Clitic
In
linguistics, a
clitic is a
word that
syntactically functions as a
free morpheme, but
phonetically appears as a
bound morpheme, as it is always pronounced with the preceding or following word. If a clitic attaches to the end of a preceding word, it is called an
enclitic. If it attached to the front of a following word, it is called a
proclitic. Some languages, like
Portuguese, have
mesoclitics, which are inserted in the middle of the word.
A clitic and the word to which it attaches (called its
host) are pronounced as a single unit, and this unit adheres to the grammatical rules of the
language in which it is found. A clitic is never
stressed, although its host might be. In formal writing, clitics are often written as separate words.
It is important to note that a clitic is not an
affix. An affix syntactically and
phonologically attaches to a base
morpheme of a limited
part of speech, such as a verb, to form a new word. A clitic syntactically functions above the word level, on the
phrase or
clause level, and attaches only phonetically to the first, last, or only word in the phrase or clause, whichever part of speech the word belongs to. By definition, clitics do not belong to
lexical categories such as nouns, verbs, or adpositions.
In the
Indo-European languages, some clitics can be traced back to
Proto-Indo-European: for example,
-kwe is the original form of
Latin -que,
Greek te, and
Sanskrit -ca. This word means "and" and is said after the word being added, e.g.
Senatus Populusque Romanus "Senate
and People of Rome".
English enclitics include:
* The abbreviated forms of
be:
**
'm in
I'm**
're in
you're**
's in
she's* The abbreviated forms of
auxiliary verbs:
**
'll in
they'll**
've in
they've* To express the possessive of a phrase:
**
's in
the girl next door's cat (It's not just the
door's cat.)
And English proclitics include:
*
a in
a desk
*
an in
an egg
*
the in
the house
Note that the choice of
a or
an is sensitive to the author's preferred pronunciation where the word that follows has more than one received pronunciation. A particularly extreme example of this occurs with the computer jargon-word
SQL which is variously pronounced
ess-cue-el (see
English alphabet) or in a phonetically-amalgamated form that mirrors the word
sequel.
*
a in
a SQL server - pronounced
a sequel server
*
an in
an SQL server - pronounced
an ess-cue-el server
The rule more generally is that the form
an occurs before a spoken vowel sound regardless of how the word is spelled. The English words 'honour', 'heir' and 'hour' are spoken with an initial vowel sound and always take
an; 'herb' and 'hotel' are spoken either with or without an initial vowel sound depending on time and place, and variously take
a or
an depending on spoken convention.[
1]
The negation suffix
n't as in
couldn't etc. has been proven to be an affix rather than a clitic (Zwicky & Pullum, 1983). In English, clitics must be unstressed, but
not cannot be unstressed.
* I have
not done it yet.
* I've
not done it yet.
* I
haven't done it yet.
* *I'ven't done it yet. (wrong)
Stress also prevents cliticization as follows:
* I don't know who she
is. (*I don't know who she's.)
* Have you done it? - Yes, I
have. (*Yes, I've.)
* He's not a fool. - He
is a fool! (*He's a fool!) cf. He's not a
genius, either.
In the
Romance languages, the articles and the non-emphatic
object pronouns are all clitics. In
Spanish, for example:
las aguas ("the waters") = /la'saguas/
lo atamos ("we tied it") = /loa'tamos/
dámelo ("give it to me") = /'damelo/
Clitics in other languages:
*Latin:
que and,
ve or,
ne (yes-no question)
*Greek:
te and,
de but,
gar for (in a logical argument),
oun therefore
*
Russian:
ли (yes-no question),
же (emphasis),
не not (proclitic),
бы (subjunctive)
*
Japanese: all
particles, such as the genitive
postposition の
no and the
topic marker は
wa*
Dutch:
't definite article of neuter nouns and third person pronoun,
'k first person pronoun,
je second person pronoun,
-ie third person pronoun (this one should not be written as a separate word, i.e
"Doet-ie 't nog?": "Is it still working?"; lit. "Does it still do it?")
*
Plautdietsch:
"Deit'a't vondoag?": "Will he do it today?"
*
SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms: What is a clitic?*
Clitic doubling
