Clitic clusters in early Italo-Romance and the syntax/phonology interface
-
Diego Pescarini
Abstract
This paper deals with the morpho-phonology of Italo-Romance clitic clusters. It argues that morpho-phonological processes (i.e. apocope, prosthesis, etc.) are sensitive to both the syntactic make-up of clitic clusters and their prosodic structure. The first part of the paper aims to support the hypothesis that a clitic cluster is a Foot, daughter to a recursive Prosodic Word (Peperkamp 1995, 1996, 1997). The second part of the paper accounts for the distribution of the apocopated clitic l (< lo ‘it/him’/‘the.m.sg’) in early Italo-Romance. I show that the distribution of l follows from syllabic and alignment constraints compatible with the foot-based analysis. The last section addresses a puzzling vowel alternation which targets the leftmost clitic of certain clusters in Old and Modern Italian.
Abstract
This paper deals with the morpho-phonology of Italo-Romance clitic clusters. It argues that morpho-phonological processes (i.e. apocope, prosthesis, etc.) are sensitive to both the syntactic make-up of clitic clusters and their prosodic structure. The first part of the paper aims to support the hypothesis that a clitic cluster is a Foot, daughter to a recursive Prosodic Word (Peperkamp 1995, 1996, 1997). The second part of the paper accounts for the distribution of the apocopated clitic l (< lo ‘it/him’/‘the.m.sg’) in early Italo-Romance. I show that the distribution of l follows from syllabic and alignment constraints compatible with the foot-based analysis. The last section addresses a puzzling vowel alternation which targets the leftmost clitic of certain clusters in Old and Modern Italian.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Why challenging clitics? 1
- Enclisis at the syntax-PF interface 27
- Clisis revisited 55
- Handling Wolof clitics in LFG 87
- Clitic placement and grammaticalization in Portuguese 119
- Diachronic source of two cliticization patterns in Slavic 135
- The Freezing Principle in Hungarian polarity, non-polarity and multiple wh -questions 159
- Pronominal markers in Cajun French 187
- The morphosyntax of -nde and post-verbal clitics in Cypriot Greek 209
- Acquisition of Italian object clitics by a trilingual child 233
- Clitic clusters in early Italo-Romance and the syntax/phonology interface 255
- Reflexive verbs and the restructuring of clitic clusters 283
- Language index 311
- Subject index 313
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Why challenging clitics? 1
- Enclisis at the syntax-PF interface 27
- Clisis revisited 55
- Handling Wolof clitics in LFG 87
- Clitic placement and grammaticalization in Portuguese 119
- Diachronic source of two cliticization patterns in Slavic 135
- The Freezing Principle in Hungarian polarity, non-polarity and multiple wh -questions 159
- Pronominal markers in Cajun French 187
- The morphosyntax of -nde and post-verbal clitics in Cypriot Greek 209
- Acquisition of Italian object clitics by a trilingual child 233
- Clitic clusters in early Italo-Romance and the syntax/phonology interface 255
- Reflexive verbs and the restructuring of clitic clusters 283
- Language index 311
- Subject index 313
