verb
- converting a word or morpheme into a clitic (a linguistic unit that is phonologically dependent on an adjacent word and cannot stand alone)
Usage: linguistics; technical term
Examples
- In English, the process of cliticizing 'is' to 'he' produces the contraction 'he's'.
- Linguists study how languages differ in cliticizing function words like pronouns and auxiliaries.
- The grammar describes the rules for cliticizing unstressed particles onto the main verb.
- Diachronic sound changes can lead to cliticizing of previously independent words.
- Some Romance languages show extensive cliticizing of object pronouns to verb stems.