Clitics in Maltese

Abstract

Maltese has a distinct class of clitics which are of two types: phonologically reduced forms of full forms such as ma' 'with' becoming m ', and special clitics which do not have any full form counterparts and are characterised by their special syntactic placement. The latter type of clitics are morphosyntcatically distinct from their non-clitic counterparts within the pronominal category in which they belong. Although this dissertation focuses mostly on pronominal clitics, yet, an important distinction between the two types of clitics in Maltese, is that, phonologically reduced clitics are proclitic, while pronominal clitics are invariably enclitics. Pronominal enclitics in Maltese are object clitics and can substitute and/or may be doubled by non clitic object pronouns or overt NPs. Mostly in instances of left-adjunction, (therefore in A-position), the object pronominal enclitics can also be doubled by subject pronouns. While it is very often the case that pronominal clitics are core internal arguments, yet, these can also be used as non-core arguments in Maltese, as in the case in the use of what Berman ( 1982), as cited in Borer and Grodzinsky ( 1986), calls affected datives. Clitics in general are a separate class from affixes, yet, in line with Niibling' s (1992) continuum, as cited in Gerlach (2002), which models the trajectory through which clitics eventually become affixes, it is evident that pronominal clitics in Maltese have also followed this dine, where in certain contexts they have become inflectional affixes inflecting for [PERSON] [NUMBER] and [GENDER] features. The transition from clitic-status to affix-status is however characterised mostly by the retention of the same form and placement. It is thus the case that object enclitics have developed into subject suffixes in Maltese, and may be considered in an allomorphic distribution with the regular subject-marking by means of prefixation. As shown in this dissertation however, Maltese offers another possible transition for pronominal enclitics; that from being pronominals to becoming anaphors. The traditional distinction between direct object clitics and indirect object clitics is challenged, and it is postulated that Maltese has only one set of clitics. The distinction in form is however attributed to marked vs. unmarked Case features, where the unmarked form, traditionally-called the direct object pronoun, is the unmarked Accusative (ACC) form, while the traditionally-called indirect object pronoun is a combination of the unmarked (ACC) form but which is marked for Dative (DAT) Case through the use of the phonologically reduced clitic form 'l which acts as a DAT-marker, allowing this morphological composite to function as an indirect object argument. The combinations, placement, and ordering of pronominal clitics in relation to their host, and in relation to each other, as well as the phenomenon of clitic doubling (CD), are captured through a hierarchy of constraint interactions within Optimality Theoratic approach.