On the Nature of the Reflexivization Cycle

Pierre Pica (1)

1 SFL - Structures Formelles du Langage

This article claims that ione has to distinguish between X° reflexives which do not bear phi-features, such as number, and XP complex reflexive - which do bear such features. The presence/vs absence of features, it is argued, explains the behavior of so called long distance reflexives - first observed, within the generative tradition, in scandinavian languages - but present all over. The observation according to which XP reflexives are clause bound, while X° reflexives in argument position are not, is some times refered to as "Pica's generalization" (see Burzio (1987) which stressed correctly that is was the first time that such a correlatiion betwen reflexives structure, binding domains, and the role of a cycle was observed. The behavioir of reflexives it is argued derives from the properties of abstratc movement at the level of Logical Form.

Keywords: liage; réfléchi à longue distance; localité; nombre; typologie

Domains: Linguistics

Pierre Pica. On the Nature of the Reflexivization Cycle. Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society, 1987, 17 (2), pp.483-500. ⟨hal-00207622⟩