Object Clitics and Marked Morphology

This paper examines the nature and distribution of so-called "clitic" pronouns in European Portuguese with a view to shedding some light on the nature of the relation between syntactic structure and its morphological expression. It is argued that both enclitic and proclitic pronouns are generated in the morphology, but that there is a clear difference in status between preverbal and postverbal attachment. We suggest that this difference can be captured if affix-realisation and affix-placement are regarded as separate processes. Turning to the set of syntactic contexts governing procliticisation, we examine the apparently unrelated syntactic configurations, and formulate a proposal about how they might select preverbal attachment.