Abstract
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.
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