Grammar: Reflexive verbs

February 2, 2017

REFLEXIVE VERBS

Reflexive verbs are notional/link verbs with their activity doer/agent and recipient/patient/addressee being the same and expressed by subjects and direct objects correspondingly. 

We use a reflexive pronoun after a transitive verb when the direct object is the same as the subject of the verb. E.g: He blamed himself for the accident.


Some verbs change their meaning slightly when they have a reflexive pronoun as direct object: amuse, apply, busy, content, behave, blame, distance, express, find, help, see.


Reciprocal Reflexives

Reciprocal reflexives denote mutual doer/addressee activity. They are mostly transitive. E.g: She and I kissed [each other].

Autocausatives

Autocausative reflexives denote animate doer passivity. E.g: She got depressed.

Anticausatives

Anticausative reflexives denote inanimate subject passivity. E.g: The door (was/got) opened.

Impersonals/Mediopassives

Impersonal/mediopassive reflexives are intransitive verbs with doers implied. E.g:[They] relax well here. It’s thought that…


Proper Reflexives

Proper/inherent reflexives lack corresponding non-reflexives from which they can be synchronically derived. These are pure intransitive reflexive verbs. Eg:They laugh.

Exercises

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