Pronominal clitics and imperatives in South Slavic

Abstract

This paper argues that the position of clitics in South Slavic imperative clauses follows from the strength of a Mood operator to the left of AgrP, where the imperative mood feature of the verb is checked. In Serbian/Croatian and Bulgarian this operator is weak and the position of the clitics relative to the imperative verb is analogous to their position relative to an indicative verb. In Macedonian and Slovenian, however, Mood is strong and the position of the clitics in imperative clauses differs from their position in indicative clauses. In negated imperatives, the position of the clitics in Serbian/Croatian, Slovenian and Standard Macedonian is the same as in their non-negated counterparts, which points to a weak Neg operator. In North-Western Macedonian, however, the clitics precede the imperative verb and encliticise to the strong negation operator. In Bulgarian, the clitics also occur to the left of the imperative verb. Nevertheless, they are not phonologically hosted by it. In this language, the inherently proclitic negation operator leans upon the first inherently enclitic pronominal clitic to its right, forming a phonological word with it.