Slavic Clitic Systems and Word Order Typology

The guest talk given at the University of Chicago 04.11. 2010 discusses interactions of clitic typology and word order typology, with focus on the Slavic languages. Slavic word order systems with clitics are compared with typologically similar systems attested in other areas. The general aim is to classify Slavic word order systems with clitics on the basis of syntactic constraints without sticking to hypotheses about language-specific properties of prosodically deficient elements and to provide a viable typological classification, which can be verified by data from other world‘s languages. A salient characteristics of South Slavic, West Slavic and Old East Slavic languages are constraints on the placement of the so called clusterizing clitics. Clusterizing clitics make up strings arranged in a rigid order according to a principle called Clitic Template, the permutations are excluded as ungrammatical. Cf. Old Russian Čto=ti=s’a=jesm’=byl otstupil bratu svoemu 'That you indeed had given up these in favour of your brother‘. In Slavic languages, only clauselevel clitics have clusterizing properties. Slavic clusterizing clause-level clitics are represented by the following categories of elements: 1) short forms of argument and reflexive pronouns 2) auxiliaries 3) particles. Strings of clusterizing clitics have a fixed position in Slavic main and subordinate clauses and tend to take clausal-second position (2P). There is an important research line basing on the hypothesis that prosodically deficient elements, proclitics and enclitics, are also syntactically deficient and constitute a natural class definable in UG (Zwicky 1977). Recent studies of the syntax-prosody interface show a gradual increase of the emphasis made on the prosodic component at the expense of syntax. However, some constraints on the placement of clitics directly or indirectly entail constraints on the placement on non-clitic sentence categories. If constraints of the latter type are straightforwardly explained as an outcome of the allegedly purely prosodic or merely morphological ordering of clitics, there is a risk to overlook syntactic mechanisms of linearization. I argue that most Slavic languages lack grammaticalized constraints on the placement of (non-clitic) verbal forms in sentences with the basic word order, but such constraints tend to arise in sentences with derived word order, producing non-initial sequences [Verb - Clitic] and [Clitic – Verb] in main clause declaratives.2010年4月11日于芝加哥大学发表的客座演讲，探讨了附着词（clitic）类型学与词序类型学的交互关系，研究重点聚焦于斯拉夫语族语言。该演讲将带附着词的斯拉夫语词序系统，与其他语言区域中被证实的类型学相似系统进行了对比。本研究的总体目标是：基于句法约束对带附着词的斯拉夫语词序系统进行分类，且不局限于关于韵律缺失元素的语言特异性属性的相关假说；同时提出一套可行的类型学分类方案，该方案可通过世界其他语言的语料进行验证。 南斯拉夫语、西斯拉夫语与古东斯拉夫语的一个显著特征，是所谓的集群化附着词（clusterizing clitic）的位置约束。集群化附着词会按照被称为附着词模板（Clitic Template）的原则组成严格有序的字符串，任何排列组合都会被判定为不合语法。可参考古俄语转写例句：Čto=ti=s’a=jesm’=byl otstupil bratu svoemu，对应语义为“正因你确实已然放弃，将这些赠予你的兄弟”。 在斯拉夫语中，仅小句层面的附着词才具备集群化属性。斯拉夫语的集群化小句层面附着词可分为以下几类：1）论元与反身代词的短尾形式；2）助动词；3）小品词。 集群化附着词串在斯拉夫语的主句与从属子句中拥有固定位置，且通常占据小句第二位（Clausal-Second Position，2P）。 有一条重要的研究路径基于如下假说：韵律缺失元素、前附词（proclitics）与后附词（enclitics）同时也存在句法缺陷，且可构成普遍语法（Universal Grammar，UG）中可定义的自然类（Zwicky 1977）。近期有关句法-韵律界面（syntax-prosody interface）的研究显示，学界对韵律维度的关注度逐步提升，而相应地对句法维度的关注度有所弱化。不过，附着词位置的部分约束，会直接或间接地作用于非附着词句法成分的位置约束。若将这类约束简单解释为附着词纯粹韵律层面或仅形态层面排序的结果，则有可能忽视线性化的句法机制。 本文主张，大多数斯拉夫语在基本词序的句子中，缺乏针对非附着词动词形式的语法化位置约束，但在派生词序的句子中，这类约束往往会产生，进而在主句陈述句中形成[动词-附着词]与[附着词-动词]的非初始序列。