Demetonymised Reflexives in Polish

Abstract

The article deals with Polish reflexive constructions in which an object remaining implicit in the reflexive construction as being metonymically coreferential with the subject (as in tłumaczyć się ‘explain oneself’ for tłumaczyć swoje decyzje ‘explain one’s decisions’ and the like) is reintroduced as an oblique argument, as in tłumaczyć się ze swoich decyzji ‘explain one’s decisions’. It is argued that such constructions can be explained as a minor, lexically restricted construction in the domain of the reflexive and unrelated to the antipassive.