Introduction

In this chapter we bring together a number of points raised in earlier chapters and ask to what extent we can draw a clear dividing line between clitics, words and affixes. We will show that the search for clear dividing lines is an arduous one. On the one hand we'll see a variety of ways in which elements that we would normally wish to call affixes may exhibit properties typical of clitics. We'll conclude the chapter with instances in which the divide between clitic and (inflecting) lexeme is blurred. Between those two types of situation we'll examine instances in which one and the same set of elements in a language can behave sometimes like affixes and sometimes like clitics (what we call ‘mixed systems’). In effect, then, we will start by examining elements that are fairly clear instances of clitics and progressively move towards elements that increasingly show properties of words.

However, we set the scene with three case studies of elements that might be considered clitics (or even weak function words) but which are certainly (German infinitive marker, Finnish possessor inflections), or almost certainly (Greek verbal ‘clitics’), affixes. The purpose of these case studies is to alert us to the fact that things aren't always as they seem, and that traditional perspectives, or analyses that initially look very promising, can be misleading.

The next set of case studies considers the extent to which affixes can show clitic-like properties while still remaining affixes. We begin by looking at the clitic-like phonology of English ‘Class II’ affixes. Inflectional affixes are supposed to conform to strict ordering constraints, but in a number of languages the syntactic past history of the clitics has left vestiges in the form of ordering variation. Sometimes the order is significant, as when identical pronominal clitics in Bantu languages occupy one position or the other within the affix string depending on whether they express the subject or the object argument.