Body-Part Nouns as a Source of Reflexives: Towards a Grammaticalization Account of . . .

It is well-known that nouns denoting the human body or parts of it are an important source of polysemy in the languages of the world. One such example, the development of Georgian tav’head’ into a reflexive anaphor, is the object of the present paper. After a typological overview of reflexivization strategies in Georgian, we present an account, both synchronic and diachronic, of the rise of various tav-based strategies in grammaticalization terms. We then investigate motivations for the use of the fairly grammaticalized POSS + tavstrategy in a peculiarity of Georgian syntax called Object Camouflage, and finally discuss an intensifier reading of reflexives in subject function, suggesting a potential counterexample to the allegedly unidirectional development from intensifiers to reflexives.