Clitic doubling

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Clitic doubling, or pronominal reduplication, in linguistics, is a phenomenon by which clitic pronouns appear in verb phrases together with the full noun phrases that they refer to (as opposed to the cases where such pronouns and full noun phrases are in complementary distribution).

Clitic doubling is found in many languages, including Albanian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Greek, Persian, Romanian, Somali, and Spanish; in each case, it follows different rules.

In the standard Macedonian language, clitic doubling is obligatory with definite direct and indirect objects, which contrasts with standard Bulgarian where clitic doubling is optional. Non-standard dialects of Macedonian and Bulgarian have differing rules regarding clitic doubling. ^[1]

[edit] Clitic doubling in Spanish

Spanish is one well-known example of clitic-doubling language. In certain constructions, the indirect object must be expressed both as a full noun phrase and as a clitic:

Le di un regalo a mi madre. "I gave my mother a gift."

A mis invitados siempre les ofrezco café. "I always offer coffee to my guests."

No les des comida a los animales. "Do not give food to the animals."

The above, if literally translated into English, would be redundant:

Le	di	un	regalo	a	mi	madre
to.her	I.gave	a	gift	to	my	mother

A	mis	invitados	siempre	les	ofrezco	café
to	my	guests	always	to.them	I.offer	coffee

No	les	des	comida	a	los	animales
not	to.them	give	food	to	the	animals

Indirect object clitic doubling is compulsory in Spanish when it refers to a person or another animate entity.

The direct object may also be doubled, but it is not ungrammatical to leave it out when the referent is already present, and the decision to double it is often a matter of style (and dialect).

Lo vi a tu papá en la tienda. "I saw your dad at the store."

El otro día la conocí a su esposa. "The other day I met his wife."

(In the above, lo and la can be omitted.)

[edit] Notes

1. ^  Friedman, V. (1994) "Variation and Grammaticalization in the Development of Balkanisms" in CLS 30 Papers from the 30th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, Volume 2. (Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society)