Point of View and Zibun

Toward a Unified Theory of the Japanese Reflexive

Abstract

The predominant view of the binding facts of the Japanese reflexive zibun is that there are two types of uses; one is as a reflexive which is to be bound by the clause-mate subject, and the other one is as the so-called "logophoric" pronoun. Accordingly, the binding theory of zibun along the lines of this view will take the form of disjunction: zibun is bound by an NP if the NP is the clause-mate subject or it is a logophoric NP. However, it is hard to accept the idea of a morpheme one use of which is governed by a purely syntactic property, subjecthood, and the other one of which is governed by a purely semantic/pragmatic property, logophoricity. Such an analysis seems to fail to reach the appropriate level of generalization about the binding facts of zibun. In the current paper, we propose a conceptually more untied view that every instance of zibun should be hound by a point of view, and demonstrate that such a view is superior to the above disjunctive view empirically as well as conceptually.*