The clitic status of person markers in Sorani Kurdish

Abstract

The ambiguous nature of clitics challenges simple distinctions between morphology and syntax. Clitic properties also feature in theoretical accounts of ergativity. In this paper we analyze the nature of the person markers in Sorani Kurdish. The direct person markers are conventionally treated as verb affixes, while the oblique person markers are assumed to be clitics. A variety of clitic tests show that both the direct and oblique person markers have some affix properties as well as some clitic properties. The results illustrate the difficulty that language-specific features pose for a general theory of clitics. Keywords: Sorani Kurdish, clitic, affix, ergativity