Reciprocals

Book excerpt: The theoretical issues addressed in the present volume are semantic and cognitive properties of reciprocal events, syntactic properties of reciprocals, and the relationship of reciprocals to other grammatical categories. Several papers discuss the history of reciprocal constructions, offering alternative hypotheses regarding the grammaticalization of reciprocals. The formal, functional, typological and historical approaches in the present volume complement each other, contributing together to the understanding of forms, and syntactic and semantic properties of reciprocal markers. Several papers in the present volume make a double contribution to the problems of reciprocal constructions: they provide new descriptive data and they address theoretical issues at the same time. The languages discussed include: English, Dutch, German, Greek, Polish, Nyulnyulan (Australia), Amharic (Ethio-Semitic), Bilin (Cushitic), Chadic languages, Bantu, Halkomelem (Salishan), Mandarin, Yukaghir and a number of Oceanic languages. The volume also includes a study of grammaticalization of reciprocals and reflexives in African languages.