The Catalan Clitic System

A Diachronic Perspective on its Syntax and Phonology

Susann Fischer

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9783110176131
• eBook ISBN: 9783110892505
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The book is a qualitative and quantitative investigation into the Catalan clitic system from Old to Modern Catalan. Building on the Minimalist Program, the author shows that a number of facts about Old Romance clitic placement that previously have either not been accounted for or have received unsatisfactory treatment can be explained in a principled way once a strict division of labor between syntax and phonology is adopted.

Table of contents

• Chapter 1. Methodological and theoretical issues
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Aims and hypotheses of the book
• 3. Philological issues and methodological problems in the study of syntactic change
• 3.1. The analysis of diachronic data
• 3.2. Written versus spoken language
• 3.3. The selection of texts
• 4. The texts used to form the data base
• 4.1. The data base
• Chapter 2. Clitic syntax from Old Catalan to Modern Catalan
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Latin to medieval Romance
• 3. Old Catalan clitics (13th–15th century)
• 3.1. Clitic types
• 3.2. Clitic distribution
• 3.3. Striking features
• 3.4. Summary
• 4. Clitics in the Decadència (16th–18th century)
• 4.1. Clitic types
• 4.2. Clitic distribution
• 4.3. Striking features
• 4.4. Summary
• 5. Clitics in the Renaixença (19th century)
• 5.1. Clitic types
• 5.2. Clitic distribution
• 5.3. Striking features
• 5.4. Summary
• 6. Modern Catalan clitics (20th century)
• 6.1. Clitic types
• 6.2. Clitic distribution
• 6.3. Striking features
• 6.4 Summary
• 7. Synopsis
• 7.1. Catalan clitic development (13th–20th century)
• 7.2 Other Romance languages over the centuries
• Chapter 3. Recent analyses and their problems
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Prosodic analyses
• 2.1. Last resort movement triggered by PF
• 2.2. Reordering of constituents on PF
• 2.3. Phonological Filter
• 2.4. Summary
• 3. Syntactic approaches
• 3.1. Verb movement
• 3.2. Clitic movement
• 3.3. Summary
• 4. Synopsis
• Chapter 4. Rethinking the Tobler-Mussafia law
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Problems for the phonological analyses
• 2.1. Reservations
• 2.2. Main considerations
• 2.3. Strong arguments against purely prosodic accounts
• 3. Problems for the syntactical analyses
• 3.1. Considerations
• 3.2. Strong arguments against a verb-second analysis
• 4. Casting doubts
• 4.1. On the Tobler-Mussafia law
• 4.2. On the phrasal character of clitic pronouns
• 5. Summary
• Chapter 5. Seeking an analysis
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The making-up of syntax
• 2.1. A particular category
• 2.2. Adopting Σ into a Minimalist framework
• 2.3. Empirical evidence from the Romance languages in general
• 2.4. Empirical evidence from Old Catalan
• 3. The work left for phonology
• 3.1. Late lexical insertion
• 3.2. Conditioned allomorphy
• 4. Summary
• Chapter 6. Explaining the changes
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Diachronic instability
• 3. A tentative approach
• 3.1. Variation at the level of individuals
• 3.2. Language change within a Minimalist framework
• 3.3. Change in and diffusion of the Catalan clitic distribution
• 4. Summary
• Appendix
• Notes
• References
• Index