clitics vs affixes

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CONTRIBUTION TO NEPALESE STUDIESCNAS. TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY

Vol. 18. No . .2July 1991

CLITIC VERSUS AFFIX : MAITHILIE AND0

Ramawatar YadavCurriculwn Deve lopment Centre

Tribhuvan Univers ity

Introduction

Certain bound morphemes (e.g., clitics and inflectional affixes) in M aithilip resent ana ly tic d ifficulties because they are neither c learly independent wordsnor clearly inflectional affixes. This phenomenon is not unique to Ma ithi1i;sim ilarly p roblematic fo rms ex ist in many languages o f the world , includ ingEnglish. In traditional descriptions, these forms have been treated as being aacategorematic in that they do not readily fit into a standard description of'parts o f speech ' .This article investigates the process of cliticization in M aithili,

specific ally, the question o f c litic v s. a ffix .

The drama tis personaefor th e p resen t p resen tation are:eo; hi hu he ho.Of these ,e and 0 are the tw o most common markers of em phasis or focus inM aithili.T he emphatic markers can be either inclusive or exclusive. The exclusive

emphatic e translates into E nglish as 'only', 'alone', w hile the inclusiveemphatic 0 translates as 'even', 'also', 'too'. T hese markers attach to the endo f a ho st word and are clearly enclitic, e.g.:

ram-e'on ly Ram'

ram-o'even Ram'

e and 0 are not the only m arkers of em phasis in M a ithili.hi, hu, and he,ho also attach as emphatic markers, e.g .:

ham - hi'only ro-he'only be (NH) '

ham - hu'even ro-ho'even he(NH)'


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124 CNAS Journal, Vol. 18, No.2 (July 1991)

This paper, taking cue from Zwicky and Pullum (1983), demonstrates thate and 0 alone should be described as clitics, and that he , ho and hi, hu shouldbe treated as inflectional affixes.

Clitic vs. AfrlXZwicky and Pullum (1983) list a set of criteria for distinguishing clitics frominflectional affixes and arrive at an unconventional conclusion that theEnglish contracted negator n': behaves like an inflectional affix rather than aclitic. Zwicky and Pullum's prominent criteria are: .(A) degree of selection(B ) arbitrary gaps in the set of combinations(C) morphophonological idiosyncrasies

?

5. I don't try not to pay attention; I just can't help it.* tryn't

6. Well, for her not to understand is the last straw.* hern't

7. *Would the police haven't been informed?8. It would be a shame to have not EVER had a chance to see it.

* haven't

Zwicky and Pullum's findings are briefly summarized below:A. The degree of selection between the clitics and the words preceding them

is low; in other words, clitics can attach to words of virtually anycategory, e.g.:1. Any answer not entirely rig hi's going to be marked as an error.

Adjective2. The drive home tonight's been really easy. Adverb3. The person I was talking 10' s going to be angry with me.

Preposition4. They've all seen this movie before. Pronoun

The inflectional affixes, by contrast, are quite particular in their selectionof stems. For instance, the past attaches only to verb steins; thesuperlative attaches only to adjective and adverb stems.The contracted negator n' t is highly selective, attaching only to auxiliary

verbs, indeed only to the finite form of these verbs, e.g.:

B. Arbitrary gaps within a single category exist with regard to n' t e.g.:

*mayn't* amn't


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Clitic Versus 125

No positive counterpart is available forain't. In addition,ain't alsoserves as the negative form ofhave, has, sin, and are, and is on anoptiona l basis in vary ing d ia lec ts and sty le s.

C. n't also d isp lays a number o f morphophonological id io sync rasie s, e.g .:

cb don't u~o (vowel change)will won't 1~0 (dele tion and vowel change)

i~ 0shall shan't 1~0 (deletion, but no vowel change)must musn't t~0 (delet ion accompanied by syllabicity)

T he M aithili D ataL ooking at the M aithili data (Table 1), it is immediately evident that theemphatic markerse and 0 can attach w ith virtually any category. i.e., theycan a tta ch with p ronouns, nouns, adjec tives, numera ls, verb s, adverbs, etc .

Table 1

Pronouns1 person'!' 2 person (MH INH ) 'You'ham Nom. to Nom.hamra Acc/Dat. tora Acc/Dat.hamr-e tor-ehamr-o tor-o*hamrii-e *tom-e*hamrii *tora-o0hamar Poss. tohar Poss.hamr-e to(h)r-ehamr-o to(h)r-o

3 person (N) human 'H e/S he'R emote Proximate0 Nom. 1hunka Acc/Dat. hinkahunk-e hink-ehunk-o hink-o*hunka-e *hinka-e*hunIca-o *hink3-ohunkar

poss. hinkarhunlcar-e hinkar-ehunkar-o hinkar-o

Nom.Acc/Dat

Poss.


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3 person (H) 'He/She'Remote Proximate0 Nom. 1okra

Acc/Dat ekraokr-e ekr-eokr-o ekr-o"'ola'i-e *em-e"'om-o *em-ookar Poss. ekarokr-e ekr-eokr-o ekr-o

Nom.

Acc/Dat


Poss.

Nounsr a m 'Ram' tim-e ram-o ; le ru 'ca lf' le ru -e le ru -o :b eta 'son' bet-e b et-o *beti-e *beta-o. "barre 'a herb' harre-e harre-osairso 'mustard ' sairso-e sairso-oP:> 'dawn' P~e P~o

Adjectives

D C'high' iic-eunli 'opposite '*unti-e

DC-O;la l 'red' la l-e la l-o ;unte unt-o

*unta'-o.

Numeralsek 'one' ek-e ek-o; du 'tw o' du-e du-o; tin 'three' tin-e tin-o

Verbsaich 'is (3NH)'aich-eaich-o

cha-l-ah 'was(3H)cha-l-ah-echa-l-ah-o

ge-I-3h 'wen t (3H)'ge-l-ah-ege-l-ah-o

parh-t-3h 'will s tudy (3H)'Pl!h~t;.3h-eJ>aih-t-ih-o

Adverbs

tar 'under' tar-e tar-a; upar 'above' up r-e upr-o ; lag 'n ear' lag-e lag -o ;bihar 'outs ide' b3.hr-ebahr-o; bhitar 'ins ide' bhitr-e bhitr-o


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Compound Verbskhaeat

kha-ekha-outh-arise-Cansutb8-eutha-o.cailwalk

cail-ecail-o1 a

takela-ela-o

Clitic Versus 127

le-l-ainh 'ate up (3H )'take- Pst -(3H)le-I-ainhle-l-ainhdi-a 'cause to lift'give-Impdi-adi-a

ge-I-ah 'w ent aw ay (3H )'go-Pst-(3H)

ge-l-ahgel-illge-l-iih 'took aw ay (3H )'go-Pst-(3H)ge-l-iihge-l-ah

Inflectional affixes, on the other hand, are selective with the host to whichthey can be attached. F or instance, the future affixt can attach to verb stems

of the 3 person subjects alone, e.g.:

9. 0he(H)'H e will take'

le-t-illtake-Fut-(3H)

and not to the first or second person subjects, e.g.:

10. *hamI

'I will take '

le-ttake-Fut-(l)

11. *toyou (NH )'You will take:

le-t-etake- Fut - (2NH)

The correct affixes are:

12. ham'I will take '

le-b


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13. t o'You will take'

le-b-e

Secondly, no idiosyncratic morphophonemic changes OCcurin our data;only those phonological changes occur which form a part of the generalphonological properties of the Maithili language.Two types of morphophonemic changes are found to occur in the data. The

first ones, marked by asterisks, relate to the examples listed in Table 1. Ageneral phonotactic constraint disallows the attachment of a vowel (in thiscase, the emphatic markers e and 0) to a stem of more than one syllable andending in an unstressed a :

*ham(a)ra-eo *t6 ra-

eo

I - Acc/Dat-Emph you (NH) - Acc/Dat-Emph

e*6 k(a)ra - 0

he (NH) - Acc/Dat-Emph

(Comments: (i) Maithili is basically a CVCV language. (ii) Vowel

clustering within a syllable is permissible, but it tends todiphthongize. (iii) Closing diphthongs ending in i or u are themost common ones, e.g., bhai 'brother'; lariii 'war'; biiu'father'; dear boy'; kat-a-u 'have (it) cut).

The second morphophonemic change relates to a highly productive (almostexceptionless) rule of schwa deletion (of the type ... VCaCV -+ VC 0 CV):(a) The rule says that the final schwa of a verbal/adverbial or nominal stem

is deleted if that stem is followed by a vowel initial morpheme, e.g.:

hamar-e hamre (Pronoun)my-Emph 'only mine'kamar-o kamro (Noun)waist-Emphpajar-a-eblight fire-Caus-Infbahar-eoutside-Emph

'even the waist'pajraeb'cause to light fire'bahre'only outside'

(Verb)

(Adverb)

(b ) Schwa syncope does not occur if the schwa is preceded by a consonantcluster, e.g.:Pustak + alae Pustakalae 'library'


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C litic Vers u s 129

(c) S chwa syncope does not occur if the schwa is follow ed. by a consonantcluster:Palang-o Palango

cot-Emph 'Even the cot'(d) Even though schw a syncopedoes apply to a suffixed stem, it does not

app ly to. a pre fixed s tem, e .g .:a-samae 'inopportune'be-parha l .'uneducated'an-kahal 'stupid'

Wi th in fle ctional a ffixes, id io syncratic morphophonemic changes are quitecommon:

Kar-l-ainhdo-Pst,.(3H)ja-t-3hgO-Fut-(3H)

Kaelainh'd id (3H) 'jaetah'will go (3H )'

r~00~

a~a0~

Finally, the data listed under'Compoundnames and P roper n ames' d eserv eattention (Table2). They are interesting because in such examples the cliticis positioned after the first elem ent of a larger unit w ith w hich the clitic issem antically associated. T hat is, say, inKtIhomcJnqu'Q. pertain s to ,i.e.,

emphasizes, Kathmandu 'even K athmandu' ,yet it is positioned after onlythe f ir st constituen to(Ka!hmanqu. T his is rem iniscent of L atinQue 'and'whose semantic effect is to conjoin an expressionX to some earlierexpression, ev en though it is po sitio ned after the first constitu en t o fX:

boni pueri bellae-que puellaeX

good boys pretty-and girls'g ood boys and p retty girls'

Table 2

Compound Place and Proper Namesrampur rnm-epur ram-opur rampur-e rampur-onijnagar raj-enagar raj-onagar rajnagr-e rajnagr-oKa!hman4u kath-emandu kiiP1-omanquka~maIl(Ju-e ka~hman~u-o

Proper Names and/or Family Names

ram m isr ram -o m isr ram -o m ise ram m isr-e r~m m isr-ojha jha-e jha-o yadab yadb-e yadb-o


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130 CNAS Jo urna l, Vo l. 18, N o.2 (Ju ly 1991)

The Ma ithili data further show (Table 3) thath i hu and he ho are attachedto no grammatical category other than pronouns. T here is thus a high degreeo f selection. Look ing at their d istributiona l p rope rtie s,he and ho a ttach only

to demonstrative pronoun s, indeed only in the nominative case forms.hi andh u, on the other hand, attach only to demonstrative pronouns in theaccusa tive-dative case fo rms,1 and 2 HH , H , M H, NH in the nominativecase forms, andto 2H,HH in the accusa tive-dative and posse ssive case fo rms.To sum up, like inflectional affixes,he ho and hi hu show a greater degree ofselection, and they are extremely particular in their selection of hosts towhich they can attach. Obviously, there are arbitrary gaps in the set ofcombinations even with in a single ca tego ry.

1 person 'I'ham Nom.ham-hiham-hu

2 person (MH NH) 'You'to Nom.to-hito-hu

Table 3

Pronouns

2 person 'You'High Honorificapne Nom.apni-hiapna-hu*apne-hi*apne-huapne ke Acc/Da t

apna-h i keapna-hu ke*apne-hike*apne-hukeapne-k Poss.apna-hi-kapna-hu-k*apne-hi-k*apne-hu-k

HonorificaM :

ll-hia-hu*ahfi-hi*ahfi-huaha kca-hi kell-hu ke-aha-h i ke*ahU-hukenha-kll-hi-kll-hu-k*nhi-hi-k*nhi-hu-k

S econdly, the idiosyncratic m orphophonem ic changes that occur in theattachmen t ofhe ho and hi hu are most typical of inflectional affixes rather


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than of c1itics, e.g.:

he he1- ho ~ e ho

1-4ei - hi ke

i~ a1- huke

i~aah~-hu

ha~0ahi-hi

hi~0ohi-hu ke

hi ~ 0ohi-hi ke

hi ~ 0

Clitic Versus 131

~ ahike

-e ahuke

-e ahu

~ ohu ke

~ ohi ke

ConclusionAnalysis of the Maithili data calls for a 'mixed' analysis of emphatic markersof Maithili. It is suggested that e and 0 should be treated as clitics, while hi

hu and he ho should be treated as inflectional affixes.Also, hi hu and he ho might be thought of as synthetic (inflectional)

expressions of emphasis, while e 0 are analytic expressions of emphasis inMaithili. Comparison with the English er and more as synthetic and analyticmarkers of adjectival comparison might provide further support to thisanalysis.Finally, one further independent motivation to treat e and 0 as c1itics,

rather than as inflectional affixes, comes from the following phonologicalfact of the Maithili sound system.An important feature of the lexical phonology of Maithili is the jj ~ a

rule which occurs regularly and systematically upon addition of a suffixcontaining a vowel, e.g.:

kat}l 'wood' kathgar 'woody/hard'maus 'meat' mausgar 'meaty'kam . 'work' kama i 'wages/earninghathi 'elephant' hathini 'female elephant'pakal 'ripe' pakalha 'the ripe one'kfui 'black' karikki 'the black one (female)'ma~i 'soil' matja 'soily'pagal 'mad' pagli 'mad woman'

paglii 'madman'


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n th 'wood' ka~h-ekath-o.

'only wood''even wood '

132 CNAS Jo urna l, Vo l. 18, No .2 (Ju ly 1991)

Note, however, that clitization does not participate 10 the lexicalphonology involving the a tE a rule, e.g.:

bhiit 'rice' bhat-ebhiit-o*bhat-e*bhat-o

'only rice''even rice'

*ka~-e*kath-o

'pickle' acar-eacar-o*acar-e*acar-o*acr-e*acr-o

'only pickle''even pickle'

-a ur 'rice' . .caur-e 'only rice''even rice'caur-o

*caur-c*caur-o

Reference

Zwicky, A.M. & G.K. Pullum 1983. "Cliticization vs. inflection: Englishn't," Language 59:3, 502-513.

Acknowledgement

Embryonic versions of the paper were presented under different titles at theLinguistics Program, University of Kentucky, Lexington, U.S.A. in 1989and at the 11th Linguistic Society of Nepal Annual Conference in Kathmanduin 1990. I thank Gregory Stump for his insightful comments.

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