Category talk:English reciprocal verbs

Aren't 'attract', 'swap' and 'interact' also resiprocal verbs? e.g.: "Opposites attract", "the components interacted just as we had expected", "the boys swapped places"

Please correct me if I'm mistaking.— This comment was unsigned.

I don't know what the term reciprocal verb usually means. But taking the category description —

These are verbs which involve two subjects equally. The subjects can be referred to as a plural noun, or as two separate nouns, and can be in any order without any change of meaning, as the action represented by the verb is done by both parties equally to, or with, each other. The structures can also include various other patterns

— at face value, I'd say (deprecated template usage) attract and (deprecated template usage) interact are reciprocal in the sentence you provided, whereas (deprecated template usage) swap is probably not, since there's a direct object not on equal footing. Another to consider is (deprecated template usage) equal ((deprecated template usage) A equals B).​—msh210℠ (talk) 19:09, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

I do agree that 'equal' fits well into the abovementioned definition. However, it is qualitatively different from (for exampel) 'marry' since the sentence "A equals" makes no sense while "they married" makes perfectly sense in a linguistic perspective. Still, in the sentence "A equals B" we can agree that "B" is not an object, rather a second subject (A and B are thus interchangeable).

"Swap" is certainly transitive (and accordingly non-resiprocal), perhaps even ditransitive ("the swapped places (with eachother)"). The examples provided in my Oxford Dictionary all include two objects(alternatively one object and one adverbial), supporting my theory.