Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
reflexive pronoun

reflexive pronoun

3.1
A pronoun like myself that points back to the person, animal, or thing doing the action
  • noun
  • /rɪˈflɛksɪv ˈproʊnaʊn/
  • Specialized
translation icon : pronombre reflexivo
  • In the sentence, "She looked at herself in the mirror," the word herself is a reflexive pronoun.

Examples

  • Similar decreases occurred for object pronouns, future tense, and reflexive pronouns.

    Academic text (2015)

  • For example, when attempting the reflexive pronoun "herself," one child creatively responded "sheself," and when eliciting the adjective derivation "lucky," the same child responded "luckest."

    Academic text (2015)

  • Reflexive pronouns like myself and themselves are used when the subject and the object are the same.

  • When Jim completed the project on himself, he felt a sense of accomplishment.

Synonyms

reflexive
vsreflexive pronoun
  • Specialized
4.8

A pronoun ending in -self or -selves that refers back to the subject

refers back to the subject within the same clause

Surface Forms

reflexive pronoun singular
reflexive pronouns plural

Morphology

reflexive + pronoun

The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'reflexive' (referring back to the subject) and 'pronoun' (a word replacing a noun); a B1 learner who knows both constituent meanings can infer that it denotes a pronoun that refers back to the subject. This is standard grammatical terminology and cross-linguistically common, so the construction is immediately comprehensible.

Etymology

Reflexive pronoun comes from the image of a mirror: a pronoun like 'myself', 'yourself', or 'themselves' looks back to the person who does the action, so 'She blamed herself' means she blamed the same person who acted.