THE MORPHOSYNTAX OF TAGALOG CLITICS: A TYPOLOGICALLY DRIVEN APPROACH A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Daniel Aaron Kaufman May 2010 © 2010 Daniel Aaron Kaufman THE MORPHOSYNTAX OF TAGALOG CLITICS: A TYPOLOGICALLY DRIVEN APPROACH Daniel Aaron Kaufman Ph.D. Cornell University 2010 In this dissertation, I investigate Tagalog second position clitics in a new empirical depth concluding that these elements are best treated as “non-syntactic” adjuncts to phrase structure. This approach is thus most similar to Anderson’s (1992 et seq) “phrasal affix” analysis of clitics but differs in several important respects. Second position clitics are understood here as the spell out of feature bundles which are adjoined to phrase structure in the syntax via an operation Merge (Feature). Unlike bona-fide syntactic heads which are introduced via Merge (Terminal), these feature bundles are not housed under a terminal node within the phrase structure. Nonetheless, limited interactions with syntactic structure are possible. For instance, second position clitics are conjoinable in Tagalog under special conditions and must comply to a locality restriction with the predicate phrase from which they receive their theta-role, two interactions which are highly unexpected on a purely morphological understanding of these elements. I also review Klavans’ (1980 et seq) clitic typology paying special attention to clitic type. I conclude that, once unambiguous morphosyntactic sister clitics (typically syntactic heads) are separated out, two new generalizations emerge: (i) sister clitics can only be manipulated by bona-fide syntactic movement whereas non-sister clitics can be displaced due to phonological factors, (ii) sister clitics can attach phonologically to or away from their complements whereas non-sister clitics cannot attach phonologically to an element outside their syntactic domain. These findings revise our understanding of the repertoire of available clitic positions and attachments, leading to a welcome simplification. Syntax and phonology are thus not seen to be independent with regard to clitics, as previously claimed (Klavans 1980 et seq). A wide range of syntactic facts concerning Tagalog clitics are also covered here for the first time leading to a new characterization of clitic impenetrable constituents. Impenetrability is shown to be a property of pronominal argument clitics rather than adverbial clitics and requires a locality relation between pronominal arguments and the predicates with which they are associated. This locality condition accounts for the full range of data in a way that cannot be done by previous approaches. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Born in New York City, Daniel Kaufman spent the first two years of his higher education in Hunter College studying Anthropology and Linguistics. There, he developed a strong interest in Austronesian languages which motivated him to study in the University of the Philippines, Diliman, where he ultimately finished his B.A. Having spent three years in the Philippines investigating Tagalog and other Philippine languages, he entered the Ph.D. program at Cornell University with a focus on morphology, typology and Austronesian historical linguistics. During this period, Daniel also had the opportunity to undertake fieldwork on several languages of Sulawesi, Indonesia, investigating clisis and agreement phenomena. Since the Spring semester of 2009, Daniel has been teaching at the CUNY Graduate School and is currently working to launch the Urban Fieldstation for Linguistic Research, a center for language documentation in the heart of New York City. iii Although I may argue against the First Daughter approach to Tagalog clitic placement in §5.9.1, I find it entirely appropriate for the dedication of this thesis: For Dahlia iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS With my somewhat extended stay in graduate school, there are perhaps more people to thank and acknowledge than usual. I will nevertheless try to brief as possible, secure in the knowledge that it is merely an illusion of grandeur to think others will be offended at being left out from the acknowledgements section of a dissertation. Beginning with my professors from undergraduate days who fanned the flames of my linguistic interests: Sally McLendon (Hunter College), Ricardo Ma. Nolasco (U.P.) and Viveca Hernandez (U.P.) are all gratefully acknowledged here. My committee in Cornell: John Wolff, who has been a great friend, advisor and Vater-Doktor. I have learned immeasurably from his knowledge of all things Austronesian and I hope we are able to continue collaborating far into the future. John Whitman is a model of academic excellence, a bottomless font of knowledge, and an all around übermensch as is plain to all who know him. Draga Zec was always generous in lending me her expertise on all things prosodic and often provided much needed encouragement in my early days. Of course, nobody survives graduate school without a loyal cadre of friends and in this regard I feel especially lucky. My first years were largely shaped by the inimitable friendship and camaraderie of the Fragile Four (Tanya Matthews, Diego de Acosta, Andrew Joseph + myself). Those days of dining on black beans and mayonnaise in the hermetically sealed “Man Hotel” would surely have been even bleaker without them. Anastasia (Bu) Riehl has played an enormously helpful role in my development and general mental health and happily remains to this day within my innermost circle. Another heroic Iowan, Edith Aldridge has also been a great friend over the years not to mention her contributions to my education in her capacity as fellow Austronesianist and beer enthusiast. I like to think that I honed my syntactic v argumentation skills jousting with her on the finer points of Austronesian phrase structure in my early days and I’m glad that we’re able to continue our friendly jousting till now. Among the younger generation, Effi “the Corinthian” Georgala has been a great friend and has consistently lent me a helping hand when I was away from Ithaca without so much as a peep of complaint. Tova Friedman generously lent me her couch and car (complete with chauffer) on several occasions thus making life that much easier. Joe Pittayaporn, Devon Strolovitch, Yumiko Ishi, Johanna Brugman, Noam Andrews, Mie Hiramoto (Univ. of Hawaii) and the Cornell Filipino Association also deserve honorable mention here. Thess Savella deserves singling out as she blazed the way for me from Diliman to Ithaca. She helped me dissect Tagalog grammar on numerous occasions. I thank her for all of her patience and salute her dedication to her mother tongue. I thank Angie and Shelia for putting up with one of the worst of their wards when it came to paperwork. Their administrative assistance saved me many a time. Outside of Cornell, I owe Loren Billings for first getting me interested in clitics. Due to our collaboration, I came to develop many of the ideas for this thesis. Austronesiansts: Mark Donohue, Paul Kroeger, Bill Foley, Malcolm Ross and Bob Blust have all contributed immensely to my knowledge of language and linguistics. The AFLA gang: Norvin Richards, Ileana Paul, Lisa Travis, Sandy Chung, Raph Mercado, Matt Pearson inter alia also deserve mention as providing a great atmosphere for the exchange of ideas over the years. Junko Ito, Armin Mester, Jaye Padgett and Sandy Chung all helped to make my stint at UCSC an intellectually fruitful experience. Cathryn Donohue, my office mate, among several others who helped make it such a fun time, as well. I cannot imagine what life would have been like without the generous support of the National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship Program. The NSF allowed vi me to escape teaching for several years and expand the breadth and depth of my investigations. I aspire to make good on their investment. My family and friends in NYC: I thank my parents for their support and for never interfering in my strange plans despite seeming so irrational at the time. Their support and confidence has been invaluable. (Tita) Bebot Galvan has helped me perhaps more than any other single source in getting to the bottom of some highly subtle patterns via a seemingly endless array of questions. I thank her for her help, patience and, most of all, friendship. Jon Zachary, through his incessant chiding over the decades, has forced me to constantly reevaluate my every move, thereby strengthening my resolve. My wife Amalia, who thought I was on the edge of the cusp of being finished with this when we got married 1.5 years ago. Had she only known. Her daily encouragement and vigilance kept me on track in the final stretch. In sum, thanks to everyone, mentioned and un-, for all of your support over the years! vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Biographical Sketch………………………………………..…….....…….………... iii Dedication………………………………………..…….....…….…….…...……….. iv Acknowledgements………………………………………..…….....…….………... v List of figures………………………………………..…….....…….……….………. x List of tables………………………………………..…….....…….……….………. xi List of tableau………………………………………..…….....…….……….……… xii Chapter 1: Introduction………………………………………..…….....…….… 1 1.1 Background………………………………………………...…….…….… 1 1.2 Tagalog……………………………………………..……...……...…….… 4 1.3 Some basic clitic facts……………………………………...……...…….… 8 1.4 Organization………………………………………..……...……...…….… 14 Chapter 2: Approaches to clitic phenomena and properties.……...……….… 17 2.1 Introduction…………….……………..…………………...……....…….…