Rasprave Instituta za Hrvatski Jezik i Jezikoslovlje (Jan 2013)
The Position of sam in Reflexive Constructions
Abstract
The paper examines the position of the adjectival pronoun sam in reflexive constructions, which consist of a reflexive verb and the stressed form of the reflexive pronoun (sebe ‘self’). In these constructions, the adjectival pronoun sam (‘on one’s own’) can appear in nominative (hvalim sam sebe ‘I praise sam (‘on my own’) -nom sebe (self)-acc’) or accusative case (hvalim samoga sebe ‘I praise sam (‘on my own’) -acc sebe (self)-acc’). Our goal is to investigate whether the accusative or the nominative case form of sam have any impact on word order. The research is based upon data found in the corpus Hrvatska jezična riznica. The research follows Despić (2011), Rappaport (2000) and Hrvatska gramatika (1995) in assuming that the adjectival pronoun sam is an intensifier, i. e. an emphatic marker in specific contexts (when it immediately precedes a noun or follows a personal pronoun or in the context of reflexive constructions). After researching corpus data, several conclusions have been drawn: (i) the intensifier sam is almost always in direct contact with the reflexive pronoun sebe regardless of case form, (ii) in unmarked word order, sam precedes the reflexive pronoun sebe, and (iii), the intensifier sam rarely follows the reflexive sebe, but these cases are considered marked word order. It has been suggested in the literature (Despić 2011) that sam is an intensifier that is in specific context always in focus. Following this line of reasoning, it is proposed that the choice of the nominative or accusative form of the pronoun sam depends on whether the subject or the object is focalized.
