Reflexive Verbs - action remaining with subject
Can someone explain to me why "Me siento en la silla." I sit on the chair is reflexive, but "Corro a la esquina." I run to the corner is not?
8 Answers
I don't disagree with Manity's answer...there are many reflexive verbs in Spanish that English speakers might not think of as reflexive, but there is a fair amount of logic to many of them.
In many cases the reflexive verb indicates that you do something TO yourself.
You wash yourself.
You sit yourself down. (this is actually said in English)
But you don't run yourself. You may run alone, or by yourself, but you don't run yourself, at least I've never heard anyone say "I'm going to run myself to the park."
Of course many verbs can be reflexive or not, depending on the meaning.
When you talk with someone else it is hablar con
When you talk TO yourself it is hablarse.
Hope this helps, and again, you will find reflexive verbs that you can't make sense of with the above logic, but I think with the most common ones it usually applies.
I think the reflexive verbs (such as sentirse) which relate to feeling a particular way are interesting. This means, to me, that if you feel angry, it is your owns thoughts about a situation that is making you angry, not the situation itself.
Come to think of it, you can "run yourself down" or "tire yourself out." The Spanish verb for these situations is cansarse.
Cuando ando mucho se me cansan las piernas.
When I walk a lot my legs get very tired.
And the literal English translation would be:
When I walk a lot my legs tires themselves out and this effects me.
Note that the verb is conjugated in the 3rd person plural for "the legs" The "me" in the sentence is an indirect object pronoun. Another literal take on the sentence, with a few added words that are implied in Spanish would be "When I run a lot the legs tire themselves out and give pain or tiredness to me" This is the easiest way to explain that the "me" is an indirect object pronoun. Technically this is called "dative of interest"
I agree with Moe.
Words have more than one meaning. And verbs aren't an exception.
In Spanish I prefer to think in verbs as transitive, intransitive or pronominal, rather than to think on them as reflexive or non-reflexive.
Most verbs can be used as transitive, intransitive or pronominal verbs, usually with very different meanings.
As Moe said, "sentar" and "sentarse" can be thought as different verbs when they are used as transitive or as pronominal.
You can also use the verb "correr" as a transitive, intransitive or pronominal verb, with different meanings in each case.
What is it that causes SENTARSE to be reflexive while sentar is not ??
Let me suggest that if we think of them as different verbs, it helps to make a distinction. For example, think, perhaps, like this:
SENTAR = to seat some other person. As in place them in a wheelchair, bring them a chair to sit on, usher them to a seat in a theater or auditorium.
SENTARSE = to seat oneself. As in I sat on the floor. or as in Mary sat (as in, seated herself) close to the salad while Jack Spratt sat (seated himself) close to the desserts.
There are of course some non-personal uses for these verbs, but, you should look at a Spanish <--> English or Spanish only dictionary for a review of the impersonal uses.
I hope this suggestion is helpful.
Saludos/Best regards,
Moe
Added Later
I wondered if the same idea could be applied to corer vs. correrse and I think the answer is yes. I studied the definitions and uses of those two words and come to the conclusion that we could think as follows:
Correrse = to smudge, smear or run as dye runs in fabrics or makeup may run in the rain. It also seems to mean to move up or sideways. There is also as between us adults, a sexual meaning you may research on your own.
Correr = The act of a body in motion in a hurry faster than walking, loping or jogging . There are other meanings, but, mainly dashing or racing between places does not seem to use the reflexive/pronominal verb with the "átono ('Clitic' in English) "se" added to correr.
By the title of this post "Reflexive Verbs - action remaining with subject" it appears that you might be confused regarding what, by definition, makes a verb reflexive (or reciprocal). It has nothing to do with "the action remaining with the subject." It generally means that the subject and the object of the verb are the same person or persons.
If you think about it, all intransitive verbs, by definition, have the characteristic of "action remaining with the subject" because with an intransitive verb there IS NO OBJECT so the action can't be transferred or shared to/with something else.
Corro 12 kilómetros cada día.
I run 12 kilometers every day.
Here there is no object. 12 killometers every day is a descriptive phrase that says how far you ran, but it isn't like "a letter - direct object" or "Bill - indirect object" in the sentence "I wrote Bill a letter"
With a transitive verb there is a subject and an object, but the subject and object are two different people or things.
Corrieron al ladrón de la casa.
They ran the thief out of the house.
Here "They" is the subject and "the thief" is the object.
With a reflexive verb there is (usually) a subject and an object but they are the same person or thing.
Me lavé las manos antes de comer.
I washed my hands before eating
Here "I" is the subject and "my hands" is the object. Since the object "my hands" belongs to you it is like saying "I washed me" or "I washed myself."
So, in summary, don't focus on whether the "action is staying with the subject," notice the situations when there is an object that is the same as the subject.
Here's a tip for getting a better handle on reflexive and reciprocal verbs.
Whenever you look up a verb in the dictionary, go to the bottom of the definition and look for "pronominal verb" Pronominal verbs are either reflexive or reciprocal or sometimes they can be either. Talk to myself would be reflexive, talk with eachother is reciprocal.
Read the example sentences and figure out the direct object and the indirect object, if it exists. If the English translation does NOT include "myself, itself, themselves, etc. see if you can make an English sentence that would include such a word.
Here's an example:
From the dictionary:
to be easily angered
enfadarse fácilmente; (Esp)
enojarse fácilmente; (LAm)
OK, so the English doesn't include "myself", so recast this as:
I make myself angry very easily.
Me enojo muy fácilmente.
That is the implicit meaning of the Spanish. With most feelings there are reflexive verbs that put the onus of the feeling on the person having the feeling. This rings true with what many psychologists say about emotions. Instead of saying to yourself, "He makes me so angry!", it is healthier to rephrase this in your own mind as "I give myself angry thoughts whenever I deal with him. I should just relax and realize that he is a jerk and not work myself up or let him work me up. I am in charge of my feelings, not him!"
Here another one from the dictionary:
se enfada por nada
he gets angry at the slightest thing
Recast as: He makes himself angry for nothing.
By the way, there is a category of reflexive "intensifying verbs" that the above logic will not work with. For example, comer is to eat and comerse is to "really eat it up" among other meanings. Just be aware of these "intensifying verb" forms when trying to make sense of a new reflexive verb you encounter. They are not the normal type of reflexive verb with the same subject and object, they are just different verbs with intensified meanings related to the non-reflexive version of the verb.
When studying a new pronominal verb in the dictionary one of the first things you should try to decide is whether it is "normal" or "intensifying." The most common, frequently used reflexive verbs are "normal."
In Spanish, to form the reflexive is necessary to associate the verb with a reflexive pronoun. (me, te, se, nos, os, se). In your example: Me siento en la silla, the reflexive pronoun is: me; while that: corro a la esquina, does not have reflexive pronoun.
Unfortunately, there really is no logical explanation for this. Verbs that act as reflexive verbs in one language might or might not behave in the same way in another language. In the same vein I could ask why "I wake up" is not reflexive in English, given that it is reflexive in at least two other languages (Spanish and in my native language). Every language presents its own version of reality with all its little quirks. 
By the way, I was wondering if anyone would say "Me corro" in Spanish to mean "I run by myself." So I did a Google search for "me corro" and I got a lot of hits.
Apparently this little phrase has a sexual meaning and the related English verb is not "to run" but more like "to arrive" if you know what I mean.
If this post is offensive to anyone, feel free to flag it for deletion.
I just thought I would post it as a caution to people that are not aware of this meaning so that they can avoid saying it unless that's what they really mean.
