18 2 OverviewRegardless of whether a subject NP is present, the pronominal category of
the subject is expressed on the verb. Thus ajjass-asn 'they-Ma entered', or with
explicit subject NP sjjaes-gen medd-aen 'men entered'.
A noun in subject function following its verb, or a noun functioning as
complement of a preposition, undergoes Prefix Reduction (§2.3, above). This
does not apply to an object noun, even when it immediately follows the verb.
Prefix Reduction in an immediately post-verbal noun is therefore diagnostic of
subject as opposed to object status, for those nouns whose pronunciation is
audibly affected by Prefix Reduction (i.e. those with vocalic prefix allomorph
a- or e-). Nouns whose vocalic prefix is already short, or that lack a vocalic
prefix, show no subject/object variation in form.2.7 Clitics
Clitics are attached to the leftmost word of the clause (a complementizer, a
preverbal particle like Neg or Fut, a clause-initial verb, the head noun in an
indefinite relative clause, the demonstrative in a definite relative clause or in a
focalized clause). Head nouns of definite relatives, focalized constituents, and
topicalized constituents are treated as external to the clause and therefore do
not host clitics. I use the notation -\ for the boundary between a clitic and a
preceding word or clitic.
In a transitive clause, if the direct object is expressed by a pronoun, it
takes the form of an object clitic (16).(16) t-3nhasy-\taen Vse-mast-t
3FeSgS-see.PerfP-\3MaP10 Fe-Sg-woman-FeSg
'The woman saw them.'There are a number of prepositions that can take NP complements. A
pronominal complement is expressed by a suffix on the preposition, e.g.
-\s3r-9s 'with 3Sg' (instrumental). Such preposition-pronominal combinations
are treated as clitics and attach to the clause-initial constituent. There is also a
special set of dative pronominals that always appear as clitics.
Other clitics, besides object pronominals and pronominal prepositions, are
the directionals (Centripetal -\add with dialectal variant -Vidd, Centrifugal
-\in). It is possible to get several clitics piled up on a single host, the
directionals coming last. The directionals may also be doubled (on the verb
and on a preverbal particle). See Chapter 10 for details.
2.8 Focalized clauses
When a normally postverbal NP or adverbial is focalized, it is moved to
clause-initial (actually, pre-clausal) position. It is followed by a, which I