French Reciprocal Fragment

[Nor23] [Sil08]

French has two reciprocal strategies:

1. "se" — reflexive clitic, also used for reciprocal (monovalent). Syntactically formed per [Sil08]: CANNOT form discontinuous reciprocals ([Nor23] ex. 39).

2. "l'un l'autre" — bipartite NP (bivalent, literally 'the one the other'). Preserves transitivity. Often co-occurs with "se" for disambiguation.

The identity of "se" in reflexive and reciprocal uses is captured by WALS Ch 106 classifying French as "mixed."

def French.Reciprocals.se : PersonalPronoun

se — reflexive/reciprocal clitic (monovalent strategy).

Equations

• French.Reciprocals.se = { form := "se", person := some Person.third }

def French.Reciprocals.lunLautre : PersonalPronoun

l'un l'autre — bipartite reciprocal NP (bivalent strategy).

Equations

• French.Reciprocals.lunLautre = { form := "l'un l'autre", person := some Person.third, number := some Number.plural }

theorem French.Reciprocals.bipartite_distinct_from_clitic : lunLautre.form ≠ se.form

The bipartite NP form is distinct from the clitic.