clitic

Definition

A morpheme that functions like a word, but never appears as an independent word, instead being always attached to a following or preceding word (or, in some cases, within a surrounding word).

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κλιτικός (klitikós, “inflexional”).

Example Sentences

• "In fact, even within the northern Italian dialects, subject clitics do not constitute a syntactically uniform class, as has been convincingly argued in Poletto's work."
• "In Macedonian, clitic-doubling is a fully-fledged phenomenon. The Macedonian Dat and Acc pronominal clitics, which originate in agreement phrases and move to preverbal position,¹⁰ where they cluster with other clausal clitics, are on their way to becoming mere case markers, which formally distinguish direct and indirect objects from subjects."
• "Here, we will see that they also have problems with overt pronouns, especially object clitics, whose emergence is more delayed than in typically developing children."