morph type enclitic

[Colin Suggett]

In T. Payne's book on morphosyntax, he writes:

 

"A clitic is a bound morpheme that functions at a phrasal or clausal level, but which binds phonologically to some other word, known as the host.  ...

it is most common to use the term clitic for morphemes that express participant reference (anaphoric clitics) and clause level modality..."

 

I have analysed our direct object pronouns as enclitics, attaching to a verb host.

 

Eg.  Colin ber-ma

       Colin ber    =ma

       Colin cut    =it

       Noun Verb  =AnaphoricClitic

       "Colin cuts it."

 

In Flex, when one has a morph type of suffix or prefix, Flex allows the user to specify which slot the affix fits into, and an affix templates can be set up.

 

I am wondering why I can't do the same for my anaphoric clitics. I want to specify that they attach to a verb host.

 

(In the above example, note that orthographically, I am using a hyphen to separate the clitic from the verb.)

 

-- Colin

[Andy Black]

On 4/22/2008 7:24 AM, Colin Suggett wrote:
> In Flex, when one has a morph type of suffix or prefix, Flex allows
> the user to specify which slot the affix fits into, and an affix
> templates can be set up.
>
> I am wondering why I can't do the same for my anaphoric clitics. I
> want to specify that they attach to a verb host.

While clitics cannot appear in inflectional affix templates, they can
delineate the set of categories they attach to. Under Grammatical Info.
Details, you will find the "Attaches to Categories" field (you will
probably have to check "Show Hidden Fields" in order to see it). Set
the categories there. You can also see the "Attaches to Categories
field" entry in the user helps as well as section 2.3 Clitics in the
conceptual intro to parsing document.

--Andy