Content created: 2001-01-06
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| Reflexive Prefixes for Verbs | |
|---|---|
| n(o)- = myself | t(o)- = ourselves |
| m(o)- = yourself, yourselves, him/herself, themselves | |
Generically, a reflexive verb is a transitive verb in which the subject and object are the same person. In the vocabulary lists, it is convenient to list verbs as:
In general an action can be reflexive if you can do it to yourself.
However several Nahuatl verbs are reflexive in form even though the actions they indicate do not strike us as reflexive in meaning. The abbreviation Vr is used when the verb has only a reflexive form or when the reflexive meaning is substantially different from the transitive meaning.
Challenge: Some verbs have very different meanings depending on whether they are reflexive or not. But to know which usage is intended, it is critical to be attentitive to the prefixes. The following verb stem (xaxi) does not exist in Nahuatl. But you can tell the inended FORM by looking at the prefixes and suffixes. Pretend it means "jiggle" and then translate each of the following items.
Many thanks to Guillaume Costille for correcting some (formerly) wrong examples on this page and in lessons 9 and 11. At the time Guillaume was a sixteen-year-old anthropological linguist in the making for whom we may foresee a particularly bright future.