Cover not available

Article published In: Issues in Diachronic Construction Morphology
Edited by Muriel Norde and Graeme Trousdale
[Constructions and Frames 15:2] 2023
► pp. 187–210

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB

The rise and fall of morphological schemas

A diachronic account of entre-prefixation in French

ORCiD logo with link | University of Turin
 | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Published online: 8 January 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cf.00072.ing
Abstract
The paper explores the origin and development of the [entre-V] construction in the history of French. By means of quantitative corpus data, it is shown that the [entre-V] construction, particularly in its reciprocal function, is productive in earlier stages of French and progressively disappears over time. We argue that this decrease in productivity is connected to the change in availability of the more abstract [pref-V] construction. While Old French still shows residual stages of Latin prefixation, this system dissolves in the history of French. As speakers have less access to the [pref-V] construction, this also engenders numerous changes in the constructional network of the [entre-V] construction.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The diachrony of French verbal prefixes
  • 3.The [entre-V] construction in the history of French
    • 3.1The corpus
    • 3.2The [entre-V] construction in OF
      • 3.2.1The semantics of the [entre-V] construction in OF
      • 3.2.2Reciprocal entre- in OF: Where is the reciprocal meaning encoded?
      • 3.2.3Morphosyntactic properties of the [entre-V]reciprocal schema
    • 3.3The [entre-V] construction over time: A quantitative approach
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1The origin of the French [entre-V] construction
      • 4.1.1The Latin sources of French entre-
      • 4.1.2The emergence of French [entre-V]
      • 4.1.3Where does reciprocal [entre-V] come from?
    • 4.2The decline of the French [entre-V] construction
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Digital resources
References (44)
References
Amiot, D., & De Mulder, W. (2015). Polycatégorialité et évolution diachronique: les emplois préfixoïdes de après(-) et arrière(-). Langue française, 1151, 137–153. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baayen, H. (1993). On frequency, transparency and productivity. In G. Booij & J. van Marle (Eds.), Yearbook of Morphology 1992 (pp. 181–208). Springer Netherlands. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, J. (2007). Frequency of use and the organization of language. Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cuzzolin, P., Putzu, I., & Ramat, P. (2006). The Indo-European adverb in diachronic and typological perspective. Indogermanische Forschungen, 1111, 2–38.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Smet, H., Ghesquière, L., & Van de Velde, F. (Eds.). (2015). On multiple source constructions in language change. John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dufresne, M., Dupuis, F., & Tremblay, M. (2008). La préverbation en français médiéval: Polysémie et sens grammatical. In J. Durand, Be. Habert & B. Laks (Eds.), Congrès mondial de la linguistique française: Diachronie, histoire de la langue (pp. 187–197). Institut de la Linguistique Française. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fanelli, V. (2009). Le costruzioni reciproche nella lingua latina. Universitalia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gaeta, L., & Ricca, D. (2006). Productivity in Italian word formation: a variable-corpus approach. Linguistics, 44(1), 57–89. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
GGHF = Marchello-Nizia, C., Combettes, B., Prévost, S., & Scheer, T. (Eds.). 2020. Grande grammaire historique du français. Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guentchéva, Z. (2003). Entre: préposition et préfixe. In P. Blumenthal & J.-E. Tyvaert (Eds.), La cognition dans le temps. Etudes cognitives dans le champ historique des langues et des textes (pp. 59–74). Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guentchéva, Z., & Rivière, N. (2007). Reciprocal and reflexive constructions in French. In V. P. Nedjalkov, E. Š. Geniušienė & Z. Guentchéva (Eds.), Reciprocal constructions (pp. 561–608). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hanoset, M. (1964). Sur la valeur du préfixe entre- en ancien français. In J. Renson (Ed.), Mélanges de linguistique romane et de philologie médiévale offerts à M. Maurice Delbouille (pp. 307–323). Duculot.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haverling, G. (2003). On prefixes and actionality in Classical and Late Latin. Acta Linguistica Hungarica, 50(1–2), 113–135. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heine, B., & Miyashita, H. (2008). The intersection between reflexives and reciprocals: A grammaticalization perspective. In E. König & V. Gast (Eds.), Reciprocals and reflexives: Theoretical and typological explorations (pp. 169–224). Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hilpert, M. (2013). Constructional change in English: Developments in allomorphy, word formation, and syntax. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2019). Lexicalization in morphology. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iacobini, C. (2019). “Rapiéçages faits avec sa propre étoffe”: Discontinuity and convergence in Romance prefixation. Word Structure, 12(2), 176–207. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Inglese, G. 2023. Caught in between: inter- and related verbal prefixes in Latin. Paper presented at the 22nd International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics, Charles University Prague, June 19–23, 2023.
Jackendoff, R., & Audring, J. (2016). Morphological schemas: Theoretical and psycholinguistic issues. The Mental Lexicon, 11(3), 467–493. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jensen, F. (1990). Old French and comparative Gallo-Romance syntax. Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kloss, H. (1978). Die Entwicklung neuer germanischer Kultursprachen seit 1800. Schwann.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Knjazev, J. (2007). Lexical reciprocals as a means of expressing reciprocal situations. In V. P. Nedjalkov, E. Š. Geniušienė & Z. Guentchéva (Eds.), Reciprocal constructions (pp.115–146). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lüdtke, J. (2005). Romanische Wortbildung: inhaltlich – diachronisch – synchronisch. Stauffenburg.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Malkiel, Y. (1941). “Atristar: entristecer”: Adjectival verbs in Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan. Studies in Philology, 38(3), 429–461.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mutz, K. (2011). AUTO- and INTER- versus (?) SE: Remarks on interaction and competition between word formation and syntax. In A. Nolda & O. Teuber (Eds.), Syntax and morphology multidimensional (pp. 239–258). Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nedjalkov, V. P. (2007). Overview of the research. Definitions of terms, framework, and related issues. In V. P. Nedjalkov, E. Š. Geniušienė & Z. Guentchéva (Eds.), Reciprocal constructions (pp. 3–114). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nkollo, M. (2013). L’expression de la réciprocité en ancien français: Mécanismes grammaticaux et leur évolution. Romanische Forschungen, 125(1), 14–31. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nkollo, M., M. (2016). The entrenchment of the «unus alterum» pattern. Peter Lang. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Patard, A., & De Mulder, W. (2015). La préverbation en “en-” en ancien français: un cas de préfixation aspectuelle? Lexique, 221, 85–110.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pijpops, D., & Van de Velde, F. (2016). Constructional contamination: How does it work and how do we measure it? Folia Linguistica, 50(2), 543–581. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roberts, I. 2016. Object clitics. In A. Ledgeway & M. Maiden (Eds.), The Oxford guide to the Romance languages (pp. 786–801). Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rothwell, W. (1973). Préfixation et structure de la langue en ancien français. Romania, 94(374), 241–250. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rousseau, A. (1995). A propos des préverbes en français. Pour une méthodologie d’approche syntaxique. In A. Rousseau (Ed.), Les préverbes dans les langues d’Europe. Introduction à l’étude de la préverbation (pp. 197–223). Septentrion.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sommerer, L., & Smirnova, E. (2020). The nature of the node and the network. In L. Sommerer & E. Smirnova (Eds.), Nodes and networks in Diachronic Construction Grammar (pp.1–42). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stéfanini, J. (1962). La voix pronominale en ancien et en moyen français. OPHRYS.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thurneysen, R. (1882). Zur Bezeichnung der Reciprocität im gallischen Latein. Archiv für lateinische lexicographie und grammatik, 71, 523–528.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tremblay, M. (2008). La préfixation en « entre » en ancien français: Pluralité, réciprocité et valeur aspectuelle. In B. Fagard, S. Prévost & B. Combettes (Eds.), Évolutions en français: études de linguistique diachronique (pp. 363–384). Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Goethem, K. (2009a). L’emploi préverbal des prépositions en français. Typologie et grammaticalisation. De Boeck-Duculot. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2009b). L’emploi « préfixal » des prépositions entre et tussen: analyse morphologique, sémantique et comparative. Langages, 1731, 114–134. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weidenbusch, W. (1993). Funktionen der Präfigierung. Präpositionale Elemente in der Wortbildung des Französischen. Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Digital resources
Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND): [URL]
Base de Français Médiéval (BFM): [URL]
Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (FEW): [URL]
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue