Toward a Focus Analysis of Almost Wackernagel Clitics

Toward a Focus Analysis of Almost Wackernagel Clitics in Wakhi
This paper examines pronominal Almost Wackernagel Clitics (AWC) in the East Iranian
language Pamiri Wakhi and argues for a focus-based analysis of these AWC. Wakhi is a nonrigid SOV language with pronominal clitics that agree with the subject of the clause. The data in
this analysis come from original fieldwork.
Almost Wackernagel Clitics (from Erschler 2010) refer to clitics that most
frequently/felicitously occur in second position, following the first constituent of the clause
(which may be arbitrarily complex and need not be a DP) as in (1) (Wackernagel 1892), but can
also occur elsewhere to the right of second position, as in (2). All recorded Eastern Iranian
languages exhibit either rigidly Wackernagel clitics or AWC.
(1)
wuz=əm
bil
tə çɨ znax diçt-əj
(2)(a) wuz bil=əm
tə çɨ znax diçt-əj
1SG=1SG.CL shovel in self jaw put-PST
(b) wuz bil [tə çɨ znax]=əm diçt-əj
'I put my shovel in my jaw.'
(c) wuz bil tə çɨ znax diçt-əj=m
There are two main approaches to AWC: syntactic or prosodic. A syntactic movement account of
AWC predicts that clitic movement is subject to syntactic constraints. Evidence from Wakhi is
compatible with such an account. The position after any constituent in a clause is a possible site
for a Wakhi AWC, as in (2). In addition, clitics cannot cross constituent boundaries, as in (3), or
clause boundaries, as in (4). This is differs from a purely prosodic account, which predicts clitics
should not be sensitive to constituent boundaries (Irish; Bennett et al. 2013).
(3)
wuz(*=nəʂ) et ja ʃaʧ=nəʂ gefs-tu
(5)
jezɪ=m
wuz dra niɛŋg-tu
1SG and DET sheep=1PL.CL run-PERF
yesterday=1SG.CL 1SG there sit-PERF
'I and the sheep ran.'
'Yesterday I sat there.'
(4)
jem=i
ja ðaj(*=əm)
[CP [kumd-e kitob]=əm
ki
ʤojetk]
this=3SG.CL DET man(=1SG.CL)
who-POS book=1SG.CL COMP read.PST
'This is the man whose book I read.'
Having concluded that the clitic landing sites in Wakhi are subject to syntactic constraints, I
consider the predictions made by assuming that the syntactic movement is motivated by
information structural considerations. Assuming that focus is projected, such an analysis predicts
that AWC placement should be sensitive to discourse and focus effects. Again, evidence from
Wakhi is consistent with such predictions. Second-position placement (as in (1a)) is indicative of
an information-neutral sentence, whereas AWCs can be indicative of the type of focus associated
with questions (ex. (2a) is most felicitously used in response to the question What did you put in
your jaw?), contrastive focus (ex. (2b) can be felicitously used to indicate contrastive focus on
the jaw, as opposed to the head, arm, etc.), or verum focus (ex. (2c) is ambiguous between
narrow focus on the tense and wide focus on the entire VP).
The clear association with focus suggests an analysis in which the clitic is hosted in the
head of the CP (although it may be generated in vP to ensure agreement with the subject,
following Hughes 2011). In one possible analysis, extended from Tomic (Serbo-Croatian; 1996),
this CP may be dominated by a Focus Phrase and any number of Topic Phrases. (A) When the
sentence is information neutral, FP and TopPs are all empty, the clitic lowers to be hosted by the
structurally highest constituent and therefore occurs in second position. (B) When Spec,TopP is
filled but Spec,FP is empty, the clitic should also occur in second position, hosted by the
constituent in Spec,TopP. (C) When a constituent is focused, it raises to Spec,FP, and all items
structurally higher than its position in the main clause are topicalized to maintain word order.
This results in non-second position WAC. This account predicts clitics can be hosted by fronted
adverbs (confirmed in (5)) and by fronted WH expressions (confirmed in (4)).
References
Bennett, Ryan, Emily Elfner, and Jim McCloskey. 2013. Lightest to Right: An Apparently
Anomalous Displacement in Irish. Linguistic Inquiry.
Erschler, David. 2010. On optionality in grammar: The case of East Iranian almost Wackernagel
clitics. Handout from Syntax of the World's Languages IV.
Hughes, Todd. 2011. Wakhi Agreement Clitics. University of Florida Masters Thesis.
Tomic, Olga M. 1996. The Balkan Slavic Clausal Clitics. Natural Language and Linguistic
Theory, vol. 14. 811 – 872.
Wackernagel, Jacob. 1892. ‘Über ein Gesetz der indogermanischen Wortstellung’,
Indogermanische Forschungen 1, 333–436.

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