Reflexive Clitics in Czech

Reflexive Clitics in Czech

Andrea Hudouskova
Charles University in Prague


The book provides a unified account of a wide range of complex and apparently disparate syntactic phenomena concerning the Czech reflexive clitic SE, which are interrelated under the assumption that SE is a reflexive clitic that enters different argument positions of a verb. Theoretically, the study is based on the recent version of Chomskyan generative grammar, i.e. minimalism, combined with Cardinaletti & Starke's (1994) theory of structural deficiency and Emonds' (2000) framework of multiple-level lexical insertion. In terms of these approaches, SE is claimed to be a bare N projection with unspecified φ-features and no case-feature, which is late-inserted into syntax before the moment of Spell-Out. This set of assumptions is claimed to have far-reaching implications for the structure and syntactic behavior of SE. It is shown that the range of verbs formed with SE, their interpretation and syntactic properties, restrictions on their distribution in various types of syntactic contexts as well as the relation of SE and other reflexive and non-reflexive pronouns may be given a satisfactory explanation on these grounds.
Andrea Hudousková is a lecturer at the Institute of Czech Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. Her main research interests include generative syntax, contrastive linguistics and second language acquisition.

ISBN 978 3 86288 698 2 (Hardbound). LINCOM studies in Slavic Linguistics 40. 229pp. 2016.