Reevaluating the etymology of Latin reflexives
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Francisca Toro
und
Demian Inostroza
Abstract
This paper offers a synchronic and diachronic analysis of the diverse forms in Old Latin (third–second century BCE) that can be connected to Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *s(w)e-: se, sibi, sum, sam, sos, sas, sis, ipse. We classify our sample according to different grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic values, such as the construction type, animacy, and topicality of their referents. Among the results, we show that se and sibi are not primarily used as reflexives and that they share remarkably similar grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic features with the rest of the studied forms. These findings lead us to support the hypothesis of a single etymological origin in the PIE *s- + vowel (*sV) root and to further claim that this root was not a reflexive or a simple anaphoric marker, but a demonstrative pronoun that ranked high in a referential hierarchy.
Funding source: National Research and Development Agency
Award Identifier / Grant number: FONDECYT 11170045
Award Identifier / Grant number: FONDECYT 1210321
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their constructive comments. We also thank Dr. Julia Mendoza for her comments on an earlier version of this paper.
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Research funding: This paper is part of the research projects FONDECYT 11170045 and FONDECYT 1210321, funded by the FONDECYT program of ANID (National Research and Development Agency), Chile.
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Trapped morphology and the rise of the Slavic definite adjective inflection: a reexamination
- Reevaluating the etymology of Latin reflexives
- Verbs of motion and intermediate source domains of modality: the understudied case of Italian occorrere ‘to be necessary, to be needed’
- Aspectual marking from a typologically uncommon origin: a quantitative account of the development of hamē(w) in Middle Persian
- Rethinking the *-s suffix in Old Chinese: with new evidence from Situ Rgyalrong
- The status of /w/ in Old High German
- When internal reconstruction goes further: proposing the vowel system of Pre-Khroskyabs through examining bound state apophony
- A new sound change for Guarani(an): glottal prothesis, internal classification, and the explanation of synchronic irregularities
- Patterns of individual variation and change in Golden Age Spanish. An analysis of three linguistic variables in a corpus of private correspondence
- Book Reviews
- Jorge Vega Vilanova: Past Participle Agreement. A study on the grammaticalization of formal features
- Lilo Moessner: The history of the present English subjunctive: a corpus-based study of mood and modality
- Serenella Baggio and Pietro Taravacci (eds): Lingue naturali, lingue inventate. Atti della Giornata di Studi (Trento, 29 novembre 2019)
- Program Review
- IE7.com. Reconstructing Greek inscriptions with Ithaca
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Trapped morphology and the rise of the Slavic definite adjective inflection: a reexamination
- Reevaluating the etymology of Latin reflexives
- Verbs of motion and intermediate source domains of modality: the understudied case of Italian occorrere ‘to be necessary, to be needed’
- Aspectual marking from a typologically uncommon origin: a quantitative account of the development of hamē(w) in Middle Persian
- Rethinking the *-s suffix in Old Chinese: with new evidence from Situ Rgyalrong
- The status of /w/ in Old High German
- When internal reconstruction goes further: proposing the vowel system of Pre-Khroskyabs through examining bound state apophony
- A new sound change for Guarani(an): glottal prothesis, internal classification, and the explanation of synchronic irregularities
- Patterns of individual variation and change in Golden Age Spanish. An analysis of three linguistic variables in a corpus of private correspondence
- Book Reviews
- Jorge Vega Vilanova: Past Participle Agreement. A study on the grammaticalization of formal features
- Lilo Moessner: The history of the present English subjunctive: a corpus-based study of mood and modality
- Serenella Baggio and Pietro Taravacci (eds): Lingue naturali, lingue inventate. Atti della Giornata di Studi (Trento, 29 novembre 2019)
- Program Review
- IE7.com. Reconstructing Greek inscriptions with Ithaca
