5. Romanian clitic doubling: A view from pragmatics-semantics and diachrony

This paper argues that an approach to the Romanian C(litic) D(oubling) from a pragmatics-semantics perspective produces a systematic account for three peculiarities of this construction; namely, the obligatory particle pe preceding the D(irect) O(bject) dp, the interaction between this type of marking and the insertion of a doubling clitic, and the DO/I(ndirect) O(bject) asymmetry in the conditions for CD. In particular, speech act effects emerging from the presence versus absence of pe lead us to define this element as a pragmatic marker forprominence in these configurations. Its interaction with the doubling clitic depends on the semantics of reference: only an acceptable degree of stable reference of the dp allows for the coocurrence with a clitic (i.e., for the CD of DOs). These constraints do not extend to the CD of IOs. We consider that an acceptable degree of stable reference is intrinsically ensured in Romanian CD with IOs because of the matching morphological endings for Oblique Case on both the clitic and the dp; prominence, on the other hand, emerges from the high location of IOs on the topicality scale (i.e., close to Agent-like theta-roles), in contrast to the low location of DOs (i.e., close to Theme-like theta-roles). Thus, IOs meet the pragmatic prominence conditions for CD due to their morpho-semantics, whereas DOs need categorial marking (i.e., pe) to qualify for this process. An overview of the CD in three texts of Old Romanian attests a gradual emergence of the modern CD that supports our analysis.

Published online: 12 November 2008
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.130.10hil