French reciprocals

French marks reciprocity with the clitic se, shared with the reflexive, and with the bipartite l'un l'autre 'the one the other'. With a direct object l'un l'autre cannot mark reciprocity on its own: se stays obligatory, Jean et Marie s'aiment l'un l'autre beside *Jean et Marie aiment l'un l'autre ([Mas08] (32)), and so the bipartite disambiguates the se-reciprocal rather than replacing it. It is added bare where se suppresses an accusative and after à where it suppresses a dative ([Sil08] fn. 21). Reciprocal verbs with se are formed in the syntax ([Sil08]), so they have no discontinuous counterpart with avec 'with' ([Nor23] ex. 39).

References

• R. Nordlinger, The Typology of Reciprocal Constructions (2023)
• T. Siloni, The Syntax of Reciprocal Verbs: An Overview (2008)
• E. Maslova, Reflexive Encoding of Reciprocity: Cross-Linguistic and Language-Internal Variation (2008)

def French.Reciprocals.se : Reciprocal.Marker

se — reflexive/reciprocal clitic ([Nor23] ex. 28, 47).

Equations

• French.Reciprocals.se = { morphs := [Morphology.Morph.free "se"], strategy := Reciprocal.Strategy.recipClitic }

def French.Reciprocals.lunLautre : Reciprocal.Marker

l'un l'autre, the bipartite reciprocal; with a direct object it accompanies se rather than replacing it ([Mas08] (32)).

Equations

• French.Reciprocals.lunLautre = { morphs := [Morphology.Morph.free "l'un", Morphology.Morph.free "l'autre"], strategy := Reciprocal.Strategy.bipartiteNP }

def French.Reciprocals.markers : Finset Reciprocal.Marker

Marker inventory.

Equations

• French.Reciprocals.markers = {French.Reciprocals.se, French.Reciprocals.lunLautre}