Another look at li placement in Bulgarian

Abstract

This article explores the properties of interrogative/focus particle li in Bulgarian, in the larger context of the clitic system of that language as well as from the perspective of how li and other clitics behave in related Slavic languages. A highly derivational model of grammar is assumed, with Minimalist syntax and Distributed Morphology. As an alternative to scattered deletion, prosodically sensitive principles of linearization apply on the post-syntactic side of the grammar. Bulgarian special clitics cannot be Utterance initial; hence, very late in the derivation, they undergo (Reordering) Merger to be linearized at the right of the prosodic word to their right. It is argued that interrogative li , as an enclitic, linearizes upon vocabulary insertion on the right of the prosodic word to its right. Focus li , however, occurs with a focused phrase in its specifier, hence is pronounced to the right of this phrase, with non-focus material elided.

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