Variation in clitic-doubling in South Slavic

Abstract

© 2008 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited. The chapter discusses clitic-doubling in (the dialects of ) two South Slavic languages, Macedonian and Bulgarian, and the South-Eastern Serbian dialects. It is argued that in the South Slavic dialectal continuum there is inter-dialectal variation of clitic-doubling strategies along two axes. While along the vertical north-south axis the dialects vary with respect to the categories that can be clitic-doubled, along the horizontal west-east axis they vary with respect to dependence on discourse factors. Thus, whereas in the Northern and Central morphologically rich Serbian dialects there is practically no clitic-doubling, in the South-Eastern Serbian dialects, in which the six oblique Serbian case forms are reduced to only one, clitic-doubling is frequent, though optional, and in most of the Macedonian and Bulgarian dialects, to the south and south-east of the Serbian dialects, where nominal cases are practically non-existent, clitic-doubling occurs with all types of NPs. On the other hand, whereas in the easternmost Bulgarian dialects we have almost total dependence on discourse factors, in the westernmost Bulgarian and easternmost Macedonian dialects there is clitic-doubling of direct or indirect objects that are not discourse-linked, and in the Central and Western Macedonian dialects, all defi nite direct objects and all specifi c indirect objects are clitic-doubled, regardless of discourse factors.