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Reflexives in Hindi/Urdu1
1. Pronouns and reflexives in Hindi/Urdu In Hindi, pronouns and reflexives have different lexical forms and express different features:

pronouns are distinguished by person (I,II,III), number (singular and plural); 3rd person pronouns express orientation to the speaker (proximal and distal). Pronouns are inflected for morphological case (Nominative and Oblique forms; second ones are formed by the oblique case of a pronoun combined with a postposition that serves as a case marker and expresses different semantic features) maiN 1sg-Nom ham 1pl-Nom meeraa 1sg-Gen hamaaraa 1pl-Gen mujh-koo/mujhee 1sg-Dat ham-koo/hameN 1pl-Dat

tu 2sg-Nom tumhaaraa 2sg-Gen tujh-koo/tujhe 2sg-Dat tum 2pl-Fam-Nom tumhaaraa 2pl-Gen tum-koo/tumheeN 2pl-Dat aap 2pl-Hon-Nom aap kaa 2pl- Gen aap-koo 2pl-Dat Proximal yah 3sg-Nom this is-kaa yee 3pl-Nom these in-kaa this-Gen is-koo/isee this-Gen in-koo/inheN this-Dat these-Dat

Distal woo 3sg-Nom that us-kaa that-Gen us-koo/usee that-Dat wee 3pl-Nom those un-kaa those-Gen un-koo/unheN those-Dat

reflexives in Hindi are inflected for all cases except for the Nominative. Reflexives form oblique cases in the same way as pronouns do (oblique form + postposition). Such features as person, number and orientation are not expressed in Hindi reflexives, so their antecedent can be of any number, person, orientation or gender, expressed through verbal agreement. An important distinction for reflexives is the contrast between simplex and complex forms that have different binding possibilities. There are 3 simplex reflexives but the only difference is their origin and stylistic nuances they express. Simplex: apnaa self-Gen khud-kaa self-Gen swayam-kaa 2self-Gen omplex: apnaa3 self-Gen apnee-koo khud-koo swayam-koo self-Dat self-Dat self-Dat

apnee-aap-koo self-Dat

Both simplex and complex reflexives can be used as arguments (1), simplex forms can also be used as modifiers (2). (1) Mohan khud/ apnee-aap-koo nahaa-taa hai Mohan self - Acc wash -Imperf.m.sg is Mohan washes himself

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Most examples are taken from Davidson (2001) and Dayal (1994) Swayam origins from Sanskrit and seems to be not used in Urdu. 3 The form apnee-aap-kaa is possible but used very rarely. The native speakers I consulted with found it possible but awkward. It is possible to say that the contrast between simplex and complex reflexives breaks down for the genitive forms.
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(2) Mohan apnaa-/ *apnee-aap-kaa pyaalaa dhoo-taa hai Mohan selfs cup wash- Imperf.m.sg is Mohan washes his cup It should be mentioned here that Nominative forms of khud and aapnee-aap followed by hii can be used as emphatic clitics on the subject: (3) woo khud/apnee aap hii 3sg oneself emph She drives the car herself gaarii chala-ti hai car drive-Imperf.fsg is

reciprocals eek duusree-kaa eek duusree-koo one-second, each other-Gen one-second, each other-Dat aapas-meeN among each other mutually Pronoun-anaphor is a genitive pronoun. It is formed through combining genitive forms of all pronouns with apnaa, matching its antecedent in person, number. is-kaa apnaa 3s.Prox-gen self Gen

2. Reflexives in Hindi
2.1 Orientation Reflexives in Hindi/Urdu are always subject-oriented in all binding domains in contrast to pronouns that always show anti-subject orientation. (4) Wooi bacceej-koo apnee-aapi/*j /is*i/j see kaisee alag kar sak -tii hai? 3sg child - Dat selfs self / her*i/j/him*i/j from how separate do be-able-Impf.f.sg is How can shei separate/remove the childj from selfi/*j /her*i/j /him*i/j? (5) raami nee mohanj-ko apniii/*j / us*i/j/k -kii kitaab parh-ii Rami Erg Mohanj-Dat selfsi/*j / 3sg*i/j/k Gen book read-Perf.f.sg Rami read selfsi/*j/his*i/j/k book to Mohan (6) Moohani-koo apnaai/*j /uska*i/j mitr bahut acchaa lag-taa hai Mohani-Dat selfsi/*j / his*i/j friend much good strike-Impf.m.sg is Mohani likes selfsi/*j friend very much. Reflexives can be bound by nominative subjects, ergative subjects and dative subjects as shown in examples (1), (2), (3) respectively4. Special attention should be paid to ditransitive structures like (5), where the IO seems to ccommand the DO, so we should expect it to be able to bind reflexives inside the DO. Then the principle of subject-orientation would be violated, but this fact does not hold for Hindi. Veneeta Srivastav Dayal proposes two ways to explain this fact.

The first explanation uses the analysis of ditransitive structures given by Larson: The VP consists of an empty V taking a VP complement whose Spec is the DO, whose head is the verb and whose complement is the IO. The surface order is a result of the verb raising to the empty V position5. This account should be incorporated with a version of BT that refers to antecedents that precede and c-command.

But only Nominative subject controls verb agreement. In (5) and (6) demonstrate verbal agreement with the DO. 5 Dayal, Veneeta. 1994. Binding facts in Hindi and the Scrambling phenomenon, p. 245
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The second explanation uses the fact that anaphors (in Chomskys terminology) raises to INFL in LF.

Both explanations can be adopted to explain binding facts in ditransitive structures. It is worth noting that only reflexives should be used as object modifiers in all cases when coindexed with the subject, as it was noted by the native speakers I consulted with: (7) wooi us-kej /apneei pitaa-se pyaar kar-taa hai 3sg hisj/hersj selfs father-with love do-Impf.m.sg is He loves selfs father (8) hami *hamaareei /apneei pitaa-se pyaar kar-tee haiN 1pl our/ selfs father-with love do Impf.m.pl are We love selfs father Genitive pronouns can be used only as subject modifiers as in (9). Reflexives can be used as subject modifiers too, but then it is a case of arbitrary usage, when only generic reading is possible (10): (9) hamaaraa ghar sab-see accha hai Our hous all from good is Our house is the best (10) apnaa ghar sab-see accha hai selfs house all from good is Ones own house is the best Arbitrary apnaa can also have first person inclusive reading (11): (11) oh! Love story! Yah apnaa kaam nahiiN6 this selfs work not Oh! Love story! Its not our work. 2.2 Local binding Both simplex and complex reflexives can be bound locally. This has been shown in (1), though the complex reflexive is preferred in this case. 2.3 Long-distance binding Hindi allows long distance binding but only for simplex reflexives: (12) Siitaai-ne raamj-koo [ PROj apneei/j-ko /apnee aap*i/j-ko deekh-nee] kee liyee majbuur kiya Sita Erg Ram-Dat self -Dat / selfs self Dat see-inf -Gen for force do-Perf Sitai forced Ramj [PROj to look at self: apneei/j /apnee aap*i/j] Long distance binding is allowed only in certain domains, described in detail in Davidson (2001). Clauses with finite tenses prohibit long-distance binding. (13) Raadhaai yah pasand nahiiN kar-tii Radha this liking not do Impf.f.sg [ki usi/j-kaa/ apnaa*i/*j bhaii aisee loogooN-see baat kar-ee]
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This example is taken form Khokhlova. The whole situation is described there as such: The two policemen, noticing at night the burning candles on the ground at first suspect something wrong happening.Later one of them discovers that the candles are arranged in some order and spells the words I love you!; addressing his collegue, he pronounces : O, love story, that is not our work! - (Film Aashikii).
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that 3Sg-Gen/selfs-Gen brother such people with talk do- Subj-3Sg Radha doesnt like it [that heri/j / selfs*i/*j brother should talk to such people Non-finite domains on the contrary sometimes prohibit local binding. For example, local binding is impossible within some NPs (event nominals7 in Davidson (2001)): (14) *[raami-kaa apnee-kee liyee dhookaa] kaanuun-kee xilaaf nahiiN hai Ram Gen self- for sake deception law Gen against not is Rams deception of himself is not against the law Local binding is prohibited in Small Clauses with individual level predicates (15) and clauses embedded in causative constuctions (16): (15) raami [moohanj-koo apneei/*j / us-kaai/*j sab-see baRaa duman] maan-taa hai Ram Mohan Dat selfs 3sp-Gen all from big enemy consider-Imperf is Ram considers [Mohan his own worst enemy] (16) pulisi-ne raamj-koo [ apneei/*j-koo paisa curaa-tee hu-ee] dikh-aa-yaa policei-Erg Ramj Dat self- Dat money steal-Impf.m.pl be-Pf see-Caus-Pf The policei showed Ramj [themselvesi/*himselfj stealing the money] Other non-finite domains (clauses with non-finite tense naa, non-finite aspect, NPs and small clauses except for mentioned above) allow both local and long-distance binding. Davidson uses the head-raising account for Chinese (Cole and Sung 1994) to explain these facts, arguing that for Hindi in LF the host functional category to which the reflexives can be cliticised are TENSE and ASPECT. Domains that dont allow local binding lack Tense/Aspect and other functional projections, and thus prohibit local binding.

2.4 The animacy condition

The animacy condition requires both local (8) and distant antecedents to be animate in most cases. Animacy should be expected for distant antecedents, since matrix verbs tend to be verbs of perception and propositional attitude. (17) * kaari -nee apnee aapi koo diiwaar par tooR diya Car-Erg selfs self- Dat wall -on smash give.Perf.m.sg The car smashed itself against the wall The same meaning should be expressed differently, like in (9) where intransitive verbs derived from nouns are used: (18) kaar diwaar-par zoor-see laR ga-ii car wall-with force-with clash go-Perf.f.sg the car hit the wall with force What counts for animate is another question, as such words as computer and bacteria seem to meet the animacy condition. 3. Some remarks on the contrast between reflexives in Hindi and Russian First of all I would note the resemblance of the set of lexical forms of reflexives and some of their properties in Hindi and Russian. Both languages have simplex reflexives (sebja in Russian, apnee-postposition in Hindi both not specified for person, number and gender), that are used as arguments in oblique cases only, allowing the usage of their Nominative forms only as emphatic clitics on the subject (3) and (19):
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In this section I will use the same names for binding domains as in Davidson (2001)
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(19) Ona sama vodit mainu. She oneself drives car She drives the car herself Simlpex reflexives svoj and apnaa can be used as modifiers- : (20) On ljubit svoj dom. He loves selfs house. Hei loves hisi house Russian complex reflexive sam sebja , as well as apnee-aap is used as an argument only. (21a) On sam sebja kormit. He self-Acc feeds He feeds himself (21b) *On moyet sam sebja aku. He washes selfs cup He washes selfs cup The main difference in expressing reflexivity in Russian and Hindi is that reflexivitiy in Russian can be expressed through verb derivation: (22a) On moyet sebjya samostoyatelno He himself washes by himself (22b) On moyet-sya samostoyatelno He washes-refl. By himself He washes himself without help Russian reflexives are also subject-oriented, unlike pronouns that show anti-subject orientation. (23) Petjai itaet Vasj-ej svojui/*j/ his*i/j/k knigu. Petja reads Vasja-Dat sefls / his book. Petjai reads selfsi/*j / his*i/j/k book to Vasjaj. But if the usage of a pronoun in (8) that seems to be prohibited Hindi is absolutely fine in Russian: (24) My ljubim naego/svojego ottsa We love selfs our father We love selfs/ our father Further more, the usage of the possessive pronouns conveys an additional sense of intimacy. In addition to that, the differences between reflexives and pronouns in Russian, when they are used for 1 or 2 person, singular or plural, seem to express additional meaning, when in Hindi they cant be used in this position8: - common vs. distributive possession My vernemsja s toboy v na gorog We shall return with you in our city (city in common) Odnako k utru my zjablu pod svoimi odeyalami. But by morning we felt cold under selfs blankets By the morning we were feeling cold under our blankets (blankets are separate) -politeness is usually expressed by possessive pronouns. Often its antecedent is the polite vy: Prou vas vzvesit vai slova I ask you to weigh your words
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All the examples here are taken from Khokhlova, some of her examples are taken from other works.
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Ty otveaye za svoi (*tvoi) slova You are responsible for selfs (*your) words Arbitrary usage of reflexives is possible in Russian too, though it has only generic reading: Svoya rubashka blizhe k telu Selfs shirt is closer to the body Self comes first As in Hindi, Russian reflexives can be bound within local and distant domains; in some domains both local and distant readings are possible: Mamai zapretila synui itat svoii/j knigi Mother forbade son-Dat read selfs books The mother forbade the son to read her/his own books. A very interesting paper on reflexives in both languages was written by L.V. Khokhlova. She studies the properties of Hindi and Russian reflexives in order to discover the influence of the language type on the referential properties of NPs. These languages seem perfect for such purposes Russian is a classical nominative-accusative language, while Hindi is in the middle position in ergativity hierarchy. References: Davison, Alice. 2001. Long-distance anaphora in Hindi/Urdu. In Long-Distance Reflexives. Syntax and Semantics 33, eds. Peter Cole et al., 47-82. Irvine, CA: Academic Press. Dayal, Veneeta. 1994. Binding facts in Hindi and the Scrambling phenomenon. In Theoretical Perspectives on Word Order Issues in South Asian Languages, eds. Miriam Butt et al., 237261. Stanford: CSLI Publications. Bring, Daniel. 2005. Binding Theory: Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Khokhlova, L.V. Some notes on reflexivisation in Hindi and Russian http://www.iaas.msu.ru/pub_on/khokhlova/reflexivization.pdf

*** Im very indebted to Mohsin Siddique and Suradj Agarval for their help as informants.