This study sketches an outline of the morphosyntactic variation of deflexive markers in the light of a theory of human speech defined as a set of motoric actions (words, morphemes, syntactic sequences) whose perception, both by the hearer and by the speaker (in the case of reflexive thinking), guides the elaboration of meaning following a regulated procedure. In this perspective, one can distinguish creative deflexives (which carry out a formerly implicit morphosemantic process) and translative deflexives (which relocate the marking of some grammatical parameter out of the lexical unit it concerns); and one can oppose progressive deflexivity (which delays grammatical specifications) and regressive deflexivity (which anticipates them). Examples are drawn from various romance and germanic languages, along with Basque, Breton and Japanese.