This thesis investigates reflexivity in ancient Greek literature and philosophy from Homer to Plato. It contends that ancient Greek culture developed a notion of personhood that was characteristically reflexive, and that this was linked to a linguistic development of specialized reflexive pronouns, which are the words for 'self'.

This essay aims to explain Finnish students’ acquisition of Swedish as a second language: the focal point is the learners’ use of the possessive personal pronouns (hennes, hans and deras) and the possessive reflexive pronouns (sin, sitt and sina), and the placement of the Swedish negation in subordinate clauses. The theoretical background for the analysis of these linguistic structures is the Processability theory. This thesis suggests that the pronouns, which have not been earlier investigated through the Processability theory, are a part of the stage 4 of the theory, whilst the placement of negation in subordinate clauses is part of the stage 5. The basis for this thesis is a survey made in a secondary school in the north of Sweden and an upper secondary school in the north of Finland in autumn 2016. In other words two different groups of students have participated in the survey: one group studying Swedish as a second language in Sweden and one group studying Swedish as a foreign language in Finland. The analysis shows no linguistic differences between these two groups and for this reason there is no distinction made between them. The results reveal that the possessive personal pronouns are slightly more overused than the possessive reflexive pronouns. However, the results show that those students who have not commenced to process level 4 have not either began to process level 5. The learners’ utilization of the negation placement suggests that they first learn the preverbal placement of the negation in a main verb and afterwards the preverbal placement of a negation in an auxiliary verb. The results and conclusions given in this essay may be of some interest for other teachers and educational researchers.

A presente pesquisa tem por objetivo uma análise dos pronomes reflexivos no português popular falado na cidade de São Paulo. Partimos da hipótese principal de que estes pronomes, de uso variável no português popular, encontram-se em pleno processo de mudança, em direção ao seu desaparecimento. Procuraremos, sobretudo, observar as maneiras pelas quais esta provável mudança se processa, e identificar os fatores lingüísticos, cognitivos e sociais que favorecem ou desfavorecem seu desenvolvimento, tomando por base os pressupostos teórico- metodológicos da Sociolingüística Variacionista Laboviana, da Lingüística Funcional e da Lingüística Cognitiva. / This research presents an analysis of reflexive pronouns in Popular Portuguese spoken in the city of São Paulo. Our main hypothesis is that these pronouns, which show variable use in Popular Portuguese, are in a process of change towards its extinction. Our goal is to observe the ways in which this probable change takes place, and identify the linguistic, cognitive, and social factors that favor or disfavor its development, using the theoretic and methodological tools of Labovian Variationist Sociolinguistics, Functional Linguistics, and Cognitive Linguistics.

A presente pesquisa tem por objetivo uma análise dos pronomes reflexivos no português popular falado na cidade de São Paulo. Partimos da hipótese principal de que estes pronomes, de uso variável no português popular, encontram-se em pleno processo de mudança, em direção ao seu desaparecimento. Procuraremos, sobretudo, observar as maneiras pelas quais esta provável mudança se processa, e identificar os fatores lingüísticos, cognitivos e sociais que favorecem ou desfavorecem seu desenvolvimento, tomando por base os pressupostos teórico- metodológicos da Sociolingüística Variacionista Laboviana, da Lingüística Funcional e da Lingüística Cognitiva. / This research presents an analysis of reflexive pronouns in Popular Portuguese spoken in the city of São Paulo. Our main hypothesis is that these pronouns, which show variable use in Popular Portuguese, are in a process of change towards its extinction. Our goal is to observe the ways in which this probable change takes place, and identify the linguistic, cognitive, and social factors that favor or disfavor its development, using the theoretic and methodological tools of Labovian Variationist Sociolinguistics, Functional Linguistics, and Cognitive Linguistics.