Stretched, jumped, and fell: An fMRI investigation of reflexive verbs and other intransitives

► Intransitives include unergatives (jump) unaccusatives (fall) or reflexives (shave). ► We explore whether reflexives are derived similarly to unaccusatives. ► Brain activations for reflexives and unaccusatives indicate different derivations. ► Unaccusatives activate lIFG, related to movement from object to subject position. ► Reflexives activate rMTG, related to the identification of the theme with the agent.