Optionality of reflexive possessives in second person contexts

This article investigates how often a non-reflexive second person possessive is used in the reflexive function in Bulgarian, Czech and Russian, and whether its frequency varies according to the grammatical number of the subject (singular or plural/honorific) and the grammatical mood (indicative or imperative) of the verb. Using web corpora from the TenTen family and additional spoken and social network corpora for Russian and Czech, the study finds that a non-reflexive possessive in the reflexive function is far less common than a reflexive possessive in the three languages, and that its distribution depends on the grammatical number of the subject and the grammatical mood of the verb. A non-reflexive possessive is more common with a plural than with a singular subject, and in imperatives than in indicatives. In Bulgarian clitic possessives, a reflexive form is preferred regardless of the context. These facts suggest that collective possession and politeness are relevant factors in the distribution of second person possessives in the three Slavic languages, with the exception of Bulgarian short possessives.