The Nominal Domain

Abstract

Abstract In this chapter we review the data about clitics associated with and situated inside the nominal domain. These are clitics dependent in some way on nouns. Pronominal clitics can function as possessive pronouns or, as most clearly seen in Pol, as arguments of the noun, and clitics can serve as reflexive markers on deverbal nouns. These are surveyed in section 9.1. The postpositive articles and demonstratives that occur in Mac and Bg are also sometimes regarded as clitics, although in section 9.2 we argue that these are inflectional affixes. Section 11.3.3 reconsiders the nominal domain data. Although full pronouns are acceptable as arguments of nouns wherever NPs might appear, as in (la), clitic pronouns cannot function in this way, as shown by (lb-c). The same is true of most other Sl languages, such as Cz, Slk, and Sln. Why clitics should be impossible in NPs is quite mysterious, as we would expect them to occur with the same distribution as other pronominal elements.