On parallels and differences between clitic climbing and long scrambling & the economy of derivations

In this paper I show that Clitic Climbing (CC) in Spanish and Long Scrambling (LS) in German (and Polish) are (im-)possible out of the same environments. For an explanation of this fact I propose a feature-oriented analysis of incorporation phenomena. The idea is that restructuring is a phenomenon of syntactic incorporation. In German and Polish, Agro incorporates covertly into the matrix clause and licenses LS out of the infinitival into the matrix clause. Similarily the clitic in Spanish, which is analysed as an Agro-head, incorporates into the matrix clause. I argue that this movement is necessary for reasons of feature-checking, i. e. for checking of an [+R]- or Restructuring-feature. In section 2 I discuss several differences between CC and LS. For example, the proposed analysis correctly predicts that clitics in contrast to scrambled phrases are subject to several serialization restrictions. Throughout the paper I use the term restructuring only in a descriptive sense, in order to describe the phenomenon in question

The lexical interface: closed class items in south Slavic and English

This thesis argues for a minimalist theory of dual lexicalization. It presents a unified analysis of South Slavic and English auxiliaries and accounts for the distribution of South Slavic clitic clusters. The analysis moves much minor cross-linguistic variation out of the syntax into the lexicon and the level of Phonological Form. Following a critique of various approaches to lexical insertion in Chomskyan models, we adapt Emonds' (1994, 1997) theory of syntactic and phonological lexicalization for a model employing bare phrase structure. We redefine 'extended projection' in this theory, and revise the mechanism of 'Alternative Realization', whereby formal features associated with (possibly null) XP may be realised on another node. Pronominal clitics are one example of Alternative Realization. We claim that the Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian clitic cluster is phonologically lexicalized on the highest head in the extended projection. The clitic auxiliaries in SCB are not auxiliaries, but the altemative realization of features in 1º without categorial specification, hence the distribution of the clitic cluster as a whole. We show how a verb's extended projection may be extended by 'restructuring' verbs, allowing clitic climbing. In Bulgarian/Macedonian, the clausal clitic cluster appears on the highest [+V] head in the extended projection, determined by the categorial specifications of the auxiliaries. In the DP, the possessive dative clitic forms a clitic cluster with the determmer, its distribution determined by the realization of the Dº feature. SCB and Bulgarian clitic clusters require a phonological host in the domain of lexicalization: phonological lexicalization into the Wackemagel Position occurs as a 'last resort'. The treatment of auxiliaries and restructuring verbs m English and South Slavic derives from their lexical entries. Dual lexicalization and bracketing of features in the lexicon allows variation in trace licensing, optional word orders, and minor language-specific phonological idiosyncrasies

Syntactic structure and modal interpretation: the case of basque "behar"

391 p.This dissertation is an investigation of the syntactic structure and modal interpretation of clauses involving the denominal necessity predicate behar `need¿ and an infinitival complement. On the one hand, it analyses the syntactic status of non-finite complements of denominal behar by examining their interaction with syntactic phenomena sensitive to different structural and locality conditions, and concludes that the infinitival complements of behar can correspond to different underlying structures. The largest type of infinitive is a non-restructuring infinitive that projects a full clausal architecture (i.e. a CP), and the smallest one is a reduced restructuring infinitive that projects up to vP. There is evidence for intermediate types projecting up to the inflectional domain (IP/TP). On the other hand, the dissertation examines the thematic and scope properties of the subjects in each of the different structural types and the modal interpretation that they can give rise to. On the basis of this analysis it is argued that modal interpretation is not constrained by any single factor (the presence of restructuring, the referential status of the subject and its relative scope vis-à-vis the modal predicate, among other frequently mentioned ones), but depends on the cumulative effect of several factors working together. The dissertation also shows the necessity of adopting a more fine-grained view of root modality, one that allows a simpler mapping of syntactic structures into modal meanings

On two sources of second position effects (part 2)

Niniejszy artykuł przedstawia analizę dwóch zjawisk składniowych, które są podporządkowane tzw. regule drugiej pozycji: zjawiska V2 obserwowanego we wszystkich językach germańskich oprócz angielskiego oraz klitycyzację drugiej pozycji (Wackernagela), która występuje w niektórych językach słowiańskich. Pierwsza część artykułu (Migdalski 2018), opublikowana w poprzednim numerze czasopisma, wskazała na konieczność rozróżnienia dwóch typów efektu drugiej pozycji: pierwszy z nich dotyczy finitywnych form czasownika oraz klityk zaimków osobowych i czasowników posiłkowych, a drugi typ jest odpowiedzialny za występowanie klityk zdaniowych w zdaniach wyrażających nacechowaną formę siły ilokucyjnej. Ponadto, pierwsza część artykuł nawiązywała do generalizacji Boškovića (2016) dotyczącej pozycji klityk w zdaniu. Generalizacja ta mówi, że klityki drugiej pozycji występują jedynie w językach bez przedimków. Artykuł ten wykazuje, że chociaż generalizacja ta jest empirycznie poprawna, to nie uwzględnia ona dystrybucji klityk czasowników posiłkowych i nie jest ona poparta obserwacjami diachronicznymi. Druga część artykułu, która jest zamieszczona poniżej, proponuje generalizację alternatywną, która wiąże obecność klityk przyczasownikowych w języku z dostępnością wykładników morfologicznych czasu.This paper accounts for the distribution of two second position effects, the V2 (verb second) order observed in continental Germanic languages and second position cliticization, attested in some Slavic languages. The first part of this paper (Migdalski 2018), published in the previous issue of this journal, showed that it is necessary to distinguish two types of second position effects: one of them affects finite verbs and pronominal and auxiliary clitics, whereas the other one is restricted to the contexts of marked illocution and is observed among a small class of so-called operator clitics. Furthermore, the first part of Migdalski (2018) addressed Bošković’s (2016) generalization concerning the distribution of clitics, which states that second position pronominal and auxiliary clitics are found only in languages without articles. It showed that although this generalization is empirically correct, it does not account for the distribution of auxiliary clitics and is not supported by diachronic considerations. The second part of this paper proposes an alternative generalization, which restricts verb-adjacent cliticization to tensed environments

Persian object clitics and the syntax-morphology interface

International audienceThis paper presents a descriptive overview and formal analysis of the use of pronominal clitics for realizing various types of arguments in Persian, with particular emphasis on object clitics in the verbal domain. We argue that pronominal clitics behave more like suffixes than independent syntactic elements; in cases where they take syntactic scope over an NP or a PP, they must be phrasal affixes. We propose an HPSG analysis to account for the morphosyntactic aspects of verbal suffixation of object clitics, possessive clitics, preverbal object clitics, and clitic doubling constructions. Finally, we explore extensions of the analysis to periphrastic verb forms, and we com- pare our proposals for Persian to previous HPSG work on clitic phenomena in other languages

Advances in formal Slavic linguistics 2021

Synopsis: Advances in formal Slavic linguistics 2021 offers a selection of articles that were prepared on the basis of talks given at the conference Formal Description of Slavic Languages 14 or at the satellite workshop on secondary imperfectives in Slavic, which were held on June 2–5, 2021, at the University of Leipzig. The volume covers all branches of Slavic languages and features synchronic as well as diachronic analyses. It comprises a wide array of topics, such as degree achievements, clitic climbing in Czech and Polish, typology of Slavic l-participles, aspectual markers in Russian and Czech, doubling in South Slavic relative clauses, congruence and case-agreement in close apposition in Russian, cataphora in Slovenian, Russian and Polish participles, prefixation and telicity in Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian adjectives, negative questions in Russian and German and imperfectivity in discourse. The numerous topics addressed demonstrate the importance of Slavic data and the analyses presented in this collection make a significant contribution to Slavic linguistics as well as to linguistics in general

Clitics in the wild

This collective monograph is the first data-oriented, empirical in-depth study of the system of clitics on Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. It fills the gap between the theoretical and normative literature by including solid data on variation found in dialects and spoken language and obtained from massive Web Corpora and speakers’ acceptability judgements. The authors investigate three primary sources of variation: inventory, placement and morphonological processes. A separate part of the book is dedicated to the phenomenon of clitic climbing, the major challenge for any syntactic theory. The theory of complexity serves as the explanation for the very diverse constraints on clitic climbing established in the empirical studies. It allows to construct a series of hierarchies where the factors relevant for predicting clitic climbing interact with each other. Thus, the study pushes our understanding of clitics away from fine-grained descriptions and syntactic generalisations towards a probabilistic modelling of syntax

Pronominal cliticization in European Portuguese : a postlexical operation

Pronominal clitics in the Romance languages are known to display affix-like behaviour. This fact has led to proposals, such as Zwicky (1987) and Halpern (1995) for European Portuguese (EP), that pronominal clitics behave like lexical affixes because they are (inflectional) affixes. In this paper we argue against such an analysis of EP pronominal clitics. First, we present a bulk of phenomena -including distributional facts, the (non-)application of phonological rules, and the (non)application of morphophonological rules- that clearly differentiate EP pronominal clitics from inflectional affixes, and argue for the postlexical combination of verbs and clitics. We then survey the arguments put forward in favour of the lexical attachment of pronominal clitics in EP, and show that these are not compelling arguments for the lexical hypothesis. We conclude that pronominal cliticization must be treated as a postlexical operation in EP.Els clítics pronominals en les llengües romàniques tenen un comportament semblant als afixos. Aquest fet ha inspirat propostes, com la de Zwicky (1987) i Halpern (1995) per al portuguès europeu (EP), que defensen que els clítics pronominals es comporten com afixos lèxics perquè són afixos (inflectius). En aquest article discutim una anàlisi com aquesta dels clítics pronominals de l'EP. En primer lloc, presentem un conjunt de fenòmens -que inclouen distribució, la (no-)aplicació de les regles fonològiques, i la (no-)aplicació de les regles morfofonològiques- que diferencien clarament els clítics pronominals del PE dels afixos inflectius, i defensem la combinació postlèxica de verbs i clítics. Després mostrem els arguments a favor de l'adjunció lèxica dels clítics pronominals en PE, i demostrem que no són arguments suficients per a la hipòtesi lèxica. Concloem que la cliticització pronominal s'ha de tractar com una operació postlèxica en PE