Interpretations of Turkish Reflexive Pronouns KENDI and KENDISI

Yıl 2016, Cilt: 13 Sayı: 1, - , 17.05.2016

Aydın Özbek Barış Kahraman

Öz

Turkish has two different forms of reflexive pronouns: kendi (self)
and kendisi (self-3sg). In the field of theoretical linguistics, there are different
views regarding the binding relations of these reflexives. One view is that
kendi and kendisi can be bound with both the subject of the embedded clause
and the subject of the matrix clause. According to another view, kendi is
more likely to be bound with the subject of the embedded clause, whereas
kendisi can be bound with either the subject of the embedded clause or the
subject of the matrix clause. In order to provide evidence for the reflexive
interpretation and confirm the validity of existing linguistic analyses in
Turkish, we conducted a forced preference task with 64 native speakers of
Turkish. Our findings suggest that the interpretations of kendi and kendisi are
different in Turkish and that kendi is much freer than kendisi.
Key Words: Reflexives, Binding, Turkish, Kendi, Kendisi

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