A variação no uso dos clíticos no espanhol medieval.

Abstract

Clitics have been discussed within the Generate Theory, more precisely, in Minimalism (Chomsky, 1995) which tries to analyze the cliticization process and explain the variation of its displacement. Regarding the placement of clitics, current spanish presents categorical proclisis in finite clauses, while medieval spanish presented variation between enclisis (V-Cl), proclisis (Cl-V), mesoclisis (V-cl-V) and interpolation (cl-XP-V), following the Tobler-Mussafia law in which clitics could not appear in absolute starting position. In this context, there was also a clitic with phonological dependence, enclitic not only to the verb, but to any lexical item. This research proposes to describe, analyze and explain the functioning of the pronominal placement of clitics in medieval Spanish and for this we use data from three texts from different periods (13th, 14th and 15th centuries), identify the conditioning factors of this pronominal placement, analyze the relationship between verb movement and clitic position and discuss whether there would be only one system of clitics or more than one system, as well as whether there would be more than one competing grammar. This research is hypothetical-deductive in nature, because we have hypotheses that must be proven or refuted; it is descriptive, because it studies and describes characteristics, properties or relationships existing in the linguistic community of medieval spanish; It is documentary, as an investigation is carried out using documents from the 13th to the 15th centuries. Regarding data analysis, a qualitative and a quantitative analysis were carried out. In a quantitative analysis, the occurrence of enclisis, proclisis, mesoclisis and interpolation was verified in the 13th to 15th centuries. In a qualitative analysis, it was verified how clitic systems and grammar competition worked. In the first chapter, we have the introduction of the dissertation talking about the hypotheses, objectives and methodology used. In the second chapter, the theoretical assumptions are presented. In the third chapter, we discuss whether clitics are affixes or function words. In the fourth chapter, an analysis of the position and variation of clitics is made. In the fifth chapter, we propose an explanation of how enclisis, proclisis and interpolation are generated in medieval Spanish. The conclusion is that there are two interacting grammars in Medieval Spanish. The interpolation is generated by a type of second-position clitic grammar, in which the clitic is an independent maximal projection of the verb, adjuncted to the right of any constituent (especially the conjunction in the subordinate clause). Enclisis and proclisis are generated by another grammar, in which syntactic and prosodic aspects come into play. In the case of categorical enclisis, the prosodic aspect of the Tobler-Mussafia Law forces the clitic to enclisis. In the case of categorical proclisis, syntactic aspects come into play, such as the features of the category that appears in a pre-verbal position. No conclusion was reached in this work about the optionality between enclisis and proclisis in the same contexts, because the same elements were identified occurring in both cases, which requires more specific and detailed future investigation.