Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online

1. Intensifiers and how they give rise to reflexives ⇫ ¶

An intensifier is defined here as a focusing particle that singles out an entity as playing a central role or as being involved in an event without the participation of others (cf. König & Gast 2006). Typical English examples are (1) and (2).

These two uses of -self in English are different (e.g. in that the first is adnominal while the second is adverbal), but they are lumped together for the purposes of this chapter, which is based on the WALS chapter by König et al. (2005).

In quite a few languages around the world, intensifiers are expressed identically (or very similarly) to reflexive pronouns, and this seems to happen mostly by a change from (personal pronoun plus) intensifier to reflexive pronoun. A sentence such as He saw himself, where himself now simply signals co-reference, derives from an earlier structure He saw him self, where it indicated focused status with a central role (‘He saw the person himself’, i.e. the person with the most central status, i.e. the same referent as the subject) (see König & Siemund 2000, Keenan 2003).

Within the European languages, intensifier-reflexive coexpression is characteristic of English, whereas other languages mostly have different (and older) reflexive pronouns. Such reflexive vs. intensifier contrasts are found, for instance, in German sich vs. selbst, Russian sebja vs. sam, Spanish se vs. mismo, Portuguese se vs. mesmo, French se vs. même.

In this chapter, we ask whether intensifiers and reflexives are identical or differentiated. If there are more than one intensifier and/or more than one reflexive pronoun, there may also be overlap. Finally, some languages have no special reflexive pronouns but use their ordinary anaphoric pronouns for co-reference. In these languages, the question of identity or differentiation does not really arise.

	Intensifiers and reflexives are identical	27
	Intensifiers and reflexives are differentiated	24
	Intensifiers and reflexives overlap	12
	Identical and differentiated	1
	No special reflexive pronouns exist	6
Representation:		70

2. Intensifiers and reflexives are identical ⇫ ¶

Twenty-seven languages are like English in that they show identity between intensifiers and reflexives. Not surprisingly, most of them are English-based, and in almost all of them, the intensifier/reflexive is derived from English self. (In all examples in this chapter, the (a) sentences show intensifier uses, and the (b) sentences show reflexive uses.)

The only English-based language where the intensifier/ reflexive is not based on self is Tok Pisin, which has yet:

Reflexive-intensifier identity is also found in the Caribbean Spanish-based languages Palenquero and Papiamentu. The form is derived from Spanish mismo, which was originally only an intensifier, but has become the marker of reflexives as well:

In English, intensifiers and reflexives are literally identical, as the intensifiers include the personal pronouns (my+self, him+self, etc.). In some of our languages, the reflexive pronoun consists of pronoun + intensifier, but we counted this as identity, too. Some examples:

3. Intensifiers and reflexives are differentiated ⇫ ¶

In twenty-four languages, intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated. Three examples of this type are given below.

In these examples, the intensifiers are inherited from the lexifier, while the reflexive pronoun is a new creation on the basis of a body(-part) noun (cf. Chapter 87 on reflexive constructions). This seems to be typical: Intensifiers tend to be older and more resistant to change than reflexive pronouns.

In other languages (e.g. Ambon Malay, Lingala, Michif, Mixed Ma’a/Mbugu), affixal markers are used as reflexive pronouns, and these are never identical to intensifiers. The old distinction between se and même/mesmo/mismo (cf. §1) has not survived in any of the Romance-based languages.

4. Intensifiers and reflexives overlap ⇫ ¶

In some languages, there are two different expressions, and one of them can be used in both ways, while the other is used only in one way. In Ghanaian Pidgin English, for example, sɛf (‘self’) can be used as intensifier or reflexive, while bɔdi (‘body’) is only a reflexive pronoun. Similarly, in Principense, mesu (‘self’) can be used as intensifier or reflexive, while igbê (‘body’) is only a reflexive pronoun. On the other hand, in Nicaraguan Creole English, ihnself (etc.) can be used as intensifier or reflexive, while wan (‘one’) can only be used as an intensifier (mi wan ‘myself’).

5. Identical and differentiated ⇫ ¶

In Cape Verdean Creole of São Vicente, we find both identity and differentiation. This language has four relevant forms: Prop and mesmu (‘self’) are used only as intensifiers, while kabésa (‘head’) is used only as a reflexive pronoun, giving us differentiation. The fourth form, mes, is used both as intensifier and as reflexive, yielding identity.

6. No special reflexive pronouns exist ⇫ ¶

The six languages Bislama, Chinuk Wawa, Fanakalo, Juba Arabic, Kinubi, and Tayo generally lack special reflexive pronouns and express co-reference by their ordinary anaphoric pronouns (cf. Chapter 87). In these languages, the issue of identity or differentiation thus does not arise (as intensifiers are presumably always distinct from the ordinary anaphoric pronouns).