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12. Romanian possessive clitics revisited

  • Larisa Avram and Martine Coene
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Clitic Doubling in the Balkan Languages
This chapter is in the book Clitic Doubling in the Balkan Languages

Abstract

This paper questions the view according to which Romanian dative/genitive possessive clitics can be placed both dp-internally and dp-externally. The clitics in the two constructions are argued to be only superficially identical. The clitic within the dp is a possessive clitic, valued genitive, which does not move out of the dp and cannot be doubled. The one placed in the clausal domain, at the left periphery of the clause, is an indirect object, base-generated inside the vp, and valued dative. Its possessive interpretation is context dependent, being semantically (or pragmatically) determined. The difference with respect to the availability of possessive clitic raising and doubling is accounted for within aDerivation by Phase framework (Chomsky 1999). The proposal is that dp-internal clitics are ‘frozen’ within the dp phase and consequently cannot move to the left periphery of the clause. Both the impossibility of their moving out of the dp to the clausal domain as well as the ambiguity of the sentences containing clausal dative clitics are accounted for in terms of the Attract Closest condition redefined in terms of phases.

Abstract

This paper questions the view according to which Romanian dative/genitive possessive clitics can be placed both dp-internally and dp-externally. The clitics in the two constructions are argued to be only superficially identical. The clitic within the dp is a possessive clitic, valued genitive, which does not move out of the dp and cannot be doubled. The one placed in the clausal domain, at the left periphery of the clause, is an indirect object, base-generated inside the vp, and valued dative. Its possessive interpretation is context dependent, being semantically (or pragmatically) determined. The difference with respect to the availability of possessive clitic raising and doubling is accounted for within aDerivation by Phase framework (Chomsky 1999). The proposal is that dp-internal clitics are ‘frozen’ within the dp phase and consequently cannot move to the left periphery of the clause. Both the impossibility of their moving out of the dp to the clausal domain as well as the ambiguity of the sentences containing clausal dative clitics are accounted for in terms of the Attract Closest condition redefined in terms of phases.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Preface ix
  5. Introduction: Clitic doubling, core syntax and the interfaces 1
  6. Part I. Clitic doubling within the Balkan Continuum: Rise and spread
  7. 1. Balkan object reduplication in areal and dialectological perspective 35
  8. 2. Towards grammaticalization of clitic doubling: Clitic doubling in Macedonian and neighbouring languages 65
  9. 3. The genesis of clitic doubling from Ancient to Medieval Greek 89
  10. 4. Clitic doubling and Old Bulgarian 105
  11. Part II. Discourse functional properties of clitic doubling
  12. 5. Romanian clitic doubling: A view from pragmatics-semantics and diachrony 135
  13. 6. Clitic doubling from Ancient to Asia Minor Greek 165
  14. 7. Object clitic doubling constructions and topicality in Bulgarian 203
  15. Part III. Morpho-syntactic properties and modelling of clitic doubling
  16. 8. Clitic doubling, agreement and information structure: The case of Albanian 227
  17. 9. Clitic reduplication constructions in Bulgarian 257
  18. 10. Clitic doubling, complex heads and interarboreal operations 289
  19. 11. Rethinking the Clitic Doubling parameter: The inverse correlation between clitic doubling and participle agreement 321
  20. Part IV. Clitic doubling within the DP
  21. 12. Romanian possessive clitics revisited 361
  22. 13. Possessive clitics in the DP: Doubling or dislocation? 389
  23. Name index 435
  24. Language index 437
  25. Subject index 439
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.130.19avr

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Preface ix
  5. Introduction: Clitic doubling, core syntax and the interfaces 1
  6. Part I. Clitic doubling within the Balkan Continuum: Rise and spread
  7. 1. Balkan object reduplication in areal and dialectological perspective 35
  8. 2. Towards grammaticalization of clitic doubling: Clitic doubling in Macedonian and neighbouring languages 65
  9. 3. The genesis of clitic doubling from Ancient to Medieval Greek 89
  10. 4. Clitic doubling and Old Bulgarian 105
  11. Part II. Discourse functional properties of clitic doubling
  12. 5. Romanian clitic doubling: A view from pragmatics-semantics and diachrony 135
  13. 6. Clitic doubling from Ancient to Asia Minor Greek 165
  14. 7. Object clitic doubling constructions and topicality in Bulgarian 203
  15. Part III. Morpho-syntactic properties and modelling of clitic doubling
  16. 8. Clitic doubling, agreement and information structure: The case of Albanian 227
  17. 9. Clitic reduplication constructions in Bulgarian 257
  18. 10. Clitic doubling, complex heads and interarboreal operations 289
  19. 11. Rethinking the Clitic Doubling parameter: The inverse correlation between clitic doubling and participle agreement 321
  20. Part IV. Clitic doubling within the DP
  21. 12. Romanian possessive clitics revisited 361
  22. 13. Possessive clitics in the DP: Doubling or dislocation? 389
  23. Name index 435
  24. Language index 437
  25. Subject index 439
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