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Sound, Syntax and Contact in the Languages of Asturias
Edited by Guillermo Lorenzo
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 36] 2022
► pp. 15–44

Chapter 2
Asturian and Asturian Spanish at the syntax-phonology interface

Cliticization phenomena and beyond

| Universidad de Oviedo | University of Manchester
| Instituto Cervantes

A number of movement-related phenomena from Asturian as well as from the Spanish spoken in the Principality of Asturias are amenable to accounts where the Pronounce-Highest-Copy requirement in Phonetic Form can be overridden if convergence so demands. Therefore, the evidence adduced here supports the view that the requirements imposed by the Phonetic Form component may take precedence over purely syntactic requirements. In this connection, we argue for a novel analysis of the enclitic-proclitic contrast in Asturian and Asturian Spanish in finite and non-finite contexts, alongside extensions to other constructions, which add to the ample stock of phenomena supporting the rather successful Copy Theory of Movement.

Keywords: pronominal clitics, morphology, PF, copy theory, pronounce lower copy, subject-verb inversion, imperatives, enclisis, proclisis, Asturian, Asturian Spanish
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background: The Copy Theory of Movement (CTM)
    • 2.1Pronounce lower copy/Lower copy pronunciation
  • 3.This is PF’s doing: Asturian and Asturian Spanish clitics
    • 3.1Proclisis and enclisis in Asturian finite contexts
    • 3.2Clitic directionality in infinitival imperatives in Asturian Spanish
    • 3.3Optionality in certain infinitival environments in Asturian
  • 4.Additional constructions amenable to a PLC/LCP account: The case of postverbal subjects in constituent questions in Asturian
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 1 March 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.36.02vil
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