Iron Range English Reflexive Pronouns
Sara Schmelzer Loss · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2014
This chapter offers new data from a Magnitude Estimation acceptability task that show that Iron Range English (IRE), which is spoken in the Arrowhead region of Minnesota, has long-distance reflexives. IRE reflexives (e.g., him-self) are long-distance reflexives, despite not, on the surface, sharing characteristics with long-distance reflexives in other languages: they are bi-morphemic, can co-refer with subjects or objects, and exhibit both Blocking Effects and subject-verb agreement. However, IRE reflexives are neither indeterminate between anaphors and pronominals, nor true logophors. This chapter suggests that IRE reflexives are operators that move successive-cyclically in LF to the edge of each clause, where they are in a local relationship with potential antecedents in higher clauses.