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Title:
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Object Clitics in Bulgarian
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Author:
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Valja Werkmann
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Homepage:
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http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~werkmann/
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Degree Awarded:
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University of Leipzig
, English Department
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Degree Date:
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2002
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Applied Linguistics
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Subject Language(s):
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Bulgarian
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Director(s):
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Ruselina Nicolova
Anita Steube
Gerhild Zybatow
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Abstract:
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[Thesis written in German; original title “Objektklitika im Bulgarischen”; published 2003 as Studia Grammatica 57, Berlin]
The dissertation describes Bulgarian object clitics within the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995 and later). The topic of investigation are the syntactic and phonological properties of the object clitics, the morphosyntactic configurations, in which they occur and their semantic and information structural interpretations.
This work claims that Bulgarian object clitics are specifically referential items that are inserted in the argument positions of the verb. With respect to the integration of the object clitics into the DP-structure, it assumes a special functional level in the extended nominal projection. The hypothesis is that the object clitic is first merged as the head of a Reference Phrase (RP). The object clitic heads its own projection and takes the DP as its complement.
This constellation allows the three possible appearances of objects in Bulgarian to be derived by the same underlying structure. When the clitic occurs alone, the DP does not project; when the DP functions as the object of the verb, the additional functional projection RP does not project. When the DP is accompanied by a co-referential object clitic, the whole RP (clitic-DP complex) enters the syntactic component.
It is argued that the clitic pronouns in Bulgarian undergo movement. The clitics are merged in the internal argument positions of the verb. Because of their feature specification as [-focus] they are subject to movement. At the surface they occur in the background. Their feature specification as verbal clitics forces their cliticization on the finite verb. The object clitics are placed above the VP by requirements of information structure, which are due of their status as unaccented entities that are marked for defocusing. By clitic doubling the feature [-focus] of the clitic percolates down to the doubled DP. This feature triggers raising of the DP from the focus domain to the left where the background material of the sentence is usually found.
An important advantage of this analysis is that it proves a straightforward account of the thematic problem. That is, the clitic and its double form a constituent and they are thus jointly assigned a single theta-role from the verb. This analysis consistently characterizes the three possible syntactic realizations of objects in Bulgarian, namely when the DP functions as the object of the verb; when the clitic substitute the DP and when the object is clitic-doubled. Furthermore, it reflects the specific information structural contribution of the clitic pronouns in these constructions.
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