Li instead of els[i] or the depronominalization of the dative clitic in Catalan: an emerging phenomenon

Abstract

This contribution aims to study a phenomenon which has recently emerged in Catalan and which seems to contradict the foundations of referential cohesion. It is a phenomenon parallel to what in the Spanish linguistic tradition has been dubbed le-for-les, that is to say, the use of a singular dative clitic when doubling a plural indirect object, as in Li[sg.] he donat el llibre als nens[pl.] ‘I have given the book to the kids’. I will show that this phenomenon, which is more and more present in Valencian varieties as well as in the Catalan spoken in the area of Barcelona, can be accounted for as an instance of depronominalization of the dative clitic pronoun, as a result of the generalization of dative clitic doubling which has occurred, precisely, in the mentioned varieties. As doubling becomes systematic, li looses its status of anaphoric pronoun and, deprived of any trace of agreement, it becomes just a grammatical marker in the verb, a sort of verbal affix whose sole function is to indicate the presence of a prominent argument in the sentence, the indirect object. I present a variety of factors that may create the conditions where such a verbal affix (the non-agreeing dative clitic) becomes necessary. Finally, I provide a formal analysis based on the assumption that doubling clitics are the realization of an applicative head, which is responsible of introducing the IO in the structure.