Siloni (2012): Reciprocal Verbs and Symmetry #

This file formalizes Siloni's split of reciprocal verbs, the predicates expressing reciprocity without an anaphoric object, by the locus of reciprocalization, the lexicon or the syntax (Reciprocal.Formation, Reinhart and Siloni's lex-syn parameter, building on Siloni (2008)), and its derivation of nine clustering properties from that split alone. Reciprocalization eliminates the internal argument position and leaves the subject carrying both profiles' entailments, as a bundled complex role in the lexicon ((35) and (36), reciprocalize) or as two roles assigned separately by last-resort parasitic assignment in the syntax ((43), Merger, which also derives the ban on derived subjects and the ECM derivation (63)). Both loci share Landman's group operators: a symmetric verb is a set of atomic events whose complex role assigns the group atom over an unordered pair, related to its base by the meaning postulate of footnote 17 (Verb.SymmetricDenotation), from which the underlying directional events of (41) follow (underlying_of_symmetric); the syntactic reciprocal has the accumulation reading (46b) and the packed singular reading (47), whose content coincides with the symmetric verb's (GroupEventReading.underlyingReading). The "I" reading of embedded reciprocals (Higginbotham) needs a sub-event reading and a sole-role subject, so both verb types lack it (I_reading_iff_periphrastic); the periphrastic sub-event reading is derived from Heim, Lasnik and May's LF (accumulation_of_eachOtherLF).

The nine properties of the conclusion are each a literal of one of four affordances of the locus, plural events (generalization (29)), stored outputs, the roles of two predicates, and obligatory accusative reduction (Affordance.Available, Property.Holds); the concluding cluster and the complementarity of the two clusters are theorems (lexical_properties, holds_syntactic_iff). The case against an object-clitic analysis of se (section 3) is three diagnostics on which the transitive grid and the reciprocalized grid diverge and the data side with reciprocalization: Czech depictive case (depictive_diagnostic), comparative-ellipsis remnants (ellipsis_diagnostic) and Kayne's causative causee (causative_diagnostic). The count-adverbial contrast of (15) and (16) is modelled by five atomic mutual events with inaccessible parts against five accumulation events with ten accessible directional parts (mutualEvent_not_subEventReading, accumulated_subEventReading), and the discontinuous construction is the dyadic realization of a symmetric entry (section 7.5, DyadicReading).

Implementation notes #

Profiles are the Dowty substrate's EntailmentProfile over a transitive RoleList; the bundled complex role is the join of the subject's and the object's profiles, and a complex role is one with both Proto-Agent and Proto-Patient content.
The affordances of a locus are the four parameters the paper's mechanisms turn on; the properties are derived from them and not recorded per formation. The exceptions the paper notes, Czech reciprocal event nominals (Hron) and English kiss and hug resisting the discontinuous construction (footnote 32), are recorded in the docstrings.
The counting model takes events to be finite sets of markers, with a group atom for each round of kissing; the participants' roles are read off the parity of the marker.

Siloni (2012): Reciprocal Verbs and Symmetry #

Implementation notes #

References #

Three-way reciprocal classification (section 2.4) #

The lex-syn architecture (sections 3.5 and 5 to 6) #

Symmetric verbs and reciprocal readings (sections 2.2 and 4.1 to 4.2) #

Reciprocalization on argument structure (sections 4.1 to 4.2) #

Against an object-clitic analysis of se (section 3) #

Parasitic assignment (section 4.2, (43); the ECM derivation (63)) #

The nine-property cluster (sections 2 to 7) #

The "I" reading (sections 2.1 and 4.3) #

The periphrastic source of sub-events (section 2.1) #

Count adverbials: five mutual against ten directional events (section 2.2) #

The discontinuous construction: dyadic symmetric verbs (sections 7.4 to 7.5) #

The language sample (sections 2.4, 5 and 7) #