Reciprocal Pronouns

 RECIPROCAL PRONOUNS

The word Reciprocal has been taken from Latin reciprocus meaning returning the same way, alternating.

    A Reciprocal is a linguistic structure that marks a particular kind of relationship between two noun phrases. In a reciprocal construction, each of the participants occupies both the role of agent and patient with respect to each other. For example, the English sentence "John and Mary cut each other's hair", contains a reciprocal structure: John cuts Mary's hair, and Mary cuts John's.

    A Reciprocal Pronoun refers to an antecedent in the plural, and expresses a mutual relationship. In other words, Reciprocal Pronouns are special pronouns that are used when the individual members that make up a plural subject noun take each other as their objects.

Example

• The astronauts congratulated one another after successfully completing the mission.

 Here, the members of the subject, astronauts, take the other members of their own group as objects.

 The Reciprocal Pronouns in English are one another and each other. They are convenient forms for combining ideas. Together with the reflexive pronouns-myself, yourself, ourselves, yourselves, and others-they are classified as anaphors.

 Reciprocal Pronouns refer to a reciprocal relationship. Examples

 They don't like each other.

 Arham and Rahim gave each other books.

 Aisha and Arham greeted each other.

 My mother and I give each other a hard time.

 Aslam and Akram were embarrassed that they had forgotten each other's names.

 Phrases like each other or one another are Reciprocal Pronouns. They show that an action is two-way and express mutual action or relationship among the referents of a plural subject. If more than two people are involved we would say:

Example

• The class gave one another books.

 Reciprocal Pronouns can also take possessive forms: Example

• They borrowed each other's ideas.

• The scientists in this lab often use one another's equipment.