se

Forms

se (enclitic, contracted 's, proclitic es, contracted proclitic s')^[1] The full form se weakened, under the stress of the verb it leans on, to s’, ’s and es; the DCVB treats them as one pronoun under es.^[2] The DIEC2 keeps se after a verb ending in a consonant or -u, before another weak pronoun, and optionally before a verb beginning with s (the online edition adds ce and ci).^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sē (“oneself, himself, herself, themselves”), the accusative of the Latin reflexive pronoun.^[2][4][5][1] Bruguera and the GDLC note that the Latin accusative was formed by analogy with the genitive suī, the form on which the possessive suus rests.^[4][5]

The same Latin pronoun is Italian se, Spanish se, Portuguese se, French se and Romanian se.^[6]

De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic accusative with a stressed and an unstressed variant, and traces the pronoun to the reflexive Proto-Indo-European *se (“oneself”).^[7]

According to the DCVB, ⟨se⟩ is the complete and original Catalan form; in combination with verbs it lost its own stress, and so became ⟨s’⟩, ⟨’s⟩ and, with a vowel before the consonant, ⟨es⟩, the same weakening the other reflexive pronouns ⟨me⟩ and ⟨te⟩ went through.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

CICA records the pronoun from the first half of the 11th century, its oldest text being an oath of appearance in court of 1031–1035.^[8] In the 13th century it is already very frequent, with more than three thousand occurrences in CICA for its second half.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The medieval language also used se as a stressed pronoun after a preposition, where the modern language has si: Llull writes per se “by itself” in 1272, and in his verse se meteix “himself”.^[9][10] Ausiàs March has dins se “within himself”.^[9] The DCVB records this stressed use as a separate article, from the same Latin word.^[11]

Llull already uses the pronoun both as a reflexive and as a reciprocal (Déus e lo seu nom se convertexen, “God and his name are interchangeable”).^[10] Labèrnia's dictionary of 1839 describes it as placed before or after the verb to show that the action falls on its own subject, and notes its use before me, te and li.^[12] The modern dictionaries add its use for impersonal and passive sentences, with no definite subject.^[5][2]

Pal·las (1927) still heads it simply as the reflexive pronoun, written s’ before a vowel or h.^[13] Fabra (1932) and the DIEC2 define it as one of the forms of the weak reflexive pronoun, chosen by its position.^[14][3]

Timeline

• 1031–1035 – oldest record in CICA, an oath of appearance.^[8]
• 1272 – Ramon Llull writes per se “by itself” in the Medicina de pecat.^[9]
• 1425 – Ausiàs March uses dins se “within himself”.^[9]
• 1440 – Curial e Güelfa has ells se n van “they go away”.^[9]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary heads the pronoun se.^[12]
• 1932 – Fabra's Diccionari general defines se as a positional form of the weak reflexive pronoun.^[14]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (reflexive, third person, direct or indirect object) himself, herself, itself, themselves; oneself: Vol pentinar-se abans de sortir.^[3][1]
2. (reciprocal) each other: Van abraçar-se en veure’s.^[3][1]
3. Used to make a verb impersonal or passive, with no definite subject: Des d’aquí se sent el mar.^[5][2]

Related words

• es
• si
• seu
• Latin sē

Usage notes

In much of the mainland, especially in Valencian, es (se, s’) is also used in popular speech for the first and second persons plural, in place of ens and us; the DCVB explains it as an analogy with the third-person reflexive and notes that it is almost unknown in Mallorca.^[11][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. es
3. ^ a b c d Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. se
4. ^ a b Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 829
5. ^ a b c d Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. se
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7761
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. se
9. ^ a b c d e Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. se
10. ^ a b Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. se
11. ^ a b Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. se
12. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. se
13. ^ Vallès, Emili (1927), Pal·las: diccionari català il·lustrat, Barcelona: Salvat, p. s.v. se
14. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. se