60: That’s the kind of episode it’s - clitics

Here’s a completely normal and unremarkable sentence. Let’s imagine  we have two different coloured pens, and we’re going to circle the words  in red and the affixes, that’s prefixes and suffixes, in blue.

“Later today, I’ll know if I hafta get some prizes for Helen of Troy’s competition, or if it isn’t necessary.”

Some  of these are pretty straightforward. “Some”? Word. The -s on “prizes”?  Affix. But some of them, “I’ll”, “hafta”, “Helen of  Troy’s”, “isn’t”….hmmm.

In this episode, your hosts Lauren Gawne  and Gretchen McCulloch get enthusiastic about a small bit of language  that’s sort of a halfway point between a standalone word and a fully  glommed-on affix: the clitic! We talk about why sentences like “That’s  the kind of linguist I’m” feel so strange and how on the one hand  clitics are a sign of increased efficiency in terms of saying more  common words more quickly, but on the other hand they kind of add  complication because there are some contexts where the full forms of the  words would be fine and yet the clitic doesn’t work, giving you one  more thing to keep track of. We also talk about clitics and reduced  forms of words in Yolmo, Old English, and Dutch, and how clitic pronouns  might be evolving into affixes in French and Spanish.

Announcements:
We’re  excited to announce a special offer that we’re running on Patreon that  brings you fun things in the mail! Join the Ling-phabet tier or higher  by November 3, 2021 (anywhere on earth) and get a sticker pack of FOUR  stickers:

• Two round “Schwa never stressed” stickers (one floral, one geometric)
• One classic square Lingthusiasm logo sticker
• One BECAUSE INTERNET bookplate sticker signed by Gretchen, for you to stick inside your copy or anywhere else you like

Plus, if we reach a total of 1400 patrons at any level before November 3, then the sticker pack will also include:

• Two  mini Lingthusiasm green cutout stickers, one of which is called “bouba”  and the other “kiki” — which is which? That’s an experiment you get to  run on your friends when you stick them on your phone case, water  bottle, laptop, etc.

This special offer is part of the  Ling-phabet tier, which also has the ordinary perk of letting patrons  sponsor an IPA symbol or other special character and be recognized on  the Lingthusiasm website on our “Supporter Wall of Fame” page. You can  get your symbol through our ~*~super scientific~*~ Which IPA Character  Are You Quiz, or just tell us what your favourite character or other  Unicode symbol is. Then you get an image with your name and favourite  symbol on it (see samples here!) recognizing you as a supporter, which  you can share on social media/print off and use as a bookmark/gaze at in  warm satisfaction/etc. Plus, after 3 months at this tier, you get its  regular “Lingthusiast” sticker in the mail, so that could be a total of 5  (or 7) stickers and 2 joyous mail occasions for you!

(Patrons at  the Phil-ling-thropist tier will get two sticker packs — an extra one to  share with a friend or to make sure your next laptop is still  sufficiently lingthusiastic — plus the IPA Wall of Fame tile. Patrons at  this level also receive a “Lingthusiast” mug after three months at this  tier instead of the three month sticker.)

We’re still incredibly  appreciative of all levels of support for our completely independent  linguistics podcast! Regardless of what tier you’re at, you’ll help  contribute to the 1400 patron stretch goal (and any new  Phi-ling-thropists will let us reduce this goal by 10 patrons each!).  Existing patrons at any of the relevant tiers will still receive sticker  packs, and we’ll be in touch to confirm addresses closer to the  shipping date.

The bonus episodes will continue to be available at  the Ling-thusist tier and above the way they always have, so definitely  don’t feel like you have to go for this special offer if you can’t  spare the cash, but if you can and you’d like to help cross-subsidize  Lingthusiasm for the many people learning about linguistics for free  from our main episodes, then we’ve got these new special perks to make  it even sweeter!

For links to things mentioned in this episode: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/662535562508517376/lingthusiasm-episode-60-thats-the-kind-of