Transitivity and valency
Transitivity
Intransitive verb Transitive verb Ditransitive verb
Valence increasing
Causative Applicative Benefactive Dative shift
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Reflexives and reciprocals
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Ingrammar, areflexive verb is, loosely, averb whosedirect object is the same as itssubject, for example, "I wash myself". More generally, a reflexive verb has the same semanticagent and patient (typically represented syntactically by the subject and the direct object). For example, the English verbto perjure is reflexive, since one can only perjureoneself. In a wider sense, the term refers to any verb form whosegrammatical object is areflexive pronoun, regardless of semantics; such verbs are also more broadly referred to aspronominal verbs, especially in the grammar of theRomance languages. Other kinds of pronominal verbs arereciprocal (they killed each other),passive (it is told),subjective, andidiomatic. The presence of the reflexive pronoun changes the meaning of a verb, e.g.,Spanishabonar'to pay',abonarse'to subscribe'.^[1]

There are languages that have explicitmorphology or syntax to transform a verb into a reflexive form. In many languages, reflexive constructions are rendered bytransitive verbs followed by a reflexive pronoun, as in English-self (e.g., "Shethrew herself to the floor."). English employs reflexive derivation idiosyncratically as well, as in "self-destruct".

Romance andSlavic languages make extensive use of reflexive verbs and reflexive forms.

In theRomance languages, there are nonemphaticclitic reflexive pronouns and emphatic ones. InSpanish, for example, the particlese encliticizes to the verb's infinitive, gerund, and imperative (lavarse'to wash oneself'), while inRomanian, the particle procliticizes to the verb (a se spăla'to wash oneself'). Full reflexive pronouns or pronominal phrases are added for emphasis or disambiguation:Me cuido a mí mismo "I take care of myself" (mismo'-self, same' combines with theprepositional form of the pronounmí'my' to form anintensive reflexive pronoun).

The enclitic reflexive pronounsa/se/si/się is used in Western and South Slavic languages, while Eastern Slavic languages use the suffix -sja (-ся). There is also the non-clitic emphatic pronounsebja/себя, used to emphasize the reflexive nature of the act; it is applicable only to "true" reflexive verbs, where the agent performs a (transitive) action on itself.

The Slavic languages use the same reflexive pronoun for allpersons andnumbers, while the Romance andNorth Germanic ones have a special third person pronoun that cliticizes andthe other Germanic ones do as well without cliticizing. This is illustrated in the following table for the word "to recall" (e.g.,Je me souviens means "I recall",Tu te souviens means "You recall", and so on).

In all of these language groups, reflexive forms often present an obstacle for foreign learners^[2][3] (notably native speakers of English,^{[citation needed]} where the feature is practically absent) due to the variety of uses. Even in languages which contain the feature, it is not always applicable to the same verbs and uses (although a common subset can be generally extracted, as outlined below). For example, the Spanish reflexive construct "se hundió el barco" ("the boat sank") has no reflexive equivalent in some Slavic languages (which use an intransitive equivalent ofsink), though for exampleCzech andSlovak do use a reflexive verb: "loď se potopila"/"loď sa potopila". Reflexive verbs can have a variety of uses and meanings, which often escape consistent classification. Some language-common identified uses are outlined below.^[4] For example, Davies et al.^[2] identify 12 uses for Spanish reflexive constructions, while Vinogradov^[5] dividesRussian reflexive verbs into as many as 16 groups.

Martin Haspelmath also has a useful distinction between the reflexive types mentioned below, which he calls introverted reflexives, and so-called extroverted reflexives, which are used for verbs that are usually not reflexive, like hate oneself, love oneself, hear oneself, and kill oneself. Some Indo-European languages have a different reflexive morpheme for extroverted reflexives. For example:

• TheRussian ненавидеть себя (nenavidet' sebja) "to hate oneself", which uses a reflexive pronoun, compares to мыться (myt'-sja) "to wash (oneself)", which uses a reflexive suffix (Russian can also say мыть себя (myt' sebja), with a reflexive pronoun, but only when the pronoun needs to be stressed for emphasis or contrast).
• OrDutch "zij haat zichzelf" "she hates herself", versus "zij wast zich" "she washes (herself)".
• The distinction exists similarly in English, where introverted reflexive verbs usually have no reflexive pronoun, unlike extroverted.^[6]
• Inancient Greek, the introverted reflexive was expressed using themiddle voice rather than a pronoun. Similarly, in modern Greek, it is expressed using the middle usage of the mediopassive voice. On the other hand, the extroverted reflexive was a true reflexive in ancient Greek and modern Greek.
• Similarly,Claire Moyse-Faurie distinguishes between middle and reflexive inOceanic languages.^[7]

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The "true" (literal) reflexive denotes that theagent is simultaneously thepatient. The verb is typicallytransitive and can be used in non-reflexive meaning as well.

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"Reciprocal" reflexive denotes that the agents perform the mutual actions among themselves, as in English constructions using "each other". In most cases, the transitive verbs are also used.

In modern Scandinavian languages, the passive (or more properlymediopassive) voice is used for medial, especially reciprocal, constructions. Some examples from Danish are:

Maria og Peter skændes; "Mary and Peter are bickering", lit. "Mary and Peter are scolded by each other."

Maria og Peter blev forlovet; "Mary and Peter got engaged [to each other]."

(The hypothetical form **kysses (kiss each other) is not often—if ever—seen in Danish; however, it will likely be understood by most native speakers, indicating that the mediopassive voice is still at the very least potentially productive in Danish. An expression like "de kysses uafladeligt" (they kiss each other all the time) could very well be used for humorous purposes.)

"Autocausative" reflexive denotes that the (usually animate) "referent represented by the subject combines the activity of actor and undergoes a change of state as a patient":^[8]

"Anticausative" reflexive denotes that the (usually inanimate) subject of the verb undergoes an action or change of state whose agent is unclear or nonexistent.^[8]

"Intransitive" forms (also known as "impersonal reflexive" or "mediopassive") are obtained by attaching the reflexive pronoun to intransitive verbs. The grammatical subject is either omitted (inpro-drop languages) or is adummy pronoun (otherwise). Thus, those verbs aredefective, as they have only the 3rd person singular (masculine or neuter, depending on language) form.

In Slavic languages, practically "the only condition is that they can be construed as having a human agent. The applied human agent can be generic, or loosely specified collective or individual."^[9]

In many cases, there is a semantic overlap between impersonal/anticausative/autocausative constructs and thepassive voice (also present in all Romance and Slavic languages).^[9] On one hand, impersonal reflexive constructs have a wider scope of application, as they are not limited to transitive verbs like the canonical passive voice. On the other hand, those constructs can have slight semantic difference ormarkedness.

"Inherent" or "pronominal" (inherently oressentially) reflexive verbs lack the corresponding non-reflexive from which they can be synchronically derived.^[8] In other words, the reflexive pronoun "is an inherent part of anunergative reflexive or reciprocal verb with no meaning of its own, and an obligatory part of the verb's lexical entry":^[10]

InHebrew reflexive verbs are inbinyan הִתְפַּעֵל. A clause whose predicate is a reflexive verb may never have an object but may have other modifiers. e.g.

• האישהתפטר מעבודתו - the manresigned from his job.
• האישהתמכר לסמים - the mangot addicted to drugs.
• האישהתקלח בבוקר - the man 'showered himself', i.e.,took/had a shower in the morning.
• האישההסתפרה אצל אבי - the woman got a haircut/had her hair done at Avi's.

Areflexive verb is a verb which must have both an object and a subject, but where, in some context, both the object and the subject are identical. In Inuktitut, this situation is expressed by using aspecific verb but by affixing anon-specific ending to it.

Specific ᓇᓄᖅ Nanuq ᖁᑭᖅᑕᕋ qukiqtara ᓇᓄᖅ ᖁᑭᖅᑕᕋ Nanuq qukiqtara I just shot the polar bear

Non-specific ᓇᓄᕐᒥᒃ Nanurmik ᖁᑭᖅᓯᔪᖓ qukiqsijunga ᓇᓄᕐᒥᒃ ᖁᑭᖅᓯᔪᖓ Nanurmik qukiqsijunga I just shot a polar bear

Reflexive ᖁᑭᖅᑐᖓ Qukiqtunga ᖁᑭᖅᑐᖓ Qukiqtunga I just shot myself

InGuugu Yimithirr (a member of thePama-Nyungan language family) reflexivity can combine with past (PST), nonpast (NPST), and imperative (IMP) tense marking to form the verbal suffixes:/-dhi/ (REFL+PST),/-yi/ (REFL+NPST) and/-ya/ (REFL+IMP) respectively. See the following example where the verbwaarmbal, a transitive verb meaning 'send back' is detransitivized to mean 'return' taking only one nominal argument with an agentive role:

The same valence-reduction process occurs for the transitivewagil 'cut'

In each of these cases, the reflexively inflected verb now forms a new stem to which additional morphology may be affixed, for examplewaarmba-adhi 'returned' may becomewaarmba-adhi-lmugu (return-REFL+PST-NEG) 'didn't return.' As with manyPama–Nyungan languages, however, verbs in the lexicon belong toconjugation classes, and a verbs class may restrict the ease with which it can be reflexivized.

These reflexive morphemes are largely employed for expressing reciprocality as well; however, in cases where there is potential ambiguity between a reflexive and a reciprocal interpretation,Guugu Yimithirr has an additional means for emphasizing the reflexive (i.e.,by the agentupon the agent) interpretation: namely, the/-gu/ suffix upon the grammatical subject. See for example the following contrast between the reciprocal and reflexive:

AnotherPama–Nyungan language,Gumbaynggir has a verbal suffix/-iri/ to mark reciprocality and de-transitivize transitive verbs e.g.

As withGuugu Yimithirr,Kuuk Thaayorre, aPaman language, has some ambiguity between reflexive and reciprocal morphemes and constructions. Ostensibly, there are two suffixes/-e/ and/-rr/ for reflexivity and reciprocality respectively; however, in practice it is less clear cut. Take for example the presence of the reciprocal suffix in what should seem like a simple reflexive example.^[13]

Or the reverse wherein an apparent reciprocal assertion has reflexive morphology:

In actuality, the broader function of the reciprocal verb is to emphasize the agentivity of the grammatical subject(s), sometimes to directly counteract expectations of an external agent--as in the first example above. The combination of the reciprocal verb with the reflexive pronoun highlights the notion that the subject acted highlyagentively (as in a mutual/symmetric reciprocal event) but was also theundergoer of their own action (as in a reflexive event where agentivity is backgrounded e.g. "I soiled myself").

Conversely, the reflexive verb can have precisely this function of backgrounding the agentivity of the subject and bringing the focus to the effect that was wrought upon the undergoer(s) as in the second example above.

"The door opened" is expressed in Hungarian as "Az ajtókinyílt", from the verbkinyílik, while the passive voice is rare and archaic. There are numerous verb pairs where one element is active and the other expresses middle voice, something happening apparently on its own, rendered in English like "to become, get, grow, turn" (something). See alsothe grammatical voice of Hungarian verbs and the Wiktionary entries of-ul/-ül,-ódik/-ődik and-odik/-edik/-ödik, three suffix groups that form such verbs.

• Deponent verb
• Passive voice
• Reciprocal (grammar)
• Reciprocal pronoun
• Reflexive pronoun

• R. M. W. Dixon & A. Y. Aikhenvald (eds)."Changing valency: Case studies in transitivity"(PDF). Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University, Melbourne.{{cite web}}:|author= has generic name (help)

• Transitivity and valency

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