in the structures with the dative reflexives <i>si/sobě</i>, which has thus far not been extensively described in Czech linguistics.

  • Issue Year: 76/2015
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 198-214
  • Page Count: 17