Reflexive verb
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
(Difference between revisions)
| Revision as of 18:26, 23 November 2021 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff |
Current revision Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| {{Template}} | {{Template}} | ||
| + | In [[grammar]], a '''reflexive verb''' is, loosely, a [[verb]] whose [[direct object]] is the same as its [[subject (grammar)|subject]]; for example, "I wash myself". More generally, a reflexive verb has the same semantic [[Theta role|agent and patient]] (typically represented syntactically by the subject and the direct object). For example, the English verb ''to perjure'' is reflexive, since one can only perjure ''oneself''. In a wider sense, the term refers to any verb form whose [[grammatical object]] is a [[reflexive pronoun]], regardless of semantics; such verbs are also more broadly referred to as '''pronominal verbs''', especially in grammars of the [[Romance language]]s. Other kinds of pronominal verbs are '''reciprocal''' (''they killed each other''), '''passive''' (''it is told''), '''subjective''', '''idiomatic.''' The presence of the reflexive pronoun changes the meaning of a verb, e.g. [[Spanish language|Spanish]] ''abonar'' to pay, ''abonarse'' to subscribe. | ||
| - | ===In language=== | + | == See also == |
| - | A word that describes itself is called an ''[[autological word]]'' (or ''[[autological word|autonym]]''). This generally applies to adjectives, for example [[wikt:sesquipedalian|sesquipedalian]], but can also apply to other parts of speech, such as [[wikt:TLA|TLA]], as a three-letter [[abbreviation]] for [[three-letter abbreviation]], and [[PHP]] which is a [[recursive acronym]] for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor". | + | |
| - | A [[reflexive verb|reflexive]] sentence has the same [[subject (grammar)|subject]] and [[object (grammar)|object]] (e.g., "The man washed himself"). In contrast, a [[transitive verb|transitive]] sentence requires the subject and object to be non-identical (e.g., "The man hit John"). | + | * [[Deponent verb]] |
| + | * [[Passive voice]] | ||
| + | * [[Reciprocal (grammar)]] | ||
| + | * [[Reciprocal pronoun]] | ||
| + | * [[Reflexive pronoun]] | ||
| - | There is a special case of meta-sentence in which the content of the sentence in the metalanguage and the content of the sentence in the object language are the same. Such a sentence is referring to itself. However some meta-sentences of this type can lead to paradoxes. "This is a sentence." can be considered to be a self-referential meta-sentence which is obviously true. However "This sentence is false" is a meta-sentence which leads to a self-referential paradox. | ||
| - | Self-referential sentences include "This sentence contains thirty-eight letters.", and [[Quine's paradox]] of "Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation" which yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation. | ||
| - | |||
| - | [[Fumblerules]] are a humorous list of rules of good grammar and writing, demonstrated through sentences that violate those very rules, such as "Avoid cliches like the plague" and "Don't use no double negatives". The term was coined in a published list of such rules by [[William Safire]]. | ||
| - | |||
| - | ===In mathematics=== | ||
| - | * [[Gödel sentence]] | ||
| - | * [[Impredicativity]] | ||
| - | * [[Loop (graph theory)]] | ||
| - | * [[Tupper's self-referential formula]] | ||
| - | |||
| - | [[Hofstadter's law]], which specifies that "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law" is an example of a self-referencing adage. | ||
| - | |||
| - | ===In cognition=== | ||
| - | [[Neuroscience]] research suggests the existence of [[neuroplasticity]], a phenomenon in which thinking processes unconsciously change the neural circuitry and structure of the brain via sensory experience, input from the environment or reactions hitherto. | ||
| - | |||
| - | == In art == | ||
| - | |||
| - | Self-reference occurs in [[literature]] and [[film]] when an author refers to his or her own work in the context of the work itself. Examples include [[Miguel de Cervantes]]' ''[[Don Quixote]]'', [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'', ''[[The Tempest]]'' and ''[[Twelfth Night]]'', [[Denis Diderot]]'s ''[[Jacques le fataliste et son maître]]'', [[Italo Calvino]]'s ''[[If on a winter's night a traveler]]'', many stories by [[Nikolai Gogol]], ''[[Lost in the Funhouse]]'' by [[John Barth]], [[Luigi Pirandello]]'s ''[[Six Characters in Search of an Author]]'', [[Federico Fellini]]'s ''[[8½]]'' and [[Bryan Forbes]]'s ''[[The L-Shaped Room]]''. Speculative fiction writer [[Samuel R. Delany]] makes use of this in his novels ''[[Nova (novel)|Nova]]'' and ''[[Dhalgren]]''. In the former, Katin (a space-faring novelist) is wary of a long-standing curse wherein a novelist dies before completing any given work. [[Nova (novel)|Nova]] ends mid-sentence, thus lending credence to the curse and the realization that the novelist is the author of the story; likewise, throughout [[Dhalgren]], Delany has a protagonist simply named The Kid (or Kidd, in some sections), whose life and work are mirror images of themselves and of the novel itself. In the sci-fi spoof film [[Spaceballs]], Director [[Mel Brooks]] includes a scene wherein the evil characters are viewing a VHS copy of their own story, which shows them watching themselves "watching themselves", ad infinitum. Perhaps the earliest example is in [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'', where [[Helen of Troy]] laments: "for generations still unborn/we will live in song" (appearing in the song itself). | ||
| - | |||
| - | Self-reference in art is closely related to the concepts of [[fourth wall|breaking the fourth wall]] and [[meta-reference]], which often involve self-reference. The short stories of [[Jorge Luis Borges]] play with self-reference and related paradoxes in many ways. [[Samuel Beckett]]'s ''[[Krapp's Last Tape]]'' consists entirely of the protagonist listening to and making recordings of himself, mostly about other recordings. During the 1990s and 2000s filmic self-reference was a popular part of the [[rubber reality]] movement, notably in [[Charlie Kaufman]]'s films ''[[Being John Malkovich]]'' and ''[[Adaptation (film)|Adaptation]]'', the latter pushing the concept arguably to its breaking point as it attempts to portray its own creation, in a [[Story within a story#Fractal Fiction|dramatized version]] of the [[Droste effect]]. | ||
| - | |||
| - | Various [[creation myths]] invoke self-reference to solve the problem of what created the creator. For example, the [[Egyptian creation myth]] has a god swallowing his own semen to create himself. The [[Ouroboros]] is a mythical dragon which eats itself. | ||
| - | |||
| - | The [[Quran]] includes numerous instances of self-referentiality. | ||
| - | |||
| - | The [[surrealist]] painter [[René Magritte]] is famous for his self-referential works. His painting ''[[The Treachery of Images]]'', includes the words "this is not a pipe", the truth of which depends entirely on whether the word ''ceci'' (in English, "this") refers to the pipe depicted—or to the painting or the word or sentence itself. [[M.C. Escher]]'s art also contains many self-referential concepts such as hands drawing themselves. | ||
| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
Current revision
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
In grammar, a reflexive verb is, loosely, a verb whose direct object is the same as its subject; for example, "I wash myself". More generally, a reflexive verb has the same semantic agent and patient (typically represented syntactically by the subject and the direct object). For example, the English verb to perjure is reflexive, since one can only perjure oneself. In a wider sense, the term refers to any verb form whose grammatical object is a reflexive pronoun, regardless of semantics; such verbs are also more broadly referred to as pronominal verbs, especially in grammars of the Romance languages. Other kinds of pronominal verbs are reciprocal (they killed each other), passive (it is told), subjective, idiomatic. The presence of the reflexive pronoun changes the meaning of a verb, e.g. Spanish abonar to pay, abonarse to subscribe.
[edit]
See also
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Reflexive verb" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
