reflexive (adj./n.) (refl, REFL, reflex)

A term used in GRAMMATICAL description to refer to a VERB or CONSTRUCTION where the SUBJECT and the OBJECT relate to the same entity. English uses reflexive PRONOUNS to express this relationship (e.g. he kicked himself ), but the same verbal MEANING is often present without the pronoun (e.g. I shaved (myself)). Other LANGUAGES use a variety of FORMS for the expression of reflexive meaning, such as SUFFIXES, CASE endings and WORD order. In TRANSFORMATIONAL grammar, reflexivization refers to a RULE which introduces the reflexive pronouns into a sentence – in one formulation by changing the syntactic feature on the object personal PRONOUN from [−reflexive] to [+reflexive], when it is CO-REFERENTIAL with the subject, e.g. she saw her ⇒ she saw herself. In GOVERNMENT-BINDING THEORY, reflexives, together with RECIPROCALS, NP-TRACES and PRO, are BASE-generated ANAPHORS – a class of NPs. Other classes are pronouns and R-EXPRESSIONS.