A Minimalist Approach to Clitics and Clitic Doubling in Spanish Cristina S. Banfi University College London This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree in February 1999 ProQuest Number: 10609090 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10609090 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Abstract This dissertation addresses questions concerning cliticisation within the framework of the minimalist approach as presented, among others, by Chomsky (1995a). Chapter 1 presents the basic tenets underlying the minimalist approach. It also briefly discusses the historical developments within generative grammar which have led to the adoption of a minimalist approach. Chapter 2 presents general background on cliticisation and clitic doubling, including theories such as the Movement and |Base generation theories which have been advanced to account for the behaviour of clitics. The theory of Clitic Voices presented by Sportiche (1992), a synthesis of previous analyses, is also presented and adopted as providing a more principled account of clitics in clitic-doubling constructions. In Chapter 3 the traditional classification of clitics in terms of their Case properties is abandoned in favour of a more fundamental one based on other features of clitics such as [± person] and [± number]. This characterisation leads to the postulation of a maximum of two clitic phrases for Spanish, each associated with different feature compositions. This feature system takes into account both phi-features and aspectual features of the predicate associated with the clitics. This proposal allows a unified analysis of a number of constructions, previously viewed as distinct, under the more general umbrella of clitic doubling. Chapter 4 provides an account of the alternation between enclisis and proclisis found in Spanish as well as other Romance languages. This alternation is explained by reference to the features present on the verbal host which trigger movement in cases of enclisis. In an extension of the analysis of the relation between a clitic and its host, an account of interpolation in Old Spanish is also discussed. Chapter 5 discusses the restrictions apparent in instances of clitic doubling with respect to the features of the doubling element, e.g. [± pronominal], [± human], and [± specific]. A parallel is drawn between these restrictions and similar patterns found in ergative languages. Finally, Chapter 6 shows how the conclusions reached in this thesis can be seen to apply to broader concerns of language acquisition and language impairment. Acknowledgements Many people deserve thanks for their support throughout the years I have spent working towards my Ph.D. First and foremost, I would like to thank Professor Rita Manzini who has consistently encouraged me to search for new answers to the numerous questions I have had. Her lectures and papers have been triggers for many fruitful discussions, and she has always been most generous with material and, especially, data. I want to also thank Professor Misi Brody who has been a constant stimulus for critical re-evaluation during my research and Prof. Neil Smith who has always encouraged and supported me and has shown wonderful patience, particularly in dealing with administrative matters and guidance. The fellow students with whom I have shared classes and discussions are too many to mention, but Ana Madeira, Helloisa Salles (Bangor) and Maya Arad, are perhaps the best representatives of that supportive group. Outside of UCL, I have also found many helpful sources and friends. At QMW where I worked for a semester, I met Dr. Jamal Ouhalla who enriched my linguistic understanding. I would like to thank Anna Roussou whose friendship and support I have highly valued. I would also like to thank all the faculty and students I was fortunate enough to meet and work with during one rewarding semester at MIT as a visiting scholar. Above all I would like to thank my mother whose support in numerous ways truly made my research possible and my husband, Ray, for proof-reading and computer expertise which allowed me to put everything together in many a desperate hour. Abbreviations 1 first person HUM Human 2 second person I Inflection 3 third person IN AN Inanimate Aux Auxiliary INFL Inflexion Acc Accusative 10 Indirect Object Agr Agreement IP | Inflection Phrase AgrlO Indirect Object Agreement LF Logical Form AgrO Object Agreement LI Lexical Item AgrS Subject Agreement masc masculine ANIM Animate Neg Negation ART Article NP Noun Phrase Asp Aspect OR Originator C Complementizer PF Phonological Form CD Clitic Doubling Pi plural cl clitic PPA Past Participle Agreement CLLD Clitic Left Dislocation PRO null pronominal C1P1 Clitic Phrase 1 pro pronoun with no phonological form C1P2 Clitic Phrase 2 pron pronoun CP Complementizer Phrase PS Phrase Structure Computational System cs PS rules Phrase Stmcture mles Dat Dative QR Quantifier Raising Del Delimiter refle reflexive DO Direct Object SCD Subject Clitic Doubling DP Determiner Phrase sing singular ec empty category SPEC Specifier EM Event Measurer T Tense F Feature UG Universal Grammar fem feminine V Verb H Head Table of Contents 1. Theoretical Background....................................................................... 4 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 4 1.2 A Little History ..........................................................................................................4 1.3 Minimalism - An Approach to Theory Construction .............................................. 7 1.3.1 The Minimalist Program - An Outline ............................................................8 1.3.1.1 Checking Theory ......................................................................................... 12 1.3.1.2 Spec-Head Configuration - The case of Case ......................................... 14 1.3.1.3 Functional Categories .................................................................................15 1.3.1.3.1 Agreement Phrases ............................................................................... 23 1.3.1.3.2 Aspectual Phrases..................................................................................23 1.3.1.3.3 Multiple Specifiers ............................................................................... 26 1.4 Conclusions .........................................................................................;...................28 2. Background on Cliticisation and Clitic Doubling.........................29 2.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 29 2.2 Characterisation of Clitics ......................................................................................29 2.3 The Analysis of Clitics ........................................................................................... 34 2.4 Approaches to the Study of Clitics ........................................................................37 2.4.1 The Movement Approach ..............................................................................37 2.4.1.1 Problematic Data for Movement Analyses .............................................. 40 2.4.2 Base Generation ..............................................................................................44 2.4.3 Combining Movement and Base Generation ...............................................45 2.5 Other Clitic Doubling ............................................................................................. 48 2.5.1 Clitic-Clitic Doubling .................................................................................... 48 2.5.2 Doubling of Reflexive Clitics ........................................................................50 2.5.3 Clitic Left Dislocation ................................................................................... 54 2.5.4 Right Dislocation ............................................................................................ 56 2.5.5 Subject Clitic Doubling ................................................................................. 57 2.5.6 Complex Inversion in French ........................................................................61 2.6 Past Participle Agreement ......................................................................................62 2.7 Pervasive nature of CD ........................................................................................... 65 2.8 Structures in Complementary Distribution ........................................................... 66 3. Clitic Phrases........................................................................................70 3.1 Introduction ..............................................................................................................70 3.2 Morpho-Phonological Analyses of Spanish Clitics .............................................70