Reflexive voice
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Reflexive voice is the grammatical voice in which the subject of a sentence is both the subject and a direct object or indirect object of the sentence. In English this is done with pronouns ending in -self.
An example of a reflexive verb where the object is a direct object is the sentence "I saw myself". "I" is the subject and "myself" is the direct object. Because both words refer to the same real-world entity, the reflexive voice is used. A nonstandard construction of the sentence not using the reflexive voice would be "I saw me," parallelling the construction of sentences such as "I saw him," (not "I saw himself").
[edit] Other languages
In French, the difference is more marked by the use of etre as the auxiliary as in "je me suis vu(e)" It may also represent a verb where the subject is also represented in the dative case (for indirect objects). This may be seen in the English sentence "I spoke to myself." In French, this would be said, "Je me suis parlé." Note that in this case there is no distinction on the past participle.
Reflexivitiy occurs very similarly in Spanish. Reflexive pronouns like "me" are linked with the verb as in the phrases "Yo me vi" (I saw myself) or "Yo me hablé" (I spoke to myself). Reflexivity is much more common in Spanish, where it is used even for basic concepts like the act of remembering: "I remember" would be expressed as "Me recuerdo" (literally, I remind myself).
Many languages have a separate, generic reflexive pronoun. This works like the English -self pronouns, but can be used regardless of the person in question, thus serving the combined purpose of my-/your-him-/her-/our/them-/itself. Often it is paired with a generic reflexive possessive pronoun, expressing the related concept belonging to oneself. For example, Scandinavian languages have a reflexive pronoun sig, and possessive pronouns sin/sit/sine. Slavic languages also have that feature, for example Polish się and swój/swoja/swoje.
Example sentences (notice the pronouns independence of the subject):
- Danish:
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- Hun glæder sig. -- She's happy. (lit. She's enjoying herself.)
- Hen glæder sig. -- He's happy. (lit. He's enjoying himself.)
- Hun vasker sin bil. -- She's washing her car.
- Han vasker sin bil. -- He's washing his car.
- Polish
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- Czeszę się. -- I'm combing my hair (lit. I'm combing myself.)
- On się czesze. -- He's combing his hair (lit. He's combing himself.)
- Kochaj swoje dzieci. -- Love your children.
- Ona kocha swoje dzieci. -- She loves her children.
