Brazil

This paper proposes a model for the analysis of clitics, morphological structure, and their syntactic interaction, based on a comparison of the unusual clitic systems of Yágua and Pirahã. Within the theoretical perspective of Government-Binding theory, it is argued that clitics vary crosslinguistically with respect to their values (± or =) for the features [Case] and [Argument]. It is also suggested that nominals be divided into independent (noun, pronoun) vs. dependent (clitics, affixes) terms. I argue that differences which arise within the class of dependent terms do not follow from the assumption that clitics and affixes are distinct types of entities but rather from whether a particular dependent term is indicated lexically on the morphological template of the host morpheme and from its values from the [Case], [Argument] features. This framework is claimed to possess descriptive and even explanatory advantages over other theories of clitics, as shown by its ability to account for Yágua and Pirahã.