Abstract
In this paper, we introduce an inventory of language means that express the semantic feature of mutuality in Czech verbal constructions. Based on the results of recent typological surveys, we distinguish between lexical and grammatical means.
The lexical means include a limited group of inherently reciprocal verbs with the feature of mutuality in their lexical meaning. The grammatical means involved in the syntactic operation of reciprocalization are primarily used by a large group of verbs to which we refer as syntactic reciprocal verbs; these means involve (i) the reflexive personal pronoun se/sebe, si/sobě, sebou, (ii) the expression jeden – druhý ‘each other’, and (iii) adverbials.
While the use of the grammatical means is obligatory for expressing mutuality with syntactic reciprocal verbs, it is often only optional for inherently reciprocal verbs. We thoroughly describe various functions that these language means have in encoding mutuality in Czech.