Accentogenic enclitics

in
Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS) and
copy deletion in PF*
The 3rd International Linguistics and Language Studies Conference
June 24-25, 2016

Aida Tali (University of Connecticut)

aida.talic@uconn.edu
*I am grateful to eljko Bokovi, Jonathan Bobaljik, Andrea Calabrese, Alec Marantz, Draga Zec and the audience of FASL 25 for
their stimulating comments and suggestions.

Goals of the talk: theoretical questions

The nature and status of null copies of moved elements proposed in
the Copy Theory of Movement (Chomsky 1993, 1995)
Does phonology see null copies of moved elements?

Two types of null copies:

Lower null copies left by movement (Chomsky 1993, 1995)

YPi.[XP .YPi]
The highest null copy deleted to satisfy a PF constraint (Bobaljik 1995; Pesetsky
1997; Richards 1997; Roberts 1997; Franks 1998; Bokovi 2001)

YPi.[XP .YPi]
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Goals of the talk: theoretical questions

(1) Generalization: The phonology ignores null lower copies of moved

elements, but it is sensitive to the highest copies of moved elements
even when they are null.

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Goals of the talk: empirical puzzle

Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian enclitics and prosody

(2) a.(Host + ECL) interaction with the accent of the host

b.(Host) + ECL interaction with the accent of the host

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Roadmap
Background
BCS Accent
BCS enclitics

The main empirical puzzle

Copy Theory of Movement and Pronunciation of Lower Copies
The analysis of the new pattern
Conclusions

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Background: BCS accent

BCS accent assignment (see e.g. Browne and McCawley 1965, 1973; Zec and
Inkelas 1991; Halle 1997)
For the most part determined by lexical marking of roots, affixes, clitics
Individual vocabulary items have or lack a lexical High tone

How do we know an ECL interacts with the accent of the host?

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Background: BCS accent

Crucially, the interaction between an enclitic and its host is possible only if:
(3) a. the ECL has a High tone;
b. and it is in the same prosodic word of the host
c. and the host doesnt have a High tone.
High Tone Spreading

( H )
--> rising accent on the host
The interaction is not possible if:
The ECL does not have a High tone
(H )
--> falling accent on the host
The ECL is not in the same prosodic word of the host
((H ) (H) ) --> falling accent on the host
The ECL follows a host that has a High tone
(H (H) )
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--> falling accent on the host

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Previous literature on accent and clitics

Interaction of ECL with the accent of the host has not been discussed in the
literature (for interactions of proclitics with the accent of the host, see: Zec
and Inkelas 1991; Zec 2005; Rianovi, and Aljovi 2009; Tali 2015, under
review)
In a dialect of BCS, we find contexts where such interaction is possible.

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BCS Enclitics and hosts that allow interaction

(4)

In examples enclitics are in bold.

The interrogative particle li
Auxiliary verbs be, will, would
Object pronouns in dative, accusative, genitive case
The special clitics je (be.3sg.pres) and se (particle found in various contexts)

(5) Monosyllabic hosts without a High tone:

the complemetizer da
questions words ko who, ta what, to why, gdje where

(Henceforth, host refers to this set of hosts.)

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Base line: Hosts without ECL

da no accent

(6) Volim da itam.

like that read
I like to read.

(7) a. K dolazi?
who comes
Who is coming?
b. t kae?
what says
What did he say?

c. t plae?
why cries
Why is he crying?
d. Gdj borave?
where stay
Where are they staying?

wh-hosts falling accent

If ECL do not interact with the accent of these hosts, we expect them to have the same prosody as in (6) and (7).
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The main pattern: the interrogative particle li

Host+li = always rising accent on host
(8) a. D
li eli sladoled?
that
Q want ice cream
Would you like some ice cream?
b. t
li hoe?
What Q wants
I wonder what he wants.

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interaction

10

The main pattern: Aux and Object clitics

Host+Aux/Obj = sometimes rising; sometimes no or falling accent
(9) a. t
su vam
rekli?
what are you.pl.dat say
What did they tell you?
b. t
mu
je rekao?
what him.dat is said
What did he say to him?
c. t
vas
je iznenadilo?
what you.pl.acc is surprised
What surprised you?

interaction
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(10) a. Ja znam [da su mu

oni vjerovali].
I know that are him.dat they believed
I know that they believed him.
b. t
mu
govori?
what him.dat says
What is he telling him?
c. t vas
iznenauje?
what you.pl.acc surprises
What do you find surprising?

interaction
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The main pattern: The special clitics je, se

Host+je/se = always falling accent
(11) a. t
je rekao?
what is said
What did he say?
b. t
se deava?
what SE happens
What is happening?

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interaction

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The main pattern: Summary and Questions

li
(interaction)

Aux
(interaction)
(interaction)

Dat
(interaction)
(interaction)

Acc
(interaction)
(interaction)

je, se
(interaction)

Table 1: Summary

Q: Why are je and se different from others and never interact?

Q: What is the difference between the contexts in which auxiliary and
object ECL interact and when they dont?

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Why are je and se different?

Option 1:
The special clitics: je, se
Other clitics:
liH, Aux (saHm, siH),
object prn (gaH, muH)

No lexical High tone

interaction

Lexical High tone

interaction

Option 2:
The special clitics: cannot attach inside the accentual domain of the host
interaction
((Host) + ECL)
Other clitics: can attach inside the accentual domian of the host
(Host + ECL)
interaction
Prosodic subcategorization:
(see e.g. Inkelas 1990; Zec and Inkelas 1991; Zec 2005, Bennett et al. 2015)
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Why the dual behavior of Aux/Object clitics?

Rising: interaction

Falling: interaction

(12) t mu
je rekao?
what him.dat is said
What did he say to him?

(13) t mu govori?
what him.dat says
What is he telling him?

Why is the ECL in the

accentual domain of the
host in (12), but not in (13)?

This contrast cannot be due to:

Presence/absence of a lexical High tone on the ECL
Prosodic subcategorization of the ECL

Crucially, these are different constructions.

BCS ECLs are second position clitics.
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Second Position Requirement

There is a great amount of literature on the 2P requirement of BCS
enclitics, offering different approaches.
(see e.g. Browne 1974, 1975, 1993; Bennett 1986; Radanovi-Koci 1988, 1996; Zec and

Inkelas 1990; Percus 1993; avar and Wilder 1994; Schtze 1994; Wilder and avar
1994; 1997; Bokovi 1995, 2000, 2001; Bokovi and Franks 2002; Hock 1992; Franks
and Progovac 1994; Roberts 1994; Dimitrova-Vulchanova 1995; Halpern 1995; Anderson
1996; King 1996; Phillips 1996; Progovac 1996, 1998, 2000; Tomi 1996, 2000; Embick
and Izvorski 1997; Franks 1997, 1998; Rivero 1997; Caink 1998, 1999; Stjepanovi 1998,
1999; Boeckx and Stjepanovi 2000; Franks and King 2000; Law 2001)

Bokovis phonological approach:

the copy theory of movement (Chomsky 1993, 1995) and

pronunciation of lower copies (Bobaljik 1995; Pesetsky 1997; Richards 1997;
Roberts 1997; Franks 1998).

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Bokovi (2001):
The syntax is blind to the 2P requirement;
High clitics: the interrogative particle li in C and Aux in C or T
Low clitics: object clitics in the verbal domain below TP

the phonology filters out and repairs phonologically infelicitous orders.

(14)

Syntax
a. XPi enclitic enclitic. XPi YP

Phonology
(2P) a. XPi enclitic enclitic. XPi YP

b. XPi YPj enclitic enclitic XPi YPj

(2P) b. XPi YPj enclitic enclitic XPi YPj

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Analyzing the pattern

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High enclitics: li and Aux

Li and Aux in questions are in C
The host is in SpecCP
i.e. Nothing separates the host and the enclitic in both (15) and (16).
(15) interaction

(16) interaction

a. t li hoe?
what Q wants
I wonder what he wants.

a. t su vam
rekli?
what are you.pl.dat say
What did they tell you?

b. Syntax: [CP ta li [TP hoe]]

c. Phonology: (ta li) (hoe)

b. Syntax: [CP ta su [TP [FP vam [vP rekli]]]

c. Phonology: (ta su vam) (rekli)

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Low enclitics: Object clitics

Object clitics have been argued to be in low functional projections
(Stjepanovi 1998; Bokovi 2001).
(17) Rising: interaction
t mu
je rekao?
what him.dat is said
What did he say to him?

(18) Falling: interaction

t mu govori?
what him.dat says
What is he telling him?

Paradox:
Low ECLs can interact with the accent of the host if the high Aux ECL je is
also present and if it follows them.
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Low enclitics: Object clitics

Evidence that je is really as high as other Aux clitics in the syntax
comes from ellipsis:
[TP auxiliary [vP object clitics
verb] ]

(19) On mi
ga
je dao, a i
ona je mi
ga
dala takoe.
he mi.dat it.acc is gave, and also she is me.dat it.acc gave too
He gave it to me, and she did, too.
(Stjepanovi 1998: 532)

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Low enclitics: Object clitics

Proposal: There is a phonological operation that reorders je and object
clitics due to an idiosyncratic constraint (see also Bokovi 2001).
The constraint: *je

object clitic

(20) Rising: interaction

a. t mu
je rekao?
what him.dat is said
What did he say to him?
b. Syntax: [CP t je [TP [FP mu
[vP
what is
him
c. Phonology: (ta je mu) (rekao)
(ta mu je) (rekao)
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rekao]]]]
said
*(je mu)
PF reordering

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Low enclitics: Object clitics and je-drop

The first context where the interaction breaks down with low clitics is when je is
dropped.
In the presence of another special clitic in BCS, se (in all its flavors: see Rianovi
2003 and Marelj 2004 for different uses of se in BCS):
se is another clitic not interacting with the accent of the host.
has to be the last one in the sequence
je is usually dropped in the presence of se (Browne 1974; 2004)

(21) a. t
mu
se desilo?
what him.dat SE happened
What happened to him?

interaction

b. Syntax: [CP ta je [TP [FP mu [FP se [vP desilo]]]]

what is
him
SE happened
c. Phonology: (ta je mu se ) (desilo)
je-deletion rule: je /__se
The highest copy of je
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Low enclitics: Object clitics and finite lexical verb

The second context where low clitics do not interact with the accent of the
host.
BCS lexical verbs raise to C in questions
(22) a. t mu govori?
interaction
what him.dat says
What is he telling him?
b. Syntax:
[CP ta govori [FP mu [vP govori]]]
c. Phonology: ((ta) (govori mu) ))
*3P
d.
((ta) (govori mu) (govori) ))
Pronounce Lower Copy
The highest copy of the verb

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High enclitics and the Highest null copy

High enclitics interact with the host in these two contexts.
(23) a. t li se prialo o
njemu?
interaction
what Q SE said about him
I wonder what they were saying about him.
b. Syntax: [CP ta li [TP je[FP se [prialo o njemu]]]
c.Phonology: (ta li je se) (prialo) (o njemu) ; je/__se
The highest copy of je

(24) a. t li mu govori?
what Q him.dat says
I wonder what hes saying to him?
b. Syntax: [CP ta li [TP govori [FP mu [ vP govori]]]]
c. Phonology: (((ta li) (govori mu) ))
(((ta li) (govori mu) (govori)))

interaction

The highest copy of the verb

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In Sum

Host + (lower null copies) + Enclitic

interaction

Host + the highest null copy + Enclitic

interaction

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Conclusions
In this dialect of BCS enclitics fall into three classes regarding whether they
interact with the accent of the host, or not:
(i)
li always interacts
(ii)
Aux, Dat, Acc interaction depends on the construction
(iii) je, se - never interact
The phonology ignores null lower copies of moved elements, but it is
sensitive to the highest copies of moved elements even when they are null.
BCS enclitics are not in the same syntactic position and their 2P requirement
is entirely phonological (see Bokovi 2001).
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Thank you!/Teekkr ederim!

If you have any questions or comments, please email
me at:
aida.talic@uconn.edu
After the conference, you can find these slides on my
website:
http://aidatalic.jimdo.com
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