Clitic

In morphology and syntax, a clitic (ˈklɪtᵻk , backformed from Greek ἐγκλιτικός "leaning" or "enclitic") is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a word, but depends phonologically on another word or phrase. In this sense, it is syntactically independent but phonologically dependent—always attached to a host. A clitic is pronounced like an affix, but plays a syntactic role at the phrase level. In other words, clitics have the form of affixes, but the distribution of function words. Clitics can belong to any grammatical category, although they are commonly pronouns, determiners, or adpositions. Note that orthography is not always a good guide for distinguishing clitics from affixes: clitics may be written as separate words, but sometimes they are joined to the word they depend on (like the Latin clitic -que, meaning "and") or separated by special characters such as hyphens or apostrophes (like the English clitic s in "it's" for "it has" or "it is"). Clitics fall into various categories depending on their position in relation to the word they connect to. A proclitic appears before its host. An enclitic appears after its host. Latin: Senatus Populus-que Romanus "Senate people-and Roman" = "The Senate and people of Rome" Ancient Greek: ánthrōpoí (-te) theoí -te "people (and) gods and" = "(both) men and gods" Sanskrit: naro gajaś -ca 'नरो गजश्च' i.e. "naraḥ gajaḥ ca" "नरस् गजस् -च" with sandhi "the man the elephant and" = "the man and the elephant" Sanskrit: Namaste < namaḥ + te, (Devanagari: नमः + -ते = नमस्ते), with sandhi change namaḥ > namas. "bowing to you" Czech: Nevím, chtělo-li by se mi si to tam však také vyzkoušet. "However (však), I do not know (nevím), if (-li) it would (by) want (chtělo se) to try (vyzkoušet si) it (to) to me (mi) there (tam) as well (také)." (= However, I'm not sure if I would like to try it there as well.) Tamil: idu eṉ pū = இது என் பூ (This is my flower). With enclitic -vē, which indicates certainty, this sentence becomes idu eṉ pūvē = இது என் பூவே (This is certainly my flower) Telugu: idi nā puvvu = ఇది నా పువ్వు (This is my flower).