The cyclic character of eskimo reflexivization
Jacob L. Mey · Acta Linguistica Hafniensia · 1971
The existence of cyclic rules in grammars of natural languages has been fairly well documented (for a discussion of the cyclic principle, see e.g. Jacobs & Rosenbaum 1968 : 235–248). To say that a particular transformation applies cyclically means that it will apply to the lowest (innermost) sentence (S) of an embedded structure first, then to the next higher (next most deeply embedded) S, and so on; the transformation in question will never apply to the whole structure simultaneously.