TY - JOUR N2 - The paper deals with the rise of French sequences where two etymologically and functionally divergent markers, an erstwhile refl exive se and the l’un l’autre cluster, combine to encode reciprocity. Unlike in other old Romance languages, in medieval French (12th to 14th centuries) cumulative reciprocal constructions arise relatively late. In the meantime, they rely either on l’un ... l’autre (acting as substitutes of verbal arguments) or on se. The only exception involves pronominal verbs of movement that encode symmetric relations. Two independent mechanisms are claimed to have been responsible for broadening the domain of cumulative sequences: the weakening of anaphoric links of l’un ... l’autre to their antecedents and subjectifi cation. Since plural subject-verb agreement is obligatory in sentences with reciprocal se-verbs, the singular l’un is unlikely to fill a slot for subject. Therefore, it is coerced into drifting rightwards to form a single syntactic constituent with l’autre. Subjectification circumscribes cases where, notwithstanding the presence of l’un l’autre, se accompanying a verbal plural is suffi cient to convey reciprocity. As a consequence, cumulative sequences become widespread in 16th century. All in all, the shift is viewed as an instance of construction becoming increasingly schematic over time. L1 - http://www.czasopisma.pan.pl/Content/101752/PDF/LS%2038_12%20Nkollo.pdf L2 - http://www.czasopisma.pan.pl/Content/101752 PY - 2017 EP - 181 DO - 10.24425/linsi.2017.117049 A1 - Nkollo, Mikołaj PB - Polska Akademia Nauk • Oddział w Katowicach VL - vol. 38 DA - 2017 T1 - On the fixation of cumulative ‘se v plural l’un l’autre’ reciprocal sequences SP - 161 UR - http://www.czasopisma.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/101752 T2 - LINGUISTICA SILESIANA ER -