The Catalan Clitic System

This series consists of collected volumes and monographs about specific issues dealing with interfaces among the subcomponents of linguistic structure: phonology-morphology, phonology-syntax, syntax-semantics, syntax-morphology, and syntax-lexicon. Recent linguistic research has recognized that the subcomponents of grammar interact in non-trivial ways. What is currently under debate is the actual range of such interactions and their most appropriate representation in grammar, and this is precisely the focus of this series. Specifically, it provides a general overview of various topics by examining them through the interaction of grammatical components. The books function as a state-of- the-art report of research.

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.

Résumé

"Die Arbeit präsentiert eine gute Beschreibung der sprachlichen Fakten, eine kenntnisreiche Darstellung verschiedener theoretischer Ansätze innerhalb der generativen Grammatik zu ihrer Beschreibung und eine interessante eigene Analyse der Daten und des Wandels vom Alt- zum Neukatalanischen. [...] Jedem sprachhistorisch und linguistisch interessierten Katalanisten und darüber hinaus jedem an grammatischen Fragestellungen und ihrer Beschreibung in einem neueren theoretischen Rahmen interessierten Romanisten ist dieser Band wärmstens zu empfehlen."
Marc-Olivier Hinzelin in: Romanische Forschungen 4/2004

Contenu
Chapter 1 Methodological and theoretical issues Chapter 2 Clitic syntax from Old Catalan to Modern Catalan Chapter 3 Recent analyses and their problems Chapter 4 Rethinking the Tobler-Mussafia law Chapter 5 Seeking an analysis Chapter 6 Explaining the changes