Clitics and the Left Periphery in Cayuga

초록

We propose that pronominal markers in Cayuga are clitics that obey anupdated version of the Tobler-Mussafia Law. Specifically, pronominalmarkers cannot appear at the left edge of an Intonational Phrase andundergo prosodic inversion at PF if they appear in that position atSpell-Out. This analysis has two important implications. First, we showthat monomorphemic units in Cayuga are not uniformly particles, as isgenerally assumed. Rather, Cayuga opens up a new testing ground forthe distinction between particles and clitics. Second, in order to motivatethe analysis, a better understanding of the left periphery in Cayuga isdeveloped. Specifically, the interaction between topics, wh-phrases andprosodic structure is mapped out, showing that the left peripherycontains at least a Topic Phrase that dominates a Focus Phrase. Thus,this study sets the stage for a more detailed map of the clause structurein Cayuga.

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