While these two phrases appear to have
become interchangeable for many speakers (and even for some otherwise careful
writers), disregarding the difference between them will mean sacrificing an
element of clarity in some contexts.
The traditional rule is that each other is used when there are only
two individuals (or parties) involved, and “one another” in the case of more
than two. So I would interpret (1) below as involving only two neighbours,
while I see (2) as involving more than two:
(1)
The neighbours greet each other
every morning.
(2)
The neighbours greet one
another every morning.
Rather than excuse careless usage by saying
that the context or situation will usually resolve any ambiguity that may
arise, it’s better to try and ensure unambiguous communication by making the
necessary linguistic distinctions in the first place.
The use of each other does not necessarily require or imply the involvement of
only two people in total; sometimes more than two may be involved, but the
number of parties (whether individuals or groups) would be understood to be
limited to two.
Consider:
(3)
At the antenatal classes
husbands and wives were asked to help each other practise for the birth of
their babies.
(4)
At the antenatal classes
husbands and wives were asked to help one another practise for the birth of
their babies.
My interpretation of (3) would be that each
husband would help (only) his own wife and each wife would help (only) her own
husband, whereas the wording of (4) would lead me to believe that husbands
could help other men’s wives and vice versa – which might not be likely, but is
nevertheless conceivable (no pun intended). My point is: Why leave the
interpretation open to doubt when using the correct phrase would remove all
ambiguity?
To end with, consider how you might
interpret the difference between the following two sentences:
(5)
The boys and the girls avoided
each other.
(6)
The boys and the girls avoided
one another.
– ws –
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