This monograph investigates the morpho-syntactic and other properties of clitic pronouns in Greek and offers a grammar of proclisis and enclisis in light of Chomsky s (1995, 2001a, 2005) Minimalist Program. It explores the nature of clitics as syntactic topicalizers which are probed by structurally higher verbal heads to which they move and into which they incorporate morpho-syntactically. A theory is advanced according to which cliticization derives from syntactic agreement between (the phi-features of) a clitic pronoun and a phase head, v* in the case of proclisis and CM in the case of enclisis. Incorporation of the clitic into its host is argued to depend on two factors, i.e. the fact that the clitic only contains a subset of the features of its host, and the fact that the edge of the host is accessible. Also, the syntax of strong pronouns and their relation to clitics, of negated imperatives, of surrogate imperatives and of free clitic ordering in Greek enclisis are also discussed. This monograph would appeal to syntacticians and morphologists as well as to those interested in Greek and more generally in clitic syntax."

In Classical Greek Syntax: Wackernagel's Law in Herodotus, David Goldstein offers the first theoretically-informed study of second-position clitics in Ancient Greek and challenges the long-standing belief that Greek word order is ‟free” or beyond the reach of systematic analysis. On the basis of Herodotus’ Histories, he demonstrates that there are in fact systematic correspondences between clause structure and meaning. Crucial to this new model of the Greek clause is Wackernagel’s Law, the generalization that enclitics and postpositives occur in ‟second position,” as these classes of words provide a stable anchor for analyzing sentence structure. The results of this work not only restore word order as an interpretive dimension of Greek texts, but also provide a framework for the investigation of other areas of syntax in Greek, as well as archaic Indo-European more broadly.

This book contains fourteen articles that reflect current ideas on the phonology, morphology, and syntax of clitics. It covers the forms and functions of clitics in various typologically diverse languages and presents data from, e.g. European Portuguese, Macedonian, and Yoruba. It extensively deals with the prosodic structure of clitics, their morphological status, clitic placement, and clitic doubling. The form and behavior of clitics with respect to tonal phenomena and in verse are discussed in two articles (Akinlabi & Liberman, Reindl & Franks). Other articles address the prosodic representation of clitics in Irish (Green), the differences in the acquisition of clitics and strong pronouns in Catalan (Escobar & Gavarro), the similarities between clitics and affixes or words in Romance and Bantu languages (Cocchi, Crysmann, Monachesi, Ortman & Popescu), the semantics of clitics in the Greek DP and in Spanish doubling (Alexiadou & Stavrou, Uriagereka), and complex problems concerning verbal clitics in Romanian and Balkan languages (Legendre, Spencer, Tomic).

This book is concerned with a number of central issues in the theory of clitics, a topic that has become much debated in recent years. Mainly written within a recent generative framework, its contrastive approach discusses these issues against the background of a number of European languages, among which the Balkan Slavic languages figure prominently. The question as to whether clitics are to be located in the syntax or in the phonology or in both is addressed in articles by Boškovi?, Progovac and Franks, who also provides a thorough introductory essay to the volume. There are detailed studies on clitic behavior in Greek relative clauses (Alexiadou and Anagnostopolou), Bulgarian and English DPs (Dimitrova-Vulchanova), the various Romance languages (Franco), Slovene (Golden and Milojevi? Sheppard), Albanian and Greek (Kallulli) and Macedonian (Tomi?). Finally, the book contains a discourse-related description of clitic doubling in Balkan Slavic languages (Schick). The book should be of interest to any scholar, theoretical or descriptive, whose research touches upon the central phenomenon of cliticisation.

An alternative approach launched from a diachronic perspective is proposed and its implications for our understanding of the nature of language change, the status of clitics in morphology, and the role of generalizations in linguistic explanation are discussed."--BOOK JACKET.