Jaume Solà i Pujols - Departament de Filologia Catalana ...

So French supports our hypothesis in an interesting way: it has two different elements
used as non-clitic reflexives (lui(-même)/soi(-même)) depending on the nature of the subject;
correspondingly, it has two different emphatic I-subject forms, as expected if I-subjects are
anaphoric in this language.
Now, let us consider the Germanic cases. The emphatic I-subject (selbst/selv/etc.) is not
actually the anaphoric (reflexive) element in these languages, but rather the second element of
the compound anaphors these languages use: sich selbst (German), sig selv (Danish), etc.,
namely, a SELF element.
how.
I think, however, that the generalization in 0 can be maintained for these cases. Let us see
The German and Danish emphatic I-subjects, and even the English ones, are likely to be
floating elements. On the one hand, as SELF ELEMENTS, they can be adjoined to an overt DP,
to which they add emphasis:
(57) a. John himself/ he himself (English)
b. John selbst / er selbst (German)
c. John selv (Danish)
d. Jón sjálfur (Icelandic)
with a uniform interpretation in all cases. In 0 we exemplify the English use of emphatic himself,
which is similar to the use of selbst/selv/etc. in the other Germanic languages:
(58) a. I talked to John's wife but I didn't talk to John himself.
1
b. This book does not address the problem itself, but rather its consequences.
c. I didn't complain to her herself, but rather to her secretary.