A Grammar of Turkish Sign Language (TİD)

Reciprocal pronouns are used with transitive verbs such as argue, kiss, hug, or meet, verbs whose argument structure involves more than one person and express the meaning 'each other' as in the sentence They kissed each other.

         In TİD, there are two sets of reciprocal pronouns. One set of reciprocal pronouns [Morphology – 3.1.3.] is produced using a single hand and the other with both hands. In both sets, the pronouns are articulated with a repetitive movement between the loci of the two referents. The loci of the referents involved in the action determine the direction of the movement. For example, if one of the two referents is the signer himself/herself, the direction of the movement is from the signer to the addressee whereas if the referents are non-first person referents, the direction of the movement is between the loci of those referents in the signing space.

          The first set with single-handed pronouns has V-handshape. These pronouns are derived from the numerals two, three, four, and five (i.e. V-handshape, 3-handshape, Open-4-handshape, and 5-handshape) which are homonyms of (have the same shape as) pronouns indicating numerically specified groups of persons [Lexicon – 3.7.2.2.].

         two_of_us (meaning each other)

Another set of reciprocal pronouns used in TİD is produced by both hands, each of which has index finger handshape. There is an asymmetrical straight path movement from proximal to distal in the vertical plane to express the referents. However, the orientation changes according to the referents in the context. If first person is included in the reciprocal pronoun, the hands face towards the signer. In other cases, they face each other. 

           Reciprocal pronoun including first and second person  

           Reciprocal pronoun without first person   

See [Morphology - 3.1.3.] for a description of verbs inflected with reciprocal markers.