Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-wxvwp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T18:32:24.582Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Where in the Word is the Udi Clitic?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2026

Alice C. Harris
Alice C. Harris*
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University
*
Linguistics Program Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN 37235 [alice.c.harris@vanderbilt.edu]
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article shows that endoclitics do exist in Udi, a language of the North East Caucasian family, and this fact poses a challenge to the lexicalist hypothesis. Clitics may be positioned between the morphemes of complex verb stems and immediately before the final segments of monomorphemic verb stems. The author argues, on the basis of accepted tests for wordhood, that complex verb stems are single words, not phrases. On the basis of criteria developed by Zwicky and Pullum (1983), it is argued that the clitics of Udi are true clitics. An analysis of the placement of clitics in various positions inside verb stems is proposed in optimality theory. The author shows that phonological phenomena do not provide an alternative basis for positioning these clitics and concludes that clitics in Udi are a counterexample to the lexical integrity hypothesis.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 76 , Issue 3 , September 2000, pp. 593 - 616
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Anderson, Gregory D. S., and Zide, Norman H.. 1999. Recent advances in the reconstruction of the Proto-Munda (Austroasiatic) verb. Paper presented at the International Conference on Historical Linguistics 14, Vancouver.Google Scholar
Anderson, Stephen R. 1997. Towards an optimal account of second position phenomena. Yale a-morphous linguistics essays, ed. by Kaiser, Lizanne, 1–27. New Haven: Department of Linguistics, Yale University.Google Scholar
Booij, Geert. 1985. Coordination reduction in complex words: A case for prosodic phonology. Advances in nonlinear phonology, ed. by van, Harry Hulst, der and Smith, Norval, 143–60. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Bresnan, Joan, and Mchombo, Sam A.. 1987. Topic, pronoun, and agreement in Chichewa. Language 63. 741–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bresnan, Joan, and Mchombo, Sam A.. 1995. The lexical integrity principle: Evidence from Bantu. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 13. 181–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crysmann, Berthold. 1997. Cliticization in European Portuguese using parallel morphosyntactic constraints. Proceedings of the LFG '97 Conference, ed. by Butt, Miriam and King, Tracy Holloway. CSLI Publications. [http://cslipubications.stanford.edu/hand/miscpubsonline.html]Google Scholar
Dirr, Adolph. 1904. Grammatika udinskogo jazyka. (Sbornik materialov dlja opisanija mestnostej i piemen Kavkaza 33.) Tbilisi.Google Scholar
Dirr, Adolph. 1928. Udische Texte. Caucasica 5. 60–72.Google Scholar
DiSciullo, Anna-Maria, and Williams, Edwin. 1987. On the definition of word. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dobrin, Lise M. 1998. The morphosyntactic reality of phonological form. Yearbook of Morphology 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Everett, Daniel L. 1996. Why there are no clitics: An alternative perspective on pronominal allomorphy. Arlington, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Harris, Alice C. 1992. The particle -a in Udi. The non-Slavic languages of the USSR: Linguistic studies, ed. by Aronson, Howard I., 135–56. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Harris, Alice C. 1996. Focus in Udi. NSL.8: Linguistic studies in the non-Slavic languages of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic Republics, ed. by Aronson, Howard I., 201–20. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Harris, Alice C. 1998. Endoclitics and the origins of Udi morphosyntax. Nashville: Vanderbilt University, ms.Google Scholar
Hetzron, Robert. 1974. An archaism in the Cushitic verbal conjugation. Quarto Congresso internazionale di studi etiopici, vol. 2, Sezione linguistica, 275–81. Roma: Accademia nazionale dei Lincei.Google Scholar
Jannedy, Stefanie, Poletto, Robert; and Weldon, Tracey L.. 1994. Language files: Materials for an introduction to language and linguistics. 6th edn. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar
Jeiranišvili, Evg. 1956. Gramat'ik‘uli k'lasis gakvavebuli nišnebi udur zmnebsa da nazmnar saxelebši [Fossilized markers of grammatical class in Udi verbs and deverbal nouns]. Iberiul-k'avk‘aziuri enatmecniereba 8. 341–62.Google Scholar
Jeiranišvili, Evg. 1971. Udiuri ena [The Udi language]. Tbilisi: Universit'et'i.Google Scholar
Jelinek, Eloise. 1984. Empty categories, case and configurationality. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 1. 39–76.Google Scholar
Klavans, Judith L. 1979. On clitics as words. Chicago Linguistic Society 15(2). 68–80.Google Scholar
Klavans, Judith L. 1985. The independence of syntax and phonology in cliticization. Language 61. 95–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambrecht, Knud. 1994. Information structure and sentence form: Topic, focus and the mental representation of discourse referents. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, John J., and Prince, Alan S.. 1993. Generalized alignment. Yearbook of morphology 1993. 79–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Grady, William, Dobrovolsky, Michael; and Aronoff, Mark. 1997. Contemporary linguistics: An introduction. 3rd edn. New York: St. Martin's.Google Scholar
Pančviʒe, Vl. 1940. Ak'uzat'ivis genezisisatvis udur enaši [On the origin of the accusative in the Udi language]. Enimk'is Moambe 5–6.137–152.Google Scholar
Pančviʒe, Vl. 1974. Uduri enis gramat'ik'uli analizi [A grammatical analysis of the Udi language]. Tbilisi: Mecniereba.Google Scholar
Roberts, Taylor. 1997. The optimal second position in Pashto. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Optimality Archive, paper #ROA-174-0297 [http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/roa.html].Google Scholar
Schiefner, A. 1863. Versuch über die Sprache der Uden. Mémoires de l'Akadémie impériale des sciences de St.-Pétersbourg, VII série, tome vi, no. 8. St. Petersburg: Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Schulze, Wolfgang. 1982. Die Sprache der Uden in Nord-Azerbajdžan. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Spencer, Andrew. 1991. Morphological theory: An introduction to word structure in generative grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Suñer, Margarita. 1988. The role of agreement in clitic-doubled constructions. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 6. 391–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svolacchia, Marco, Mereu, Lunella; and Puglielli, Annarita. 1995. Aspects of discourse configurationality in Somali. Discourse configurational languages, ed. by Kiss, Katalin É., 65–98. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zwicky, Arnold M., and Pullum, Geoffrey K.. 1983. Cliticization vs. inflection: English n't. Language 59. 502–13.Google Scholar