The Grammar Of Identity : Intensifiers And Reflexives In Germanic Languages Paperback

India

Volker Gast

English self-forms and related words from other Germanic languages (e.g. Dutch zelf, Swedish sjalv, etc.) are used in two different functions: as `intensifiers' (e.g. The president himself made the decision) and as markers of reflexivity (John criticized himself). On the basis of a comparative syntactic and semantic analysis, this book addresses the question of why two such apparently different functions can be expressed by the same word. This question is answered by showing that both intensifying and reflexive self-forms can be analysed as expressing the concept of `identity'.

1138868310

9781138868311

English

Taylor & Francis Ltd

07 Apr 2015