Reflexive constructions in Kambaata

Yvonne Treis (1)

1 LLACAN - Langage, LAngues et Cultures d'Afrique

Kambaata (Cushitic, Ethiopia) has a nominal and a verbal reflexivizer. The nominal reflexivizer gag-á 'self', a case-inflecting noun of masculine gender, is used to mark coreference between the subject and a direct, indirect or oblique object. Whereas the antecedent of the reflexive noun is most commonly the subject of the same clause, this chapter argues that gag-á 'self' also qualifies as a long-distance reflexive. As such, it can mark coreference between an NP in an infinite or finite subordinate clause and the subject of the matrix clause. Apart from being used in reflexive constructions, gag-á 'self' is a self-intensifier. The middle morpheme-aqq /-' on verbs is multifunctional. Most productively, it expresses autobenefactivity. It can also mark coreference between the subject and the direct object in the same clause. However, in typical reflexive situations (e.g. 'see oneself'), it is rarely the only reflexivizer but cooccurs with the reflexive noun gag-á.

Mots clés: Cushitic; Kambaata; reflexive; reflexivity; long-distance reflexive; middle; self-intensifier; coreference; autobenefactive

Domaines: Linguistique

Yvonne Treis. Reflexive constructions in Kambaata. Katarzyna Janic, Nicoletta Puddu & Martin Haspelmath. Reflexive constructions in the world's languages, Language Science Press, pp.155-184, 2023, 978-3-96110-411-6. ⟨10.5281/zenodo.7861660⟩. ⟨hal-03095847v2⟩