Clitics in English

Abstract

This article presents a systematic account of the approximately sixty grammatical elements in English which can function as a free form (an independent phonological word) or as a clitic—nominal determiners; prepositions; conjunction and relator; subject, object and possessive pronouns; auxiliaries; there and not. Their properties are assessed in terms of the general typological parameters of clitics. Finally, the grammatical behaviour of phrasal verbs is explained in terms of the behaviour of clitic pronouns.