What is a clitic? (Grammar)

Definition
	A clitic is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a word, but shows evidence of being phonologically bound to another word.

Features

Phonologically bound but syntactically free Function at phrase or clause level Cannot be integrated into standard discourse without being bound to some other form Often have grammatical rather than lexical meaning Belong to closed classes like pronouns, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, and conjunctions Usually attach to the edges of words, outside of derivational and inflectional affixes Often attach to several syntactic categories of words such as head noun, non-head noun, preposition, verb, or adverb Phonologically unstressed

Discussion
	A clitic may have a nonclitic alternant.

Examples (English)
	The contraction of the morpheme is, as in What's going on? The possessive marker 's, as in The man in the black coat's book.

Kinds
	Here are the two kinds of clitics:
	proclitic, occurring at the beginning of a morpheme enclitic, occurring at the end of a morpheme
	Note: Clitics that occur on the last element of a clause will always cliticize to the end of that element. (See Payne, T. 1997b)

Generic
	A clitic is a kind of
	What is a word? What is a morpheme type?

Comparison and contrast: clitic versus affix
	Here is a table that compares and contrasts clitics and affixes:
	Clitic Affix Functions above the word level syntactically and on the word level phonologically. Functions on the word level syntactically and phonologically. May attach to words belonging to a variety of syntactic categories. Attaches to words belonging to a single syntactic category. May attach to words or whole phrases. Attaches to single words. Occurs at the edge of a word. May occur within or at the edges of a word.