Metrical Evidence for Clitidzation in Nivkh Pronouns

白石 英才(サハリン州郷土博物館研究員)

It is a well-known charaderistic of singular person pronouns of Nivkh (Paleosiberian) that they should appear in truncated forms, i.e. clitics, when they serve as the complement of the verb.However, when such a pronoun attaches to a verb that begins with a pronominal prefix i-, e-, it is not clear whether the vowel in the output should be regarded as part of the pronoun or part of the verb (i.e. prefix). In this paper, I will provide phonological evidence that supports the second view, namely, that the retained vowel should be regarded as part ofthe verb. Consequently, I maintain that all instances of object singular person pronouns should surface as clitics without exception.