Phi-features and the Modular Architecture of - UMR 7023 - CNRS

digm (114) reveals the exception to this generalization: if there is an accusative
1 st /2 nd /reflexive clitic, even an unfocussed pronoun dative must be an à PP,
(114)d-(114)e, as if it were a focussed dative but without semantic focus, or a
locative but with dative meaning. Thus the coding of unfocussed pronoun datives
as clitic (regular) or à PP (exceptional) depends on the person of the accusative:
1 st /2 nd /reflexive versus 3 rd .
The description can be simplified if 1/2/reflexive/dative clitics belong to a
phi-feature class that excludes other 3 rd persons (Laenzlinger 1993: 256, Burston
1983: 264). This grouping has considerable morphological, syntactic, and interpretive
support. It is henceforth adopted and called the [+person] class, in (115).
Chapter 6 returns to what [+person] might truly be. 52
(115) a. [+person] in French = 1 st , 2 nd person, se reflexive, dative clitics
b. [-person] = nonreflexive, nondative 3 rd person clitics
Given the [+person] class, the similarity of the French paradigm (114) to Arizona
Tewa shines out. The coding of an unfocussed pronoun dative alternates between
the DP-like dative clitic and the à-phrase PP according to whether the direct
object is lower or not on the hierarchy [+person] > [-person], that is, whether there
is a 3 rd or 1 st /2 nd /reflexive direct object. A description that will be more useful decomposes
the paradigm into the two elements in (116). One, (116)a, is a personsensitive
ban on the requirement that dative and accusative pronouns cliticize,
henceforth the Person Case Constraint or PCC of Bonet (1991). The other,
(116)b, is the emergence of an otherwise unavailable structure where the cliticization
requirement of datives is suspended, henceforth the PCC repair(s).
(116) Person Case Constraint and its repair (first approximation):
a. PCC: *[+person] accusative clitic + argumental dative clitic.
b. Repair: *dative à + unfocussed pronoun, save in PCC context.
The PCC and its repair are the topic of this chapter. A rich literature has attended
to them, including several foundational studies where they play a prominent
or chief role: Perlmutter (1971), Blanche-Benveniste (1975), Kayne (1975),
Couquaux (1975), Postal (1981, 1983, 1984, 1990). These works establish two
critical results that narrow down the nature of the phenomena. First, the constraint
is not about the surface form of clitic clusters. Second, the repair is not a generalized
response to clitic unavailability.
52 For the personhood of reflexive se, see Bonet (1991: 1.2.4, 2.1), Kayne (2000: chapter 8), Alboiu,
Barrie and Friggeni (2004), and Appendix A; cf. Reuland (2001). Se patterns with 1 st /2 nd
against 3 rd person on such properties as dative-accusative syncretism (affecting ellipsis, Morin
1978: 359f., and coordination, Burston 1983: 254), clitic compatibility (Morin 1979b: 7 note 2),
and clitic climbing (Cinque 2004: note 27). For the [+person] of datives, which is less directly
pertinent to the discussion that follows, see note 57 and references there.
53 Save (117)d unique to Postal's work, see Appendix A
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