Definition:
A pronoun that expresses mutual action or relationship. In English the reciprocal pronouns are each other and one another.
See also:
Examples and Observations:
- "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."
(John F. Kennedy) - "The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal."
(H. L. Mencken) - "There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die."
(W.H. Auden, "September 1, 1939") - "Each other and one another are known as the reciprocal pronouns. They serve either as determiners (in the possessive case) or as objects, referring to previously named nouns: Each other generally refers to two nouns; one another to three or more."
(Martha Kolln and Robert Funk, Understanding English Grammar. Allyn and Bacon, 1998) - "In modern English, most people normally use each other and one another in the same way. Perhaps one another is preferred (like one) when we are making very general statements, and not talking about particular people."
(Michael Swan, Practical English Usage. Oxford Univ. Press, 1995) - A Practical Grammar: In Which Words, Phrases, and Sentences Are Classified According to Their Offices, and Their Relation to Each Other
(title of a textbook by Stephen W. Clark, published by A. S. Barnes, 1853) - "Prescriptive style commentators have tried to insist that each other should be used between two people only, and one another when more than two were concerned. Yet Fowler (1926) spoke firmly against this distinction, arguing it had 'neither present utility nor a basis in historical usage.' His judgment is confirmed in citations recorded in the Oxford Dictionary (1989) and Webster's English Usage (1989)."
(Pam Peters, The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004)
