Re: USAGE: Circumfixes

On Mon, May 10, 2004 at 08:49:52PM -0400, Trebor Jung wrote:
> Mark L. wrote:
>
> "Latin -que is called an enclitic because it's attached to the end of
> another word, like a suffix. It would be called a proclitic if it were
> attached to the beginning of another word, like a prefix."
>
> So why not just call it 'prefix' or 'suffix'?
>
> Or do clitics work like Henrik described?:
>
> "[C]litics work on clause level, not on word level, although, phonetically,
> they attach to words and cannot be used as an isolated word. In this sense,
> both English 'the' and Latin '-que' work on clause level, but need another
> word to attach to phonetically."
Personally I use 'clitic' for a morpheme not limited to a grammatical
category, i.e. can be added to any word, regardless of the language's
usual phonological constraints. Clitics thus don't convey any
grammatical information, AFAIK.

I haven't ever considered them on the clause level, since, par exemple
in Finnish, the semantics change depending on which word the clitic is
added to.

> Trebor.
--
vehke.

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