Adjective-clitic combinations in the Greek DP

Possessive clitics in the DP have not received as much attention as clitics in the verbal domain have. In fact, the few existing accounts of cliticization are either phonological (Nespor & Vogel 1986) or primarily morphological (Kolliakou 1997) or morphosyntactic (Horrocks & Stavrou 1988; Stavrou & Horrocks 1989; Karanassios 1992).

The facts we will discuss here have not been observed in none of the aforementioned studies, and it is our purpose to show that the distribution of nominal clitics in the Greek DP provide evidence for the existence of two possessor positions within the DP. If this hypothesis is correct then it is clear that morphological or even morphosyntactic accounts cannot capture the relevant generalizations.

The paper is structured as follows. In Section 1 we present the distributional pattern of Greek DP-cliticization. In Section 2 we discuss the core data of the present study which show the semantic/interpretational differences between the two cliticization sites, namely on the noun and on the prenominal adjective. In Section 3 we set the ground for our analysis by outlining (a) the main directions in the research of clitics crosslinguistically and (b) our proposal about two possessor/clitic sites in the DP. In 4 we offer an implementation of this basic idea by providing structural analyses which refer to different clitic sites. Our analysis crucially relies on the presence of an elaborated structure DP-internally, as has been suggested in much recent work. In 5 we briefly comment on previous, basically morphological in orientation, analyses of cliticization within the DP by disputing their ability to capture the facts presented here in terms of (morphological) affixation of the clitic onto its host. In 6 we conclude our study by summarizing our main points.