The meaning and use of English -self pronouns.
Item
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Title
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The meaning and use of English -self pronouns.
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Identifier
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AAI3024839
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identifier
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3024839
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Creator
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Stern, Nancy.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Ricardo Otheguy
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Date
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2001
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Language, Linguistics
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Abstract
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This study offers an innovative analysis of the English -self pronouns (myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves , etc.), relying on the notion of INSISTENCE as the constant meaning that these forms contribute to the communication of messages. Grammatical formatives in general, and the -self forms in particular, are seen not as surface manifestations of underlying syntactic constructions, but as semantic signals deployed by speakers to meet communicative goals. Data are taken from actual instances of use culled from written and spoken texts.;While rejecting the traditional characterization of -self as a reflexive pronoun, this study borrows from the tradition by analyzing -self as a kind of emphatic pronoun. All -self forms are hypothesized to signal the meaning INSISTENCE ON A REFERENT , which can be understood as a forceful pointing, an energetic reference that draws additional attention to an entity or entities.;This semantic approach to the distribution of -self pronouns has led to several discoveries. The -self forms contribute to the same types of interpretations in both appositive and argument environments, including unexpected messages, contrast, exclusion of others, and the importance of the referent. We have discovered that reflexive uses of -self forms are an instantiation of the general tendency to use their meaning for unexpected messages, in which a single referent is playing more than one role at a given point in time. The presence of such a role conflict accounts for all syntactically reflexive uses of - self, as well as the appearance of -self in picture noun phrases and logophoric contexts. The notion of role conflict is a more reliable predictor of the distribution of pronouns than is the syntactic notion of reflexivity.;Sentence-based and discourse uses of -self do not need to be treated as separate categories. The same set of explanatory principles---signals and their meanings---serves to explain the distribution of these forms in all environments. This study contributes to an understanding of grammatical morphemes as meaningful units whose distribution can be explained not as a reflex of syntactic structure, but instead, directly by their meanings.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
