Possessive clitics and the structure of nominal expressions

This paper examines the syntactic structure of nominal expressions (NE) containing possessive phrases with special attention on Bulgarian NE with possessive clitics. We argue that the possessive clitic appears in two syntactic positions: one inside the NE, and one in the VP domain, even though it can be pronounced either pre- or postverbally in the second case. The choice of the position in which the clitic is pronounced is determined by the general conditions governing the syntax-phonology interface. Following a proposal of Franks [Clitics in Slavic. Paper presented at the Workdhop on Comparative Slavic Morphosyntax, Bloomington, IN (1998)] and Bos̆ković [On the Nature of Syntax-Phonology Interface: Cliticization and Related Issues (2001)] we argue that when the clitic escapes the boundaries of the NE, it creates a non-trivial chain. In the default case, the head of the chain is pronounced but when pronouncing the head leads to a PF violation, a lower copy of the clitic is pronounced. We explore the question what conditions the possibility for the possessive clitic to appear in two syntactic positions. We propose that the clitic climbs to the verb for reasons of case. We support earlier proposals that movement into theta-positions is possible. We argue that the possessive clitic is assigned inherent Dative case. In the spirit of Lasnik [Chains of Arguments (1999)], we account for the cases of clitic climbing that seem to involve optional movement without appealing to the controversial notion of optionality. We defend the view that the different word orders result from different lexical choices. Finally, we examine various agreement phenomena inside the Bulgarian NEs which provide new evidence that movement is constrained by principles of Economy of derivation.