Resumen de Das litauische Reflexivum und das indogermanische Wort: Skizze einer Typologie
The morphological behavior of the so-called reflexive verbs in Lithuanian is a well known peculiarity of the language which has attracted attention from both theoretical and historical linguistics. Its marker si is usually attached at the end of an inflected verb form, but inserted between preverbal elements and the root in the case of composite verbal structure. Lithuanian Dialects and Old Lithuanian show a remarkable array of similar constructions and ways of dealing with such seemingly aberrant morphological structures.
While up to now studies on the Lithuanian reflexive have usually aimed at explaining this construction in historical terms by reconstructing clause structures with clitics and free particles, the present investigation provides an analysis informed by current approaches to clitic-like elements in morphological and phonological typology.
Moving beyond Lithuanian, the reflexive is contextualized by analyzing similar constructions in other Indo-European languages such as Old Irish, Gothic and Albanian. These languages feature verbal structures with grammatical and illocutionary markers preposed to the verbal root as well, the properties of which clearly set them apart from the remaining structural parts of the verb.
The elements involved in these constructions cannot be captured by straightforward dichotomies of clitics and bound morphemes or syntax and morphology. Rather, the domain is structured by highly language specific phonological rules and morphological processes, sometimes even unique to these contexts. However, it can be shown that despite the differences between the individual languages and constructions, the preverbal domains in Ancient Indo- European languages nonetheless are set up according to overarching general principles.
