Co-referential Possessors and Intensifiers in World's Languages: A Typological Perspective

Based on a sample of 65 world's languages, this study tries to reveal the hidden relationship between co-referential possessors and intensifiers by virtue of the semantic map model.It finds the cross-linguistic tendency that co-referential possessors are more likely to use the same form as intensifiers instead of reflexives.This study tries to explain this cross-linguistic tendency in terms of the principles of Neo-Gricean Pragmatics.