More on the clitic combination puzzle
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Anahí Alba de la Fuente
Abstract
Languages like Spanish, Catalan and Romanian accept combinations of 1st and 2nd person clitics. However, not all 1st and 2nd person combinations are possible. Although two single clitics can be combined, the combination of two plural clitics results in ungrammaticality (Rivero 2008; Nevins & Sãvescu 2008). This is true for Spanish and Romanian, but only partially for Catalan. On the other hand, all three languages accept clitic combinations that include a plural dative and a singular non dative and systematically reject combinations that include a singular dative and a plural non-dative. In view of this, I argue that there is a number-case restriction that parallels the Person Case Constraint, first proposed by Bonet (1991), and, in more general terms, I defend that clitic restrictions are drawn by the degree of markedness of the dative clitic with respect to the other clitic in the cluster.
Abstract
Languages like Spanish, Catalan and Romanian accept combinations of 1st and 2nd person clitics. However, not all 1st and 2nd person combinations are possible. Although two single clitics can be combined, the combination of two plural clitics results in ungrammaticality (Rivero 2008; Nevins & Sãvescu 2008). This is true for Spanish and Romanian, but only partially for Catalan. On the other hand, all three languages accept clitic combinations that include a plural dative and a singular non dative and systematically reject combinations that include a singular dative and a plural non-dative. In view of this, I argue that there is a number-case restriction that parallels the Person Case Constraint, first proposed by Bonet (1991), and, in more general terms, I defend that clitic restrictions are drawn by the degree of markedness of the dative clitic with respect to the other clitic in the cluster.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements ix
- List of contributors xi
- Editors’ introduction 1
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Part I. Phonetics/Phonology
- Correcting the record on Dominican [s]-hypercorrection 15
- V-to-V assimilation in trisyllabic words in French 25
- The production and provenance of palatal nasals in Portuguese and Spanish 43
- Lenition and phonemic contrast in Majorcan Catalan 63
- Alveolar laterals in Majorcan Spanish 81
- Units of speech production in Italian 95
- Pitch polarity in Palenquero 111
- Word-minimality and sound change in Hispano-Romance 129
- Multiple opacity in Eastern Regional French 153
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Part II. Syntax
- Syntactic variation in Colombian Spanish 169
- Anaphoricity, logophoricity and intensification 187
- More on the clitic combination puzzle 203
- The Spanish dative alternation revisited 217
- Romanian genderless pronouns and parasitic gaps 231
- To agree or not to agree 249
- Variation in subject expression in Western Romance 267
- A phase-based analysis of Old French genitive constructions 285
- V2 loss in Old French and Old Occitan 301
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Part III. Morphology, and interfaces
- The loss and survival of inflectional morphology 323
- Allomorphy in pre-clitic imperatives in Formenteran Catalan 337
- Preverbal vowels in wh-questions and declarative sentences in Northern Italian Piacentine dialects 353
- Pitch accent, focus, and the interpretation of non- wh exclamatives in French 369
- Detours along the perfect path 387
- Grammaticalization of commencer/cominciare “to begin” in French and Italian 405
- Index of subjects, terms and languages 423
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements ix
- List of contributors xi
- Editors’ introduction 1
-
Part I. Phonetics/Phonology
- Correcting the record on Dominican [s]-hypercorrection 15
- V-to-V assimilation in trisyllabic words in French 25
- The production and provenance of palatal nasals in Portuguese and Spanish 43
- Lenition and phonemic contrast in Majorcan Catalan 63
- Alveolar laterals in Majorcan Spanish 81
- Units of speech production in Italian 95
- Pitch polarity in Palenquero 111
- Word-minimality and sound change in Hispano-Romance 129
- Multiple opacity in Eastern Regional French 153
-
Part II. Syntax
- Syntactic variation in Colombian Spanish 169
- Anaphoricity, logophoricity and intensification 187
- More on the clitic combination puzzle 203
- The Spanish dative alternation revisited 217
- Romanian genderless pronouns and parasitic gaps 231
- To agree or not to agree 249
- Variation in subject expression in Western Romance 267
- A phase-based analysis of Old French genitive constructions 285
- V2 loss in Old French and Old Occitan 301
-
Part III. Morphology, and interfaces
- The loss and survival of inflectional morphology 323
- Allomorphy in pre-clitic imperatives in Formenteran Catalan 337
- Preverbal vowels in wh-questions and declarative sentences in Northern Italian Piacentine dialects 353
- Pitch accent, focus, and the interpretation of non- wh exclamatives in French 369
- Detours along the perfect path 387
- Grammaticalization of commencer/cominciare “to begin” in French and Italian 405
- Index of subjects, terms and languages 423
