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Glite Dictionary
🪞 Self-examination 🔁 Self-relation property 🙋 Self-reference
reflexivity

reflexivity

9.1
A word like 'himself' or 'herself' that refers back to the subject in the same sentence
  • noun
  • /rɪˌflɛksɪˈvɪti/
  • Formal
translation icon : reflexividad
  • The study of reflexivity in language shows how pronouns can link back to their antecedents in complex structures.
  • self-reflexivity

Examples

  • Understanding reflexivity helps linguists analyze sentences where the subject and object are the same, enhancing clarity in grammar.

  • Narrative self-reflexivity is the object of two detailed studies.

    Academic text (2004)

  • In the study, the various kinds of self-reflexivity are illustrated through a close analysis of six German texts from the Enlightenment to postmodernism.

    Academic text (2004)

  • Instead, its reflexivity involves a structural concern over how meaning is created through discourse, and how a cinematic text positions itself in relation to the kind of knowledge that it is producing.

    Academic text (1992)

  • In linguistics, reflexivity occurs when a reflexive pronoun, like 'myself,' refers back to the subject in the same sentence.

Synonyms

reflexiveness
vsreflexivity
  • Specialized
9.4

A pronoun that refers back to the subject of the sentence

emphasizes the relation inside the same clause or sentence rather than abstract property

Surface Forms

reflexivity singular
reflexivities plural

Morphology

reflexivity = reflexive (transparent) = reflex + ive + ity

The noun is a straightforward nominalization of the adjective 'reflexive' (as in 'reflexive pronoun'), so the relationship is directly derivable.

Etymology

Reflexivity comes from the parts re- 'back' and flex 'bend', and is related to reflect like a mirror. In grammar, reflexivity means a word or pronoun 'looks back' to the same person in the sentence, as in 'She saw herself' where 'herself' points back to 'she'.