Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An unstressed word, typically a function word, that is incapable of standing on its own and attaches in pronunciation to a stressed word, with which it forms a single accentual unit. Examples of clitics are the pronoun ’em in I see ’em and the definite article in French l'arme, “the arm.”
- adjective Of or relating to a clitic or clisis.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun linguistics A
morpheme that functions like a word, but appears not as an independentword but always attached to a following or preceding word.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word clitic.
Examples
-
By the way, how is it that your research has to do with the clitoris as in "clitic"?
A post that isn't about my mother StyleyGeek 2007
-
I want to google "clitic," but I'm afraid to, given the nature of today's internet....
-
I try to avoid saying the word "clitic" because, well, I don't swear.
-
I think that the possessive morpheme is technically a clitic.
Preposterous Apostrophes III: The kings of England’s « Motivated Grammar 2007
-
Most languages can adopt theme-rheme structure idiosyncratically — as for English, we often use as for theme constructions — but topic-prominent languages use systematic changes in syntax or even dedicated morpological elements such as the Japanese clitic particle -wa to mark themes and to set them apart from rhemes.
Archive 2008-02-01 2008
-
Most languages can adopt theme-rheme structure idiosyncratically — as for English, we often use as for theme constructions — but topic-prominent languages use systematic changes in syntax or even dedicated morpological elements such as the Japanese clitic particle -wa to mark themes and to set them apart from rhemes.
Themes and rhemes and XSV: Smiled as the wonder I pondered 2008
-
Oddly enough, I find I have absolutely no idea what the adjectival form of "clitoris" is, but I bet you it isn't "clitic".
A post that isn't about my mother StyleyGeek 2007
-
My original sentence had the example--"The Queen of England's language"--where the possessive clitic 's applies to the entire noun phrase.
-
We already refer to "clitic pronouns" that are not mobile but attached to the verb.
-
Japanese is developing clitic doubling like many Romance languages!
sarra commented on the word clitic
tragically, this would be the most apropos entry in my linguistics is sexy list yet
December 3, 2007
bilby commented on the word clitic
lol sarra!
December 3, 2007
johnmperry commented on the word clitic
A grammatically independent and phonologically dependent word. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level. For example, the English possessive -'s is a clitic; in the phrase the girl next door’s cat, -’s is phonologically attached to the preceding word door while grammatically combined with the phrase the girl next door, the possessor.
June 21, 2008
bilby commented on the word clitic
I asked the girl next door and she said she doesn't have a cat.
September 29, 2008
recombinantdna commented on the word clitic
Well, don't ask her about her clitics
October 5, 2009