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description, namely phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, and on the
identification of other form classes, such as affixes and words. This leads Sadock to his
sociological definition: “a clitic is an element whose distribution linguists cannot
comfortably consign to a single grammatical component” (1995: 260). The far reaching
consequences this may have are documented by Zwicky’s (1994a) collection of
descriptions using “clitic” as an umbrella term for all elements which are neither clearly
words nor clearly affixes.
The most general definition of clitics can be formulated if one takes the classic
Greek and Latin grammarians’ tradition as a point of departure. The following quote
from the Oxford English Dictionary summarizes the history of the adjective enclitic:
“That ‘leans its accent on the preceding word’ (Liddell and Scott): in Greek
grammar the distinctive epithet of those words which have no accent, and which
(when phonetic laws permit) cause a secondary accent to be laid on the last
syllable of the word which they follow. Hence applied to the analogous Latin
particles -que, -ve, -ne, etc., and in mod. use (with extension of sense) to those
unemphatic words in other langs. that are treated in pronunciation as if forming
part of the preceding word” (Simpson & Weiner (eds.) 1989: 212).
There are at least two properties which all of the above mentioned elements share. First,
they are all classified as words of some sort. Secondly, they all lack independent accent
and therefore form a domain with their preceding word for some phonological rules. A
closer look at the Latin particles mentioned in the above quote will illustrate some
language particular properties of Latin clitics in phonology and syntax. Take, for
example, the connective particle -que, which conjoins phrases in Latin and which is
illustrated in the examples (1) and (2).
(1) Senātus populusque Rōmānus. Latin
‘The Senate and people of Rome’
(2) Ibi mortuus sepultusque Alexander.
‘There Alexander died and was buried’ (Gildersleeve & Lodge 1895: 300)
The first striking property of this particle is its rather unusual distribution. It appears
after the first word in the last of a sequence of conjoined phrases, i.e. in second position
within a phrase (Anderson 1992: 202). Note that its distribution does not rely on the
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