Pashto (Endo-)Clitics in a Parallel Architecture

Tina Bögel

Abstract

This paper examines the phenomenon of Pashto endoclitics, which are sub- ject to both prosodic and syntactic contraints. These clitics challenge the view of prosody as being derivative from the syntax (e.g. Selkirk 1984) and the Principle of Lexical Integrity (Bresnan and Mchombo 1995) in that Pashto allows clitics to be inserted into the morphological word. However, these challenges can be resolved by assuming an architecture that views syntax and prosody as independent but interacting dimensions of grammar trying to align with each other as much as possible (see Boegel et al. (2009) for an approach within LFG). This paper presents data showing that it is the prosodic component that must be accounted for the placement of the clitics within words, which leads to the conclusion that in cases of 'disagreement', the prosodic component may take precedence over the syntactic component.

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