Clitic Positions and Verb Movement

Abstract

Abstract The current literature on clitics reveals a gap between the level of descriptive adequacy and the level of explanatory adequacy, which is much harder to achieve. Whereas the biological UG probably converges on a single analysis for clitics, the model UGs proposed by linguists still leave too much room for descriptive options. This is true even within the very restrictive theories available today (and sometimes precisely as a consequence of achieving restrictiveness in other areas of the grammar).