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In:Formal Studies in Slovenian Syntax: In honor of Janez Orešnik
Edited by Franc Lanko Marušič and Rok Žaucer
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 236] 2016
► pp. 91–128

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Clitics are/become Minimal(ist)

 | Indiana University
Published online: 8 December 2016
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https://doi.org/10.1075/la.236.05fra
This paper considers the general question of what properties distinguish clitics from other sorts of words. Focusing on South Slavic and in particular Slovenian data, it is argued that canonically clitics are minimal vocabulary items with respect to sound, meaning, and syntax: they lack (i) prosodic structure (above the syllable), (ii) semantic features (beyond the purely grammatical), and (iii) syntactic structure (above the head). For some items, however, departures from this canonical characterization exist, as do additional restrictions.
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Ruda, Marta
2021. Polish Personal Pronouns: [PersPPers [NumPNum [n]]] and [NumP Num [n]]1. Studies in Polish Linguistics 16:1 ► pp. 23 ff. DOI logo
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2021. Strict and Sloppy Readings of Pronominal Objects in Polish. Studies in Polish Linguistics 16:2 ► pp. 121 ff. DOI logo
Stegovec, Adrian
2020. Taking case out of the Person-Case Constraint. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 38:1 ► pp. 261 ff. DOI logo
Franks, Steven L.
2018. Person Feature Geometry and Pronominal Clitic Ordering Preferences. Zeitschrift für Slawistik 63:4 ► pp. 627 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2023. Serbian Clitics [Studies in Language Companion Series, 229], DOI logo

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