English

ERIC ED292350: Second-Position Clitics in Alsea.

There is a set of morphemes in Alsea, an extinct Indian language of the Oregon coast, that are encliticized on the first word of the clause, similar to the second-position clitics in many languages. However, in some sentences these morphemes appear to be infixed rather than cliticized. True infixes are a rare phenomenon, and infixation of a morpheme that normally functions as a clitic is doubly suspect. There is significant evidence for an interpretation of apparent endoclitics (infixed clitics) in Alsea as sequences of clitics, if not synchronically, at least historically. The infixation appears to be a feature of the morpheme that is split and not of the infix. There is a limited set of single morphemes that due to the circumstances of their historical development, are sometimes split into two discontinuous parts. The second-position clitics are only incidentally involved in creating the discontinuity. (MSE)

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