Reflexive pronoun

Non-reflexive usage in English

Non-reflexive use of reflexive pronouns is rather common in English. Most of the time, reflexive pronouns function as emphatic pronouns that highlight or emphasize the individuality or particularity of the noun. Grammatically, the position of reflexive pronouns in this usage is either right after the noun the pronouns are emphasizing or, if the noun is subject, after-verb-or-object position is also possible. For example, "Why don't you yourself do the job?", "Why don't you do the job yourself?", or "I want to fix my phone itself; I will not fix your watch as well."

Some speakers use reflexive pronouns without local linguistic antecedents to refer to discourse participants or people already referenced in a discourse: for example, "Please, forward the information to myself, Anything else for yourself today?" Within the linguistics literature, reflexives with discourse antecedents are often referred to as logophors. Standard English allows use of logophors in some contexts: for example, "John was angry. Embarrassing pictures of himself were on display." However, within Standard English, this logophoric use of reflexives is generally limited to positions where the reflexive does not have a coargument. The newer non-standard usage does not respect this limitation. In some cases, reflexives without local antecedents may be better analyzed as emphatic pronouns without any true reflexive sense.

It is common in some dialects of English to use standard object pronouns to express reflexive relations, especially in the first and sometimes second persons, and especially for a recipient: for example, "I want to get me some supper." While this was seemingly standard in Old English through the Early Modern Period (with "self" constructs primarily used for emphatic purposes), it is held to be dialectal or nonstandard in Modern English.

It is also common in informal speech to use myself in a conjunctive phrase when 'me' would suffice: "She stood by Jane and myself." Also myself is used when 'I' would also be appropriate; for example, Thomas Jefferson was quoted as saying, "Hamilton and myself were daily pitted in the cabinet like two cocks."

In languages other than English

Chinese

In Mandarin Chinese, the reflexive pronoun is 自(zì)己(jǐ), meaning "self". The antecedent it refers to can be inferred by context, which is generally the subject of the sentence:

• 照(zhào)顾(gù)好(hǎo)自(zì)己(jǐ)。(Take care of (your)self.)
• 我(wǒ)会(huì)照(zhào)顾(gù)好(hǎo)自(zì)己(jǐ)的(de)。(I'll take care of (my)self.)

The antecedent can be reiterated before the reflexive pronoun; this can be used to refer to an antecedent that's not the subject:

• 我(wǒ)给(gěi)了(le)他(tā)他(tā)自(zì)己(jǐ)的(de)书(shū)。(I gave him his own book.)
• 我(wǒ)给(gěi)了(le)他(tā)我(wǒ)自(zì)己(jǐ)的(de)书(shū)。(I gave him my own book.)

Like English, the reflexive can also be used to emphasize the antecedent:

• 他(tā)自(zì)己(jǐ)拿(ná)走(zǒu)了(le)。(He took it (him)self.)

The reflexive can also be the subject of an embedded clause.

• 他(tā)觉(jué)得(dé)自(zì)己(jǐ)很(hěn)聪(cōng)明(míng)。 (He considers (him)self very clever. He feels that he is very clever.)

Also unlike English, the reflexive can refer to antecedents outside of the embedded clause. Because of this, it may be ambiguous whether the antecedent refers to the subject of the main clause or the embedded clause, in which case it may be necessary to reiterate the antecedent:

• 我(wǒ)觉(jué)得(dé)王(wáng)先(xiān)生(shēng)喜(xǐ)欢(huān)你(nǐ)胜(shèng)过(guò)喜(xǐ)欢(huān)自(zì)己(jǐ)。(I feel that Mr. Wang likes you more than he likes (him)self.)
• 我(wǒ)觉(jué)得(dé)王(wáng)先(xiān)生(shēng)喜(xǐ)欢(huān)你(nǐ)胜(shèng)过(guò)喜(xǐ)欢(huān)我(wǒ)自(zì)己(jǐ)。(I feel that Mr. Wang likes you more than he likes myself.)

The reflexive pronoun in Cantonese Chinese, jihgéi, cognate to Mandarin zìjǐ (and thus also written as 自己), also follows the same rules. This was also the case in Classical Chinese, which simply used 己 (Old Chinese: *kəʔ).

Danish

Danish uses the separate reflexive pronoun sig for third person pronouns, and 'selv' to mark intensive.

• Jeg beskytter mig (selv). (I protect myself)

In Danish, there is also a difference between normal and reflexive genitives, the latter being used only in the singular:

• Anna gav Maria hendes bog. (Anna gave Maria her [Maria's, or possibly some unknown third person's] book.)
• Anna gav Maria sin bog. (Anna gave Maria her [Anna's] book.)

In the latter case, sin is a case of a reflexive possessive pronoun, i.e. it reflects that the subject in the phrase (Anna) owns the object (the book).

Esperanto

The Esperanto third-person reflexive pronoun is si, or sia for the possessive (to which can be added -j for plural agreement and -n for direct object).

• Li legas liajn librojn. (He reads his (someone else's) books.)
• Li legas siajn librojn. (He reads his (own) books.)

French

In French, the main reflexive pronoun is 'se', with its indefinite form soi.

There are also intensifying reflexive pronouns, such as moi-même, toi-même, lui-même/elle-même/soi-même, nous-mêmes, vous-mêmes and eux-mêmes/elles-mêmes, similar in meaning (but not often used) to myself, yourself, etc.

French also uses reflexive verbs to express actions that somebody is doing to themselves. Many of these are related to daily routine. For example,

• Je me lave (I get washed, lit "I wash myself")

German

In German, the reflexive case is not distinguishable from the accusative and dative cases except in the third person reflexive. As discussed above, the reflexive case is most useful when handling third person because it is not always clear that pronouns refer to the same person, whereas in the first and second persons, it is clear: he hit him and he hit himself have different meanings, but I hit me and I hit myself mean the same thing although the former is nonstandard English.

Because the accusative and dative cases are different, the speaker must know whether the verb is reflexive accusative or reflexive dative. There are very few reflexive dative verbs, which must be memorised to ensure that the correct grammar is used. The most notable one is (sich) weh tun (to hurt oneself): Ich tue mir weh. (I hurt myself.) See also German pronouns. The genetive form of the reflexive pronoun sein is effectively lost as it has drifted in meaning to mean specifically 'his'.

Hindi/Urdu

In Hindi, there are two primary reflexive pronouns, the reflexive pronoun खुद (khud) [from PIE *swé] meaning "self" and pronoun अपना (apnā) [from PII *HáHtmā "self"] which is the possessive reflexive pronoun and both these pronouns are used with all the three, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, persons. There is also the pronoun आपस (āpas) which is used with either the inessive case-marker में (mẽ) forming the reflexive pronoun आपस में (āpas mẽ) meaning "among ourselves" or the genitive postpostion का (kā) forming the reflexing pronoun आपस का (āpas kā) meaning "of ourselves". The genitive reflexive pronoun can also be used to emphasise when used with the personal genitive pronouns, so e.g. मेरा (merā) "mine" becomes मेरा अपना (merā apnā) "my very own". Alternatively, using the genitive postposition का (kā) with खुद (khud) gives मेरे खुदका (mere khudkā) meaning the same as मेरा अपना (merā apnā). These reflexive pronouns can be used with case-marking postpositions as shown below in the table to the right.

Hungarian

Hungarian has two primary means of expressing reflexivity.

Mag-

The most common is by means of the stem mag- which behaves much like standard postpositions and case endings in Hungarian in that it can take the six personal suffixes to form the following personal pronouns:

• magam (myself)
• magad (yourself)
• maga (himself/herself)
• magunk (ourselves)
• magatok (yourselves)
• maguk (themselves)

Thus formed, these reflexive pronouns are in the nominative (i.e. subject) case and can take any case ending or postposition: magamnak (for myself), magunk előtt (in front of ourselves), magát (himself/herself (acc.)). However the accusative case marking -t is often omitted in magamat (myself), and magadat (yourself) remaining magam and magad respectively. This is also the case with possessed nouns using the same personal endings e.g. házam (my house), and kocsid (your car) both of which can be interpreted in less formal language as either nominative or accusative depending on context. Nonetheless, using the accusative ending -t (as in házamat and kocsidat) is still considered formal and correct.

Relfexive pronouns in the nominative case exist but have no logical reflexive function. Rather they have an intensifying purpose and follow the subject (if given):

• ő maga csinálta (He himself did it)
• a kutya maga ásta a gödröt (the dog himself dug the hole)
• magam is így gondoltam (I myself am also of this mind)

note the absence of non-reflexive subject pronoun in the latter case where the verb marking implies the subject. In order to intensify a relfexive pronoun in any other case, i.e. a reflexive pronoun with a genuine reflexive grammatical function the word saját (one's own) is added before the reflexive pronoun:

• saját magának okoz gondot (he's making trouble for his own self).

Ön

The second reflexive mechanism in Hungarian is the word ön (self) which is most commonly used as a prefix with the meaning of (one)self-, For example öngyilkos (suicide victim, lit. "self-murderer") and önfeláldozni (to sacrifice oneself). This can be combined with the reflexive pronouns above to express intensity or formality:

• önmagam (myself)
• önmagad (yourself)
• önmaga (himself/herself)
• önmagunk (ourselves)
• önmagatok (yourselves)
• önmaguk (themselves)

The prefix ön can also be used in the manner of saját, above, but the sense is more formal than intensive.

Formal pronouns

Hungarian does not have a T-V distinction as in many European languages, rather it uses third person reflexive pronouns and third person verbs to indicate politeness. The singular pronouns ön (self) and maga (himself/herself) and the plural pronouns önök (selves) and maguk (themselves) are used when addressing one or more people (respectively) in a formal context, whether written or spoken. Largely seen as interchangeable, ön and önök are less common and perceived as somewhat more formal than maga and maguk. The combined forms önmaga and önmaguk are only used to express intensity and genuine reflexivity as laid out above, but are not used as non-reflexive formal/polite pronouns.

Grammatically, when using ön, maga, önök, or maguk as subject pronouns, they will be treated as though they were non-reflexive third person pronouns. This means verbs agree with a third person subject (despite having a second person referent in reality) but unlike a true reflexive object pronoun (which requires a definite verb ending), verbs using formal/polite pronouns conjugate for definite or indefinite objects as that verb's actual object requires. Compare the following:

• (ti) mostok (you (pl.) are washing [informal])

Here the verb uses the second person plural indefinite ending -tok indicating that the object of the verb is unclear or non-existent.

• (ti) magatokat mossátok (you (pl.) are washing yourselves [informal])

Here the verb has changed from the second person plural indefinite ending to the definite ending -játok to indicate the reflexive object.

• (ők) mosnak (they are washing [informal])

Here the verb uses the third person plural indefinite ending -nak

• maguk mosnak or önök mosnak (you (pl.) are washing [formal])

Here the verb also uses the third person plural indefinite ending -nak as the formal pronoun is third person, but unlike true reflexives, it does not require a definite verb ending.

• magukat mossák ("they are washing themselves" or "you (pl.) are washing yourselves" [formal])

Here the verb is conjugated with the third person plural definite ending -ják as the pronoun is a genuine reflexive. In this case, it is not possible to tell from the sentence alone whether the intention is third person informal, or second person formal. In reality however when clarity is required an explicit subject pronoun can be used to express informal third person (ők magukat mossák), or more formal language can be used to express formal second person usage (magukat tetszik mosni lit. "it pleases to wash oneselves").

Icelandic

There is only one reflexive pronoun in Icelandic and that is the word sig. It does not differ between genders nor number.

The reflexive pronouns are as such:

• Reflexive pronoun: sig (himself/itself/herself/themselves)
• reflexive possessive pronoun: sinn (his/her/its/their)

Examples

The reflexive pronoun refers to the third person:

• Hann talar um sig. (masc. sing.) (He talks about himself)

Italian

The reflexive pronouns in Italian are:

• mi (first person singular)
• ti (second person singular)
• si (third person singular)
• ci (first person plural)
• vi (second person plural)
• si (third person plural)

Reflexive pronouns are usually employed when the direct object in a sentence is also its subject, thus reflecting the action as expressed in the verb on the subject itself.

This pronoun allows the building of three kinds of reflexive verbal forms: proper, non-proper (or ostensible), and reciprocal.

• Io mi lavo, or io lavo me (I wash myself): reflexive proper, because the subject is at the same time the object of the sentence.

Notice that the sentence I wash myself could also be translated in Italian as io lavo me stesso, stressing the reflexiveness much more than English.

The complete list of intensifying reflexive pronouns is:

• me stesso (first person masculine singular)
• me stessa (first person feminine singular)
• te stesso (second person masculine singular)
• te stessa (second person feminine singular)
• se stesso (third person masculine singular)
• se stessa (third person feminine singular)
• noi stessi (first person masculine plural)
• noi stesse (first person feminine plural)
• voi stessi (second person masculine plural)
• voi stesse (second person feminine plural)
• se stessi (third person masculine plural)
• se stesse (third person feminine plural)

Japanese

In the Japanese language, jibun (自分) and jibunjishin (自分自身) are reflexive pronouns that correspond roughly to 'oneself'. They differ from English in some ways; for example, jibun and jibunjishin do not have to agree in gender or number where English reflexives do. Jibun can further be bound locally or long distance where English reflexives must always occur locally. Although both English and Japanese pronouns must be c-commanded by their antecedents, because of the syntactic structure of Japanese, long distance binding is allowed.

Korean

In Korean, jagi 자기(自己) and jasin 자신(自身) are used as reflexive pronouns that refer to 'myself', 'himself', 'herself', and 'ourselves'. Jagijasin 자기자신(自己自身) is also a reflexive pronoun but it usually corresponds only to the first person (myself).

Latin

In the first and second persons, Latin uses the ordinary oblique forms of the personal pronouns as reflexive pronouns. In the third person, Latin uses the special reflexive pronoun se, which is the same for all genders and numbers, and declined in all cases except the nominative and the vocative.

Example

• per se

Macedonian

An alternative full form, себеси, is used for emphasis.

• Ана ѝ ја даде нејзината книга на Марија. (Ana gave her [Maria's] book to Maria.)
• Ана ѝ ја даде својата книга на Марија. (Ana gave her [Ana's] book to Maria.)

Novial

(Novial is a constructed language, mostly based on Romance languages.)

• Lo vida lo. (He sees him.)

Polish

Oblique

In Polish the oblique reflexive pronouns is się and it declines as above. It is used with 1st, 2nd and 3rd person:

• Myję się "I wash myself"
• Myjesz się "You wash yourself"
• Piotr się myje "Peter washes himself"

It has been grammaticalized to a high degree, becoming also a marker of medial and/or anti-causative voice:

• Drzwi się otworzyły "Door opened", lit. "Door opened itself"
• Przewróciliśmy się "We fell", lit. "We turned ourselves over"

Similarly, the dative sobie gained an additional, volitional/liberative meaning, usually used in informal speech:

• Idę sobie ulicą, patrzę sobie, a tam leży sobie dziesięć złotych. "So, I'm casually walking down the street and suddenly I see 10 złoty just lying there.", lit. "I'm walking for myself, I'm looking for myself, and there lies for itself 10 złoty."
• Jestem sobie przedszkolaczek... "I'm a kindergartner" (from children's song)

Moreover, the phrase iść sobie has been lexicalized and means "to leave" (cf. French s'en aller):

• Nudna ta impreza, idę sobie. "This party's boring, I'm leaving"

Possessive

Polish also has a possessive reflexive pronoun swój (swoja, swoje). It assumes the gender of the possessed object, not that of the possessor.

• Zabrał swoje rzeczy i wyszedł. "He took his (own) things and went out."
• Spojrzał na swój telefon. "He looked at his (own) phone."
• Anna oddała Kasi swoją książkę. "Anna gave her (Anna's) book to Cathy."

Not using a reflexive pronoun might indicate the other party's possession of the object:

• Anna oddała Kasi jej książkę "Anna gave Cathy her (Cathy's) book back."

Intensive

The intensive meaning is done by the pronoun sam (inflecting for case, gender and number):

Usually inflected się is added in obliques:

• Słucham siebie samej (fem.) "I listen to myself"
• Wierzę sobie samej (fem.) "I believe myself"

Emphatically the accusative can be replaced with dative:

• Zrobiłem to sam (masc.) "I did it myself", "I did it alone"
• Zrobiłem to samemu (masc.) "I did it myself", "I did it personally"

Portuguese

• Quando ele o vê. (When he sees him.)
• Quando ele se vê. (When he sees himself.)

There are two ways to make a reflexive sentence in Portuguese. The first way is by attaching the reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nos - also vos) to the verb. The second way is by also attaching the words mesmo/a(s) or próprio/a(s), masc/fem. (plural) (="self"), immediately after the verb to add stress/intensity :

• Eu me magoei. / Magoei-me. (I hurt myself.)

Romanian

• sieşi, sie, îşi, şi- Dative: himself, herself
• pe sine, se, s- Accusative: himself, herself

Russian

In Russian, the pronoun себя sebya universally means "oneself"/"myself"/"himself", etc. It is inflected depending on the case.

When used to indicate that the person is the direct object of the verb, one uses the accusative form, sebya. (It does not have a nominative form.)

• Он поранил себя. On poranil sebya. ("He has wounded himself.")

Emphasized forms are "sam sebya" - masculine, "sama sebya" - feminine, "sami sebya" - plural. Unless there is a particular reason (emphasis, answering a question) the word "sam" usually comes after the noun it is emphasizing.

• Он сам поранил себя. On sam poranil sebya. ("He has wounded himself." Literally: "He himself has wounded himself.")

However the form, e.g., сам себя oн поранил, is grammatical as well.

This sentence underlines that the subject inflicted the wounds while in the previous example, "sebya" merely indicates that the subject was wounded.

The reflexive pronoun sebya gave rise the reflexive affix -sya (-ся) used to generate reflexive verbs, but in this context the affix indicates that the action happened accidentally:

• Он поранился (He has wounded himself.)

There are stylistic differences between the three usages, despite being rendered in the same way in English.

Russian has a reflexive possessive as well.

• Он любит свою жену. On lyubit svoyu zhenu. (He loves his wife (his own). - Reflexive possessive)
• Он любит его жену. On lyubit yego zhenu (He loves his wife (someone else's). - It is ambiguous in English, but less so in Russian.)

Because of the existence of reflexive forms, the use of a non-reflexive pronoun indicates a subject that is different from the object. If it is impossible, the sentence is invalid or at least irregular:

• Он поранил его. On poranil ego. ("He has wounded him (someone else).")

Serbo-Croatian

Serbo-Croatian uses the reflexive pronoun sebe/se, which is the same for all persons, numbers and genders, and declined as follows:

• Ana je dala Mariji njenu knjigu. ("Ana gave her [Maria's] book to Maria.")
• Ana je dala Mariji svoju knjigu. ("Ana gave her [Ana's] book to Maria.")

The words that modify the reflexive pronoun do show gender and number:

• Čudio se samom sebi. "He wondered at himself."

The enclitic form of the reflexive pronoun, se, has been grammaticalized to a high degree:

• Vrata su se otvorila. lit. "Door opened itself" ("Door opened")
• Prevrnuli smo se. lit. "We turned ourselves over" ("We fell")

Spanish

In Spanish, the reflexive pronouns are: me/nos (first person singular/plural), te/os (second person) or se (third person). In Latin America, os is not used, being replaced by se for the pronoun ustedes. For clarity, there are optional intensifying adjuncts for reflexive pronouns, accompanied by mismo/a (masculine and feminine forms for "self"). They are not strictly adjuncts: sí mismo/a (instead of se), ti mismo/a (in the Río de la Plata region, it is replaced by vos mismo/a), mí mismo/a—they usually postpend the genitive.

Example with "wash oneself":

• yo me lavo (I wash myself.)

Note that the indirect object "le"/"les" does not override "se" in the reflexive.

Slovene

The Slovene language has reflexive pronouns as well:

• Ana je dala Mariji njeno knjigo. (Ana gave her [Maria's] book to Maria.)
• Ana je dala Mariji svojo knjigo. (Ana gave her [Ana's] book to Maria.)

Uzbek

In Uzbek, the pronoun o'zi (IPA: ), refers to oneself and, to create a person specific forms, it requires certain affixes:

myself - o'zi + -mni => o'zimni (IPA: ); to myself - o'zi + -mga => o'zimga (IPA: ); from myself - o'zi + -mdan => o'zimdan (IPA: );

yourself - o'zi + -ngni => o'zingni (IPA: ); to yourself - o'zi + -ngga => o'zingga (IPA: ); from yourself - o'zi + -ngdan => o'zingdan (IPA: );

himself/ herself/ itself - o'zi + -ni => o'zini (IPA: ); to himself/ herself/ itself- o'zi + -ga => o'ziga (IPA: ); from himself/ herself/ itself- o'zi + -dan => o'zidan (IPA: );

ourselves - o'zi + -mizni => o'zimizni (IPA: ); to ourselves- o'zi + -mizga => o'zimizga (IPA: ); from ourselves - o'zi + -mizdan => o'zimizdan (IPA: );

yourselves - o'zi + -ngizni => o'zingizni (IPA: ); to yourselves - o'zi + -ngizga => o'zingizga (IPA: ); from yourselves - o'zi + -ngizdan => o'zingizdan (IPA: );

themselves - o'z + -larini => o'zlarini (IPA: ); to themselves- o'z + -lariga => o'zlariga (IPA: ); from themselves- o'z + -laridan => o'zilaridan (IPA: );

Emphatic-pronoun use:

myself - o'zi + -m => o'zim (IPA: )

yourself - o'zi + -ng => o'zing (IPA: )

himself/ herself/ itself - o'zi + - => o'zi (IPA: )

ourselves - o'zi + -miz => o'zimiz (IPA: )

yourselves - o'zi + -ngiz => o'zingiz (IPA: )

themselves - o'z + -lari => o'zlari (IPA: )

Basically, the suffixes change based on the preposition used:

• Jon o'ziga mashina sotiboldi. (John bought himself a car)
• Biz futbol o'ynayotib o'zimizni jarohatladik. (We hurt ourselves playing football)
• Bu holodilnik o'zini o'zi eritadi. (This refrigerator defrosts itself )
• Men o'zimdan ranjidim. (I'm annoyed with myself)
• Ular o'zlariga qaradilar. (They looked at themselves)
• O'zlaringizni ehtiyot qilinglar. (Take care of yourselves)

Vietnamese

In Vietnamese, the reflexive pronoun is mình whose meaning can be myself, herself, himself, themselves etc. depending on the number/gender of its antecedent.

• Thằng John tự đánh mình (John hit himself.)

Guugu Yimithirr

A Pama–Nyungan language, Guugu Yimithirr uses the suffix /-gu/ on pronouns—much like -self in English, to emphasize that the action of the verb is performed by the subject and not someone else. Take for example, the following exchange.

A:

Ngadhu

1SG.GEN.ABS

gudaa

dog.ABS

gunda-la!

hit-IMP

Hit my dog!

B:

Nyundu-ugu

2SG.NOM-REF

gunda-la!

hit-IMP

Hit it yourself!