Date: Sun, 19 Nov 1995 02:07:12 -0500

From: Bob Haas rahaas[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]HAMLET.UNCG.EDU

Subject: Re: Don Nelson puts behind



Dennis,



Perhaps clause-mates ought to trigger reflexives, but that's not how they

work. According to _The New Lexicon Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary_

(1992) the definition of reflexive reads: "denoting an action by the

subject upon itself, e.g. of a verb whose subject and direct object are

the same ('dressed' in 'he dressed himself'), or of a pronoun which is

the object of such a verb ('himself' in 'he dressed himself') . . . (837).



Therefore, your example doesn't quite seem to apply. In "John put the

skunk behind himself" himself is not called for. The more correct

pronoun, him, is the object of the preposition. It would seem to more

dative that accusitive, but besides worrying about the labels, it seems

to me that most readers would understand that "him" refers to John and

not the skunk. Why would he move the skunk behind itself?



Finally, John must be careful because if the skunk in question has not

been descented, John will end up washing himself in tomato juice. Not

that that particular remedy is all that effective.



While your ideas about clause-mates are interesting, I'm not quite ready

to buy them. I would enjoy a response, though.



Bob Haas

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

rahaas[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]hamlet.uncg.edu





On Sat, 18 Nov 1995, Dennis R. Preston wrote:



Can't buy it. Clause-mates ought to trigger reflexives.



For example, in 'John moved the skunk away from himself,' the skunk is the

target of the moving (not John), and 'him' would not be coreferential.



Compare

John put the skunk behind himself



with



John put the argument behind him.