Mouton Handbooks of Indo-European Typology [MHIET] – serie

The prototypical reflexive and the prototypical middle are two ways of conceptualizing an event with at least two participants where two participant roles are coreferential. While the formal exponents of the reflexive and the middle typically overlap in natural languages, they are also polysemous. Multiple factors besides participant distinguishability determine the patterns attested in individual languages. The papers included in this handbook give an exhaustive overview of how (notional) reflexives and (notional) middles are expressed in Ancient Indo-European languages. For each language, the survey is extended to non-prototypical uses of the reflexive and middle markers and constructions. The detailed chapters devoted to the individual languages go far beyond standard handbook knowledge. Each attested pattern is illustrated extensively with glossed examples. The volume is an indispensable tool for typologists, historical linguists, and students of coreferentiality, reflexivity and the middle.