Situation control under reflexivization. A comparative study of certain verbs in Czech and German
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2009 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Czech in Formal Grammar |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Linguistics |
| Keywords | situation control; reflexivization; Czech and German; contrastive linguistics; middle verbs |
| Description | Both in Czech and German, there exists a huge class of verbs which (obligatorily or occasionally) take a reflexive element. It is not the case, however, that a reflexive verb in Czech has always a corresponding translational equivalent in German which is also reflexive. In applying the theory of middle verbs developed by Ingrid Kaufmann to Czech and German data, I arrive at the conclusion, that one of the decisive factors of reflexivization in German (as opposed to Czech) is situation control. While in Czech it is possible to derive reflexive decausatives virtually from any causative verb, in German the derivative process is blocked if the patient of the underlying verb is assigned potential situation control. |