ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an analysis of clitics which is prerequisite to formulating an account of clitics in any given language within the framework of any given theory. It examines what the characteristics of clitics are across languages, and what the metatheoretical constraints on analyses of clitics are. The chapter attempts to answer a question: what is a clitic and what must a theory of clitics account for? It also presents two hypotheses basic to any adequate theory of clitics. Hypothesis A is the most basic, and states that cliticization is a unitary phenomenon. The second hypothesis, Hypothesis B, involves detailing the five parameters such as clitic identity, domain of cliticization, initial/final, before/after, and proclitic/enclitic, which are universally characteristic of all clitics. The chapter deals with defining possible clitic positions with respect to possible hostwords and hostphrases. It discusses possible constraints on enclitic item, the identification of the clitic.
