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Reciprocal Pronouns are a type of Anaphor which can be used to refer to a noun phrase mentioned earlier in discourse. The reciprocal pronouns known in English are one another and each other, and they belong to the category of anaphors along with Reflexive Pronouns (myself, yourself, herself, himself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves). Reciprocal Pronouns are used to refer to plural noun phrases (such as we, you, they, the dogs, the team, etc.), and when used they indicate a reciprocal relationship between the individual nouns within the plural noun phrase they are referring to. This means the action being completed by those individual nouns is being completed towards another one of those individual nouns in that same plural noun phrase.

For Example:

The boys slapped each other

The reciprocal scenario for this sentence would be that each boy (an individual noun, boy, in the plural noun phrase, boys) performed the action of the verb "slap" toward some other boy (in that same plural noun phrase boys). For example, if the group of boys consisted of a boy named Dave, a boy named Tom and a boy named Bill, we could say that when they slapped each other, Dave slapped Tom, Tom slapped Bill and Bill slapped Dave.

Although both reciprocal and reflexive pronouns are both classified as anaphors, there are some distributional differences between them. For example, reciprocal pronouns can appear in the subject position of noun phrases, whereas reflexives cannot. Although in many cases, either a reflexive or a reciprocal pronoun could appear in the same structural position, in some cases, the asymmetry occurs when a reciprocal may be bound to its antecedent, but a reflexive may not.

The following examples from (Lebeaux, 1983) show that in some sentences, either type of anaphor could be used: “John and Mary like themselves/each other”. Either pronoun used would be locally bound (it's antecedent is in the same clause, the clause is the Binding domain), which would follow Binding Theory's Binding Principle A: that an anaphor must be bound in its binding domain. A case in which we can see the differences in distribution with these “each other” reciprocal constructions is in tensed sentences (in this case, with the future tense).

eg. 1) John and Mary think that "each other" will win. 2) John thinks that "himself" will win.

In this case, the reciprocal is not the ideal construction, but the reflexive is not a possible grammatical sentence. This suggests that while reflexives require a proper binder, reciprocals may appear in positions that aren't governed this way, and can even be in a different clause. Another difference to notice is that reciprocal pronouns can appear in the subject position of noun phrases, whereas reflexives cannot. eg. 1) John and Mary like "each other's" parents

2) John likes "himself's" parents.

The differences can be summarized as follows: 1) Reciprocals are subject to binding theory, 2) Reflexives are subject to binding theory, and must be properly governed.

In English, the reciprocal "each other" is a noun phrase that takes an argument position of a syntactic predicate, whereas in Chichewa, the reciprocal is an intransitive verbal affix "-an-" However, the meaning of the reciprocal correspond in both languages. These reciprocals of "each other" and "-an-" both require a group antecedent. (1) is interpreted relative to members of the group denoted by the reciprocal antecedent "the boys."

(1) The boys are hitting each other The same holds true in Chichewa. The Chichewa reciprocal also requires a group antecedent, and the example is interpreted with respect to members of the group:' (3) Mbidzi zi-ku-meny-an-a. 10zebras 10SM-PREs-hit-REcIP-Fv 'The zebras are hitting each other.'

Reciprocal pronouns in Dutch are elkaar and mekaar. "Elkaar" is a single morpheme and is equivalent to the reciprocal pronoun "one another" in English while "mekaar" is equivalent to the reciprocal pronoun "each other" in English. The diffence between these two reciprocal pronouns in Dutch is in terms of their use. Mekaar is used in colloquial speech, and in children’s speech. Similar to many English reciprocal anaphors, "elkaar" requires the antecedent in same sentence:

Jan en Marijke slaan elkaar. Jan and Marijke hit each other.’