Persons and Pronouns: Exploring Clitics in Judeo-Spanish

Optional versus obligatory clitic doubling and the person -case constraint (PCC) repair constitute two puzzles researchers haven't fully addressed. In Judeo-Spanish, doubling is obligatory for third person accusative strong pronouns; for all other arguments, doubling is optional. This analysis contends objects are generated with corresponding clitics in the syntax. The realization of clitics is regulated by functional heads: v degrees and X degrees , a head located beneath v degrees . X degrees is hypothesized to be a probe specified only for person; critically, third person accusative strong pronouns lack person features (Anagnostopoulou 2003), while other arguments bear person features. Optional doubling is regulated by alternations in Agree with v degrees or X degrees . An argument that appears without a co -referring clitic is derived via agreement with X degrees . This interaction triggers deletion of clitics' phi -features, which causes them to be null. Overt cliticization is derived via agreement with v degrees . Obligatory doubling is derived via Agree strictly with v degrees ; third person accusative strong pronouns cannot be potential goals for X degrees since they lack person features. Apart from doubling, X degrees generates the PCC repair by blocking Agree between v degrees and dative clitics, causing dative arguments to appear without a matching clitic, and by eliminating intervention effects between v degrees and accusative clitics.