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I am currently doing homework for a linguistics course I am taking.

The question is about creating a rule to make confirm if certain sentences are grammatical or ungrammatical.

Here are some examples, with those with a star in front signifying that the sentence is ungrammatical.

Set 1:

a. I saw myself in the mirror.

b. * Myself saw me in the mirror.

c. I showed the monkey himself in the mirror.

d. * I showed himself the monkey in the mirror.

Set 2:

a. Carla read a book about herself.

b. * A book about Carla upset herself.

c. John’s teachers respect themselves.

d. * John’s teachers respect himself.

Set 3:

a. I know that Mary likes herself.

b. * I know that Mary likes myself.

For this homework, I need to create a rule to make all those sentences with no * grammatical, and all the sentences with * ungrammatical. This rule has to apply for all 3 sets of sentences.

Currently, the rule I have come up with is: A reflexive pronoun can only be used to an entity that has already been mentioned.

However, this rule only can be applied to sets 1 and 2.

Does anyone have any idea on a rule that can be applied to all 3 sets?

Araucaria - Him
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Dylan See
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    We don't do homework here and I am sure you can find the rule on the internet and not use us to come up with it for you. You just need to concentrate on the first sentence in each set. – Lambie Feb 28 '19 at 14:51
  • I don't want to do your homework for you, and as phrased I see no way to answer the question without also doing that. That said, as a hint, do you see any patterns between sentence parts and the reflexive pronoun? – TaliesinMerlin Feb 28 '19 at 14:52
  • Your rule does not correctly account for the ungrammaticality of set 2b or 2d. – Greg Lee Feb 28 '19 at 15:13
  • Think about what "reflexive" means. – remarkl Feb 28 '19 at 16:12
  • The imperative sentence Never defend yourself! is grammatical but does not explicitly mention any entity. – Jason Bassford Feb 28 '19 at 19:16
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    @Lambie, Taliesinmerlin, TrevorD There is absolutely no rule of SE that we can't or don't wish to help people with homework.The criteria is, is the question of interest to linguists and serious language enthusiasts. This has been done to death on Meta. Be nice to the new contributor who has a decent and interesting question! Btw, Lambie,you can't traighforwardly find the rule for this in the web. It isn't a simple rule. – Araucaria - Him Mar 01 '19 at 10:28
  • @remarkl It doesn't mean that the subject and object of the verb are the same entity. So what does it mean? – Araucaria - Him Mar 01 '19 at 10:31
  • @Araucaria thank you for your help! I have been thinking about the answer to this problem for a very long time and I'm unable to come up with one, despite doing extensive research online. – Dylan See Mar 01 '19 at 11:19
  • @DylanSee These posts might help a bit missing reflexive, In the rack above yourself, Why is "herself" required here – Araucaria - Him Mar 01 '19 at 11:50
  • @Araucaria - The dictionaries I consulted say that "reflexive" means "directed or turned back on itself." https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reflexive. Happy to help. I am not saying that the grammatical rule is easy to state, but I share the general attitude toward homework expressed by other commenters. I was helping the OP learn to fish rather than giving feeding him for a day. – remarkl Mar 01 '19 at 13:17
  • @remarkl Your comment implies that you would be ble to give him the fish, if you wanted? This isn't a common garden homework queston. It's tough and thorny!!! – Araucaria - Him Mar 01 '19 at 15:00
  • @araucaria No, it does not imply any such thing. It implies that getting it from me, assuming only arguendo that I could provide it, would not help as much as doping it out. Yes, it's hard to capture in a single rule that isn't so abstract as to need examples that might as well be separate rules, but if there isn't a readily available explanation on the 'Net, mine wouldn't be authoritative anyway, even if it were exhaustive and accurate. – remarkl Mar 01 '19 at 15:19

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