Prosodic filters on syntax: an interface account of second position clitics

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a derivational mode of interface, in which syntax feeds phonology and second position effects are accounted for without employing movement in the PF. More specifically, we claim that a phonology-controlled optimization procedure is responsible for second position clitic effects in Cypriot, Silli and Cappadocian. The syntax provides pairs of equally well-formed syntactic structures where the clitic is placed both before and after its verbal host, and the phonology picks up the ‘optimal’ one. As a consequence, the prosodic system that determines how clitics are to be incorporated in the prosodic structure, i.e. prosodic word or phonological phrase, also selects where a clitic will surface. A welcome result of the present proposal is that the ‘special’ position of clitics is not a lexical property of a group of clitics anymore nor the result of parochial alignment constraints, but the outcome of the grammar, i.e. constraint ranking.