Theorie Des Lexikons

This paper compares how object clitics combine and which clitics are chosen under restricted circumstances in six Romance languages. I will show that clitic sequences form a morphological unit with a fixed order of clitics. For each case, the optimal sequence results from interacting constraints on the morphology and phonology of clitic sequences within an Optimality Theoretic account. Furthermore, certain object clitics cannot combine because of equally high ranked morphological constraints. In these cases, only one of the object clitics, respectively the direct object clitic, is chosen. This choice of clitics is at first glance contradictory to the choice of clitics under morphologically unrestricted circumstances where the indirect object clitic is strongly preferred. However, I will show that a unique account can be given for all instances of object clitics in the Romance languages. The interaction of morphological, phonological, and syntactic constraints is responsible for the different clitic choices. Finally, I will suggest a tentative ranking for these types of constraints.