Chapter 85Reflexive si- in Verbal and Spatial Constructions
Bodily motion and change, indirect reflexivity, causatives and pretending, locative coreference, and proposed historical developments.
85.1 Verbal uses of si-
Reflexive si- occurs in verbs of bodily motion, spontaneous change, action involving oneself, and pretending. Nakagawa gives si-turi “stretch,” si-rutu “shift,” si-suye “sway,” and si-yupu “tighten,” derived from transitive bases Nakagawa (2024: 188). Their subjects undergo the movement or change. The available forms and meanings are partly lexical.
Other uses involve deliberate action. Satō's si-kasuy-re means to have someone help oneself. In his indirect-reflexive analysis, the helper acts on the subject, whose participation consists in arranging the help Satō (2007: §3.3); Satō (2008: 250). This account and the traditional intentional/unintentional distinction are competing explanations of the yay-/si- contrast ‹contested›; see Chapter 84 (Reflexive yay- and Its Extensions).
85.2 Causatives and pretending
The simulative reading recurs in si-mokor-e “pretend to sleep” and si-ray-re “pretend to be dead” Nakagawa (2024: 188). The shape si-…-CAUS also permits other readings, as “have someone help oneself” shows. Kobayashi cites deliberate coughing with si-musis-ka, a causative based on a one-place verb Kobayashi (2010: 155–157, §5).
Kobayashi distinguishes causatives of one-place and two-place bases and the order in which reflexivization and causativization apply. With a two-place base, a reflexive can identify the original patient with either the original actor or the added causer, depending on the derivation. For one-place bases he explicitly discusses identity of causer and causee, then relates it to a more articulated underlying structure. He leaves parts of that analysis unresolved ‹contested› Kobayashi (2010: 153–157, §§4.3–5.3). The participant identified by si- therefore requires analysis of the particular construction.
85.3 A subject's own spatial reference point
The prefix also occurs on locative nouns. In Satō's Chitose description, when the locative reference point and the clause subject are coreferential, si- marks that relation. A third-person locative form instead refers to someone else's position Satō (2008: 252).
Satō distinguishes these spatial uses from idiomatic yaykata “by oneself.” He regards their connection with his indirect-reflexive analysis as still uncertain Satō (2008: 252–253). Locative reference and ordinary nominal possession are compared in Chapter 52 (Relational Nouns, Spatial Forms, and Quasi-Incorporation).
85.4 Possessors and the history of the verbal functions
Incorporated body-part nouns can take a reflexive possessor. The Handbook's si-etu-uyna, literally “take one's own nose,” uses the plural stem uyna. It describes astonishment and is attributed to Satō 2018 Bugaeva & Kobayashi (2022: §4.2.2, example 17). This is a derivational possessor construction, compared with quasi-incorporation in Chapter 90 (Incorporation, Quasi-Incorporation, and Word Structure).
Bugaeva's later historical proposal derives the verbal functions through reflexive → autocausative → anticausative. In this terminology, an autocausative presents self-induced motion, while an anticausative presents a change without an expressed causer. She proposes that yay- retained reflexivity as its main function while si- extended through these other functions ‹speculative› Bugaeva (2025: 179–181, §3.1.2). This proposal accommodates several present-day uses; it does not establish one uniform meaning for every si- word.
References cited in this chapter
Bugaeva (2025) ·Bugaeva & Kobayashi (2022) ·Kobayashi (2010) ·Nakagawa (2024) ·Satō (2007) ·Satō (2008)