Microvariation in pronominal and verbal enclitics in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. Empirical studies on spoken language, including dialects and heritage languages

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Björn Hansen
• Subject Area: Individual Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 266055244

Clitics are special. They have morphonological properties of both word forms and affixes. Syntactically they are characterized by specific word order rules setting them apart from other phrases with the same argument function. Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian (BCS) clitics underlie the second position effect (2P principle) and serialization rules within the clitic cluster (template principle). Clitics are an ideal test case for the study of the division of labor between phonology, morphology, syntax and pragmatics; therefore, a considerable body of theoretical works has dealt with the syntax-phonology interface in BCS. These studies, however, are characterized by a high degree of data reduction. Spoken language and variation have not been taken into account. Nor do the authors recognize that clitic systems are dynamic. The project aims to broaden the empirical data base of the use of the pronominal and auxiliary enclitics in BCS. Its focus is on microvariation in spoken varieties which are not under the direct influence of prescriptive corpus planning. As a contribution to Microcomparative Syntax the project tries to reconcile syntactic theory with dialectology and heritage linguistics. It aims at a better understanding of the mechanisms of clitic syntax and at an explanation of syntactic change under the conditions of intensive language contact. A special focus is on the systematic analysis of the structural conditions of clitic climbing where clitics move out of the complement into the matrix clause. The project adopts an integrative understanding of grammar which allows for the gradience of grammaticality, which takes semantics, context and pragmatic factors into consideration and which relies on a broad data basis. We are going to analyse: Clitic climbing in the standard languages and in spoken varieties, Syntax of clitics in spoken standard varieties, including überdachte Dialekte and two contact varieties (BCS spoken by second generation heritage speakers in Germany and by diaspora speakers in Romanian Banat). The analysis will be based on data from corpora, the research literature and on data collected during fieldwork (interviews supplemented by elicited data and tests).These data will be used to verify theoretical claims concerning the syntax of clitics. The project is an important contribution to the Microcomparative Syntax of the Slavonic and other languages with clitics. It helps to distinguish between natural syntactic structures from results of prescriptive corpus planning and to distinguish between obligatory and optional syntactic features. Apart from that, we expect consolidated findings concerning clitic climbing, the range and the limits of variation and, finally, the mechanisms of contact induced change.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants