Slovenian clitics prefer to cliticize to the right

Abstract

Slovenian second-position clausal clitics are typically described as being either enclitic by default (Golden and Milojević Sheppard 2000) or prosodically neutral (Bošković 2001). However, Orešnik (1984) argues that they are usually proclitic. This paper presents an experiment testing this description. Subjects were presented a series of sentences with an added beep in various positions in the vicinity of these clitics and asked to identify the location where they perceived the beep. The results confirm previous descriptions that clitics can attach in either direction if needed, but suggest that by default, Slovenian clitics are perceived as proclitic, attaching to the word following them, supporting the claims of Orešnik (1984).