Introduction

This chapter deals with the morphology and phonology of cliticization. It clarifies the status of clitics within a theory of morphology and word structure. The chapter suggests in the framework of level-ordered phonology and morphology that there are two clitic types: lexical and postlexical. It shows that languages have universally only a limited set of options in the way they place clitics. Properties of clitics and clitic behavior still form a body of evidence for both descriptive and explanatory approaches to the study of langauge. The problem raised by cliticization in linguistic theory is that in general clitics appear to be independent words at the level of syntax while they are merely parts of words at the phonological and morphological levels. A minimal requirement imposed on linguistic theory is that it characterize the basic elements of linguistic description and specify the levels at which they appear.