As to expressions like "I'm gonna buy me a dog", I'm skeptical of the
reflexive analysis. I am exploring this issue on a linguistics list, but
have only gotten a few replies so far.

One reason I'm skeptical is that other languages have such expressions
alongside reflexives with dissimilar meanings. One writer reminded me
that, in German, one can say things like "I'm going to smoke myself a
cigarette" or "I'm gonna drink myself a beer" using the pronoun form
that is usually used for indirect objects, not the reflexive pronoun.
Also, a native speaker of Ozark English, which uses the construction,
reports that the reflexive version with 'myself' and the 'me' version
are not synonymous.

I'm continuing to explore this on the other list. My suspicion is that
this is an extension of the benefactive sense of indirect object which
is departing from it somewhat--I doubt that one could paraphrase "I'm
gonna bake me a cake" with "I'm gonna bake a cake for me" or "for
myself". I just posed this question to the native speaker.

Languages don't need to be influenced by other languages to develop such
constructions. There is a  range of similar constructions in other
languages. It's quite normal for new syntactic constructions to develop
from existing ones, with new nuances of meaning.

***************************************************
Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
English Department, Cal Poly State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. 805-756-2184 ~ Dept. phone 805-756-2596
Dept. fax: 805-756-6374 ~  E-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
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