A History of English Reflexive Pronouns

Person, Self, and Interpretability

Author
Elly van Gelderen | Arizona State University
HardboundAvailable
ISBN 9789027227607 (Eur) | EUR 110.00
ISBN 9781556199882 (USA) | USD 165.00
 
e-Book
ISBN 9789027299178 | EUR 110.00 | USD 165.00
 
Google Play logo
This book brings together a number of seemingly distinct phenomena in the history of English: the introduction of special reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself), the loss of verbal agreement and pro-drop, and the disappearance of morphological Case. It provides vast numbers of examples from Old and Middle English texts showing a person split between first, second, and third person pronouns. Extending an analysis by Reinhart & Reuland, the author argues that the ‘strength’ of certain pronominal features (Case, person, number) differs cross-linguistically and that parametric variation accounts for the changes in English. The framework used is Minimalist, and Interpretable and Uninterpretable features are seen as the key to explaining the change from a synthetic to an analytic language.
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 39] 2000.  xiv, 279 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Table of Contents
“A History of English Reflexive Pronouns is an interesting and substantial contribution to the history of reflexivity in English that combines accurate philological research with contemporary theoretical syntax in a very original way. I recommend the book to everybody interested in the history of English reflexives as well as to those engaged in recent syntactic theorizing in the domain of reflexivity.”
“I very much enjoyed this book. It reads like a well-written mystery novel. We know that specially marked reflexive pronouns exist in English, but we follow the author attentively as we discover the history of their development. Upon rereading, the depth of linguistic understanding, and the thoroughness of the historical research become even more apparent. The variety of material covered, and the clarity of presentation make this book of interest to a diverse linguistic audience. Without hesitation, I would recommend it to linguists interested in current syntactic analyses of reflexive phenomena, diachronic analyses of the English pronominal system, language variation and change, and first and second language acquisition of binding.”
Cited by

Cited by 70 other publications

Alexiadou, Artemis
2016. English psych verbs and the causative alternation: A case study in the history of English. Questions and Answers in Linguistics 3:2  pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Bech, Kristin & Christine Meklenborg Salvesen
2014. Preverbal word order in Old English and Old French. In Information Structure and Syntactic Change in Germanic and Romance Languages [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 213],  pp. 233 ff. DOI logo
Castillo, Concha
2022. The Status of English Modals Prior to Their Recategorization as T and the Trigger for Their Recategorization. Anglica. An International Journal of English Studies :31/2  pp. 49 ff. DOI logo
Castillo, Concha
2022. The derivation of verbs in Old English and Middle English. Complutense Journal of English Studies 30  pp. 23 ff. DOI logo
Catasso, Nicholas
2011. The Grammaticalization of Demonstratives: A Comparative Analysis. Journal of Universal Language 12:1  pp. 7 ff. DOI logo
COLE, MARCELLE
2017. Pronominal anaphoric strategies in the West Saxon dialect of Old English. English Language and Linguistics 21:2  pp. 381 ff. DOI logo
Cole, Marcelle
2018. A native origin for Present-Day Englishthey, their, them. Diachronica 35:2  pp. 165 ff. DOI logo
COLE, MARCELLE
2019. Subject and adjacency effects in the Old Northumbrian gloss to theLindisfarne Gospels. English Language and Linguistics 23:1  pp. 131 ff. DOI logo
EITELMANN, MATTHIAS
2016. Support for end-weight as a determinant of linguistic variation and change. English Language and Linguistics 20:3  pp. 395 ff. DOI logo
Fuß, Eric
2007. Elly van Gelderen, Grammaticalization as Economy Amsterdam: John Benjamins (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 71), 2004, pp. xvi, 320. ISBN 90 272 2795 0. The Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 10:1 DOI logo
Góralczyk, Iwona & Joanna Łozinska-Bastek
Hamann, Cornelia
2011. Binding and Coreference: Views from Child Language. In Handbook of Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition [Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics, 41],  pp. 247 ff. DOI logo
Ho-Cheong Leung, Alex & Wim van der Wurff
2018. Chapter 6. Anaphoric reference in Early Modern English. In The Noun Phrase in English [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 246],  pp. 143 ff. DOI logo
Huang, C. -T. James & Barry C. -Y. Yang
2024. Topic drop and pro drop. Language and Linguistics. 語言暨語言學 25:1  pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Huyghe, Richard
2019. Les formes réfléchies du verbe : présentation. Langages N° 216:4  pp. 5 ff. DOI logo
Jurczyk, Rafał
2021. Between feature mapping and thematic prominence: Old englishse-demonstratives and pronouns in discourse. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 57:4  pp. 573 ff. DOI logo
Kinn, Kari
2016. Referential vs. non-referential null subjects in Middle Norwegian. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 39:3  pp. 277 ff. DOI logo
Kinn, Kari
2017. Null arguments in old Norwegian. Linguistic Variation 17:2  pp. 309 ff. DOI logo
Kinn, Kari, Kristian A. Rusten & George Walkden
2016. Null Subjects in Early Icelandic. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 28:1  pp. 31 ff. DOI logo
Kuteva, Tania, Bernd Heine, Bo Hong, Haiping Long, Heiko Narrog & Seongha Rhee
2019. World Lexicon of Grammaticalization, DOI logo
Lavidas, Nikolaos
2013. Null and cognate objects and changes in (in)transitivity. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 60:1  pp. 69 ff. DOI logo
Lavidas, Nikolaos
2019. Word order and closest-conjunct agreement in the Greek Septuagint: On the position of a biblical translation in the diachrony of a syntactic correlation. Questions and Answers in Linguistics 5:2  pp. 37 ff. DOI logo
Mees, Bernard
2013. ‘Giving’ and ‘Making’ in Early Runic Epigraphy. Transactions of the Philological Society 111:3  pp. 326 ff. DOI logo
NAWATA, Hiroyuki
2014. Verbal Inflection, Feature Inheritance, and the Loss of Null Subjects in Middle English. Interdisciplinary Information Sciences 20:2  pp. 103 ff. DOI logo
Osawa, Fuyo
2022. The rivalry between definiteness and specificity. In English Noun Phrases from a Functional-Cognitive Perspective [Studies in Language Companion Series, 221],  pp. 80 ff. DOI logo
Reuland, Eric
2006. Binding Theory. In Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, DOI logo
Reuland, Eric
2017. Why is Reflexivity so Special? Understanding the World of Reflexives. Studia Linguistica 71:1-2  pp. 12 ff. DOI logo
Reuland, Eric
2018. Reflexives and Reflexivity. Annual Review of Linguistics 4:1  pp. 81 ff. DOI logo
Reuland, Eric J.
2016. Universals and variation. In Finiteness Matters [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 231],  pp. 93 ff. DOI logo
Rozwadowska, Bożena, Arkadiusz Nowak & Anna Bondaruk
2020. Chapter 1. Psych verbs. In Beyond Emotions in Language [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 263],  pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Rusten, Kristian A.
2013. Empty Referential Subjects in Old English Prose: A Quantitative Analysis. English Studies 94:8  pp. 970 ff. DOI logo
Rusten, Kristian A.
2015. A quantitative study of empty referential subjects in Old English prose and poetry. Transactions of the Philological Society 113:1  pp. 53 ff. DOI logo
Schadler, Dagmar
2017. Reflexivity in Two Zhuang Dialects. Studia Linguistica 71:1-2  pp. 136 ff. DOI logo
SIEMUND, PETER
2014. The emergence of English reflexive verbs: an analysis based on theOxford English Dictionary. English Language and Linguistics 18:1  pp. 49 ff. DOI logo
Slofstra, Bouke & Eric Hoekstra
2021. Case, deficient pronouns and the arbitrary pronoun men in Frisian. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 53:2  pp. 242 ff. DOI logo
Trips, Carola & Peter A. Stokes
2023. From Original Sources to Linguistic Analysis: Tools and Datasets for the Investigation of Multilingualism in Medieval English. In Medieval English in a Multilingual Context [New Approaches to English Historical Linguistics, ],  pp. 49 ff. DOI logo
van Gelderen, Elly
2003. ASP(ect) in English modal complements. Studia Linguistica 57:1  pp. 27 ff. DOI logo
van Gelderen, Elly
2013. The Linguistic Cycle and the Language Faculty. Language and Linguistics Compass 7:4  pp. 233 ff. DOI logo
van Gelderen, Elly
2013. Null Subjects in Old English. Linguistic Inquiry 44:2  pp. 271 ff. DOI logo
van Gelderen, Elly
VAN GELDEREN, ELLY
2017. Generative coda. English Language and Linguistics 21:2  pp. 423 ff. DOI logo
van Gelderen, Elly
2017. Cyclicity. In The Cambridge Handbook of Historical Syntax,  pp. 467 ff. DOI logo
van Gelderen, Elly
2019. The Northumbrian Old English glosses. NOWELE. North-Western European Language Evolution 72:2  pp. 119 ff. DOI logo
van Gelderen, Elly
2019. Reflexive pronouns in the Lindisfarne glosses. NOWELE. North-Western European Language Evolution 72:2  pp. 220 ff. DOI logo
van Gelderen, Elly, David K. Barnhart, Kanavillil Rajagopalan, Edward J. Vajda, Kleanthes K. Grohmann & Anthony P. Grant
2006. Reviews. <i>WORD</i> 57:2-3  pp. 249 ff. DOI logo
Vartiainen, Turo & Mikko Höglund
Walkden, George
2013. Null subjects in Old English. Language Variation and Change 25:2  pp. 155 ff. DOI logo
WALKDEN, GEORGE & KRISTIAN A. RUSTEN
2017. Null subjects in Middle English. English Language and Linguistics 21:3  pp. 439 ff. DOI logo
Wood, Jim & Raffaella Zanuttini
2018. Datives, data and dialect syntax in American English. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 3:1 DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 6. Middle English. In A History of the English Language,  pp. 115 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. Notes to the user and abbreviations. In A History of the English Language,  pp. xiv ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. Preface to the first edition (2006). In A History of the English Language,  pp. ix ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 9. English around the world. In A History of the English Language,  pp. 251 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 1. The English language. In A History of the English Language,  pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. References. In A History of the English Language,  pp. 321 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. Appendix II: How to use the OED. In A History of the English Language,  pp. 311 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 4. Old English. In A History of the English Language,  pp. 51 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 7. Early Modern English. In A History of the English Language,  pp. 159 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. List of tables. In A History of the English Language,  pp. xvi ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 10. Conclusion. In A History of the English Language,  pp. 283 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. Companion site. In A History of the English Language, DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 2. English spelling, sounds, and grammar. In A History of the English Language,  pp. 15 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. Index. In A History of the English Language,  pp. 335 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 5. From Old to Middle English. In A History of the English Language,  pp. 95 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. Preface to the revised edition. In A History of the English Language,  pp. xii ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 8. Modern English. In A History of the English Language,  pp. 207 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. List of figures. In A History of the English Language,  pp. xix ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. Appendix III: Chronology of historical events. In A History of the English Language,  pp. 315 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. Appendix I: Possible answers to the exercises and some additional information on in-text questions. In A History of the English Language,  pp. 295 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2014. 3. Before Old English. In A History of the English Language,  pp. 33 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Subjects

Main BIC Subject

CF: Linguistics

Main BISAC Subject

LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General
ONIX Metadata
ONIX 2.1
ONIX 3.0
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  00057202 | Marc record