Kokborok and the simple-complex reflexive distinction

Abstract

AbstractThis paper presents an in-depth investigation of the binding strategies in Kokborok and we will look more specifically how this sheds light on the theories of reflexivization. Kokborok, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Tripura, a state in the North-East of India, has two reflexives:sak sak‘self self’ andsak baithaŋ‘self self’. The formsak sak‘self self’ conforms to Principle A of classic Binding Theory, blocking long-distance binding, but this does not hold true forsak baithaŋallowing non-local binding. It is a well-established fact that some reflexives allow non-local binding, but it is generally assumed that this phenomenon is limited to a certain type of reflexive, morpho-syntactically ‘simple reflexives.’ The so-called ‘complex reflexives’ generally bar non-local binding, and the Kokborok reflexivesak baithaŋseems an exception to that. This paper explores the uniqueness involved in the nature of anaphoric binding in Kokborok.