The purpose of this research is to set forth a semantic analysis of English reflexive pronouns. The plan of the research will be to examine the constituents of reflexive pronouns in statements, and then to discuss the usages of such pronouns with a view toward showing in what kinds of situations the reflexive form does or does not constitute a usefully clear reflexive structure.
The reflexive pronoun typically has a structure including the combining suffix "self:" myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves. Citing their archaic context, Fowler refers as well to certain reflexive constructions in which the appended suffix of "self" is not included: "He sat him down, I bethought me" (Fowler 615). Fowler's definition of reflexive verbs follows from this, that such verbs "are those of which the object and the subject are the same person or thing." They must be transitive in nature for the reason that their subject must have an object that "reflects" itself. Baldi notes that certain verbs, such as absent, bestir, and perjure, not only take but require the reflexive form in order to be properly used as transitives (Baldi).
In order to understand the semantic structure of a statement containing a reflexive, it is useful to identify the principal elements of such a statement. For purposes of the analysis, this research follows Wilkins's designation of the reflexive pronoun as the reflexive anaphor, although she adds that strictly speaking "the reflexive is not an anaphor with an antecedent, but rather is a term devoid of either thematic role or index that licenses multiple role assignment to some other term" (Wilkins 195). In other words, the reflexive attains validity only insofar as it designates a role for the self which is the same role and follows the same theme as the subject. In this view, the reflexive, as the object of action or being, may (indeed must) also assume the Patient or Goa...