In morphology and syntax, a clitic is a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word or phrase. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level.

Clitics may belong to any grammatical category, though they are commonly pronouns, determiners, or adpositions. Note that orthography is not a good guide for identifying clitics: clitics may be written as independent words, bound affixes, or separated by special characters (e.g., apostrophe).

Classification

There are a number of different clitics depending on their position in relation to the word that they are connected to.

Proclitic

A proclitic appears before its host.

English: an ''apple''

French: Je t'''aime''.

::"I you-''love''." = "I love you."

Ancient Greek: ὁ ''ἄνθρωπος''

:::"the ''person''"

Enclitic

An enclitic appears after its host.

Latin: Senatus ''Populus''que Romanus

::"Senate ''people''-and Roman" = "The Roman Senate and people"

Ancient Greek: ''ánthrōpoí'' (te) ''theoí'' te

:::"''people'' (and) ''gods'' and" = "men and gods"

Mesoclitic

A mesoclitic appears between the stem of the host and other affixes.

Portuguese: Ela ''levá''-lo-''ia''.

:::"She ''take''-it-''COND''." = "She would take it."

Endoclitic

The endoclitic splits apart the root and is inserted between the two pieces. Endoclitics defy the Lexical Integrity Hypothesis (Lexicalist Hypothesis) and so were long claimed to be impossible, but evidence from the Udi language suggests that they do exist. Endoclitics are also found in Pashto and are reported to exist in Degema.

Properties

Some clitics can be understood as elements undergoing a historical process of grammaticalization: :lexical item → clitic → affix According to this model, an autonomous lexical item in a particular context loses the properties of a fully independent word over time and acquires the properties of a morphological affix (prefix, suffix, infix, etc.). At any intermediate stage of this evolutionary process, the element in question can be described as a "clitic". As a result, this term ends up being applied to a highly heterogeneous class of elements, presenting different combinations of word-like and affix-like properties.

Prosody

One characteristic shared by many clitics is a lack of prosodic independence. A clitic attaches to an adjacent word, known as its ''host''. Orthographic conventions treat clitics in different ways: Some are written as separate words, some are written as one word with their hosts, and some are attached to their hosts, but set off by punctuation (a hyphen or an apostrophe, for example).

Comparison with affixes

Although the term "clitic" can be used descriptively to refer to any element whose grammatical status is somewhere in between a typical word and a typical affix, linguists have proposed various definitions of "clitic" as a technical term. One common approach is to treat clitics as words that are prosodically deficient: they cannot appear without a host, and they can only form an accentual unit in combination with their host. The term "postlexical clitic" is used for this narrower sense of the term.

Given this basic definition, further criteria are needed to establish a dividing line between postlexical clitics and morphological affixes, since both are characterized by a lack of prosodic autonomy. There is no natural, clear-cut boundary between the two categories (since from a historical point of view, a given form can move gradually from one to the other by morphologization). However, by identifying clusters of observable properties that are associated with core examples of clitics on the one hand, and core examples of affixes on the other, one can pick out a battery of tests that provide an empirical foundation for a clitic/affix distinction.

An affix syntactically and phonologically attaches to a base morpheme of a limited part of speech, such as a verb, to form a new word. A clitic syntactically functions above the word level, on the phrase or clause level, and attaches only phonetically to the first, last, or only word in the phrase or clause, whichever part of speech the word belongs to. The results of applying these criteria sometimes reveal that elements that have traditionally been called "clitics" actually have the status of affixes (e.g. the Romance pronominal clitics discussed below).

Word order

Clitics do not always appear next to the word or phrase that they are associated with grammatically. They may be subject to global word order constraints that act on the entire sentence. Many Indo-European languages, for example, obey "Wackernagel's Law", which requires clitics to appear in "second position", after the first syntactic phrase or the first stressed word in a clause:

Czech: ''Kde'' se to stalo? ("''Where'' REFL that happened" = "Where did that happen?")

Several clitics appearing in the same position (sharing the same host) form a "clitic cluster". The relative order of clitics in a cluster is usually strictly fixed (just as affixes appear in a strict order within a single word):

Czech: ''Nechtěli'' jsme vám ho dát. ("''NOT-wanted'' 1PL to-you it give" = "We didn't want to give it to you.")

Polish: Ty ''widział''byś go jutro. ("you ''saw''-COND-2sg him tomorrow" = "You would see him tomorrow.")

Indo-European languages

Germanic languages

English

English enclitics include:

The abbreviated forms of ''be'':

* ''’m'' in ''I’m''

* ''’re'' in ''you’re''

* ''’s'' in ''she’s''

The abbreviated forms of auxiliary verbs:

* ''’ll'' in ''they’ll''

* ''’ve'' in ''they’ve''

The genitive case (or "possessive") marker, at least when used to mark an entire noun phrase:

*''’s'' in ''The Queen of England's crown''

English proclitics include:

''a'' ____ in ''a desk''

''an'' ____ in ''an egg''

''the'' ____ in ''the house''

The negative marker ''n’t'' as in ''couldn’t'' etc. is often thought to be a clitic developed from the lexical item ''not''. Linguists Arnold Zwicky and Geoffrey Pullum argue, however, that the form has the properties of an affix rather than a syntactically independent clitic. In English, clitics must be unstressed, but ''not'' as a full word cannot be unstressed.

I have ''not'' done it yet.

I’ve ''not'' done it yet.

I ''haven’t'' done it yet.

I’ven’t done it yet. (dialectal non-standard)

A stressed word cannot be changed into a clitic:

I don’t know who she ''is''. (*I don't know who she’s.)

Have you done it? —Yes, I ''have''. (*Yes, I’ve.)

He’s not a fool. —He ''is'' a fool! (*He’s a fool!)

Other Germanic languages

Old Norse: The definite article was expressed in the enclitics "-inn" (masc.) e.g. ''alfrinn'' "the elf" ''dvergrinn'' "the dwarf" and ''haukrinn'' "the hawk", "-in" (fem.) ''gjǫfin'' and "-it" (neut.) ''treit'' "the tree". The forms were fully declined by gender, case, and number, and were slightly abbreviated forms of an independent pronoun (''hinn'' et cetera, etymologically corresponding to German pronoun ''jener''). Since the nouns also were fully declined, this lead to "double declinations". The situation remains similar in modern Faroese and Icelandic; but in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, these enclitic forms have evolved to inflexion forms.

Dutch: '''t'' definite article of neuter nouns and third person singular neuter pronoun, '''k'' first person pronoun, ''je'' second person singular pronoun, ''ie'' third person masculin singular pronoun, ''ze'' third person plural pronoun

Plautdietsch: ''"Deit'a't vondoag?"'': "Will he do it today?"

Gothic: Sentence clitics appear in second position in accordance with Wackernagel's Law, including ''-u'' (yes-no question), ''-uh'' "and", ''þan'' "then", ''ƕa'' "anything", for example ''ab-u þus silbin'' "of thyself?". Multiple clitics can be stacked up, and will split a preverb from the rest of the verb if the preverb comes at the beginning of the clause, e.g. ''diz-uh-þan-sat ijōs'' "and then he seized them (fem.)", ''ga-u-ƕa-sēƕi'' "whether he saw anything".

Romance languages

In the Romance languages, the articles and direct and indirect object personal pronoun forms are clitics. In Spanish, for example:

''las aguas'' ("the waters") ''lo atamos'' ("it tied-1PL" = "we tied it") ''dámelo'' ("give me it")

According to most criteria, in fact, the pronominal clitics in most of the Romance languages have already developed into affixes.

There is still some debate as to whether or not this change from clitic to affix has occurred with French subject pronouns. Subject pronouns, especially, are still considered clitics as they force a topicalized reading of a coindexed XP.

To illustrate this, consider the following sentences :

''Je le prends et mange'' (litt. I take and eat it)

''Je le prends et le mange'' (litt. I take it and eat it)

''Je le prends et je le mange'' (litt. I take it and I eat it)

The first would be considered quite archaic; out of context, most modern speakers would understand it as "''I take it and eat''". In this sense, ''le'' can be considered an affix. The second would be understood as is, but would be considered fairly formal. The third would be more informal (and "''je le''" would be likely to be pronounced as "''j'le''" or "''je l'''" here).

Although mesoclisis is extremely formal in Brazilian Portuguese and tends to be circumscribed in lesser formal registers by avoiding synthetical future/conditional verb forms, European Portuguese still allows clitic object pronouns to surface as mesoclitics in colloquial situations:

''Ela levá-lo-ia'' ("''She take-it-would''" – "She would take it").

''Eles dar-no-lo-ão'' ("''They give-us-it-will''" – "They will give it to us").

Proto-Indo-European

In the Indo-European languages, some clitics can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European: for example, *'''' is the original form of Sanskrit ''च'' (''-ca''), Greek ''τε'' (''-te''), and Latin ''-que''.

Latin: ''-que'' "and", ''-ve'' "or", ''-ne'' (yes-no question)

Greek: ''τε'' "and", ''δέ'' "but", ''γάρ'' "for" (in a logical argument), ''οὖν'' "therefore"

Slavic languages

Russian: ли (yes-no question), же (emphasis), то (emphasis), не "not" (proclitic), бы (subjunctive)

Czech: special clitics: weak personal and reflexive pronouns (''mu'', "him"), certain auxiliary verbs (''by'', "would"), and various short particles and adverbs (''tu'', "here"; ''ale'', "though"). "''Nepodařilo by se mi mu to dát''" "I would not succeed in giving it to him". In addition there are various simple clitics including short prepositions.

Other languages

Hungarian: the marker of indirect questions is ''-e:'' ''Nem tudja még, jön-e.'' "He doesn't know yet if he'll come." This clitic can also mark direct questions with a falling intonation. ''Is'' ("as well") and ''se'' ("not... either") also function as clitics: although written separately, they are pronounced together with the preceding word, without stress: ''Ő is jön.'' "He'll come too." ''Ő sem jön.'' "He won't come, either."

Japanese: all particles, such as the genitive postposition の (''no'') and the topic marker は (''wa'').

Korean: The copula 이다 (''ida'') and the adjectival 하다 (''hada''), as well as some nominal and verbal particles (e.g. 는, ''neun''). However, alternative analysis suggests that the nominal particles do not function as clitics, but as phrasal affixes.

Arabic: Suffixes standing for direct object pronouns and/or indirect object pronouns (as found in Indo-European languages) are suffixed to verbs, possessive determiners are suffixed to nouns, and pronouns are suffixed to particles.

Luganda: ''-nga'' attached to a verb to form the progressive; ''-wo'' 'in' (also attached to a verb)

See also

Affix

Clitic doubling

Possessive case

Separable affix

Tmesis

Weak form and strong form

Weak pronoun

Genitive case

Clitic climbing

Grammatical particle

References

Category:Syntax Category:Morphonology Category:Units of linguistic morphology

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Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
Name	Nicki Minaj
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Onika Tanya Maraj
Birth date	December 08, 1982
Birth place	Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago
Origin	South Jamaica, Queens, New York, U.S.
Genre	Hip hop, R&B;, pop
Occupation	Rapper, singer-songwriter
Years active	2002–present
Label	Cash Money Records, Young Money Entertainment, Universal Republic Records, Universal Motown
Associated acts	Young Money
website	}}

Onika Tanya Maraj (born December 8, 1982), known by her stage name Nicki Minaj (), is a Trinidadian-born American musician. She was born in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago, and moved to the New York borough of Queens when she was five.

After releasing three mixtapes between 2007 and 2009 and being signed to Young Money Entertainment in August 2009, Minaj released her debut album, ''Pink Friday'', in November 2010. It quickly became a commercial success, peaking at number one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 and being certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) a month after its release. She became the first female solo artist to have seven singles on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 at the same time. Her second single, "Your Love", reached #1 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Rap Songs chart, making Minaj the first female artist to top the chart unaccompanied since 2002. She also became the first female artist to be included on MTV's Annual Hottest MC List. Minaj was named the 2011 ''Rising Star'' by ''Billboard''. Her second studio album, ''Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded'' was released on April 3, 2012.

Early life

Maraj was born in 1982 in Saint James, a suburb of Trinidad and Tobago's capital city Port of Spain. Her parents are of mixed Indian and Afro-Trinidadian ancestry and she lived in Saint James with her grandmother until age five, because her parents were looking for a place to live in the Queens borough of New York City at the time. Her mother would occasionally visit, and one day, when Minaj was five, her mother picked her up to move to Queens. According to Minaj, her father drank heavily, took drugs, and once tried to kill her mother by setting the house on fire.

She attended Elizabeth Blackwell Middle School 210, where she played the clarinet. She graduated from LaGuardia High School. At LaGuardia, a school specializing in music and the visual and performing arts, Minaj participated in the drama program. She had initially planned to sing at LaGuardia, but lost her voice on the day of the audition.

Career

2007–09: Mixtapes and Young Money

Minaj released her first mixtape in 2007 after releasing ''Playtime Is Over'' with ''Dirty Money Records''. She released another mixtape on July 7, 2008, titled ''Sucka Free'', under the label ''Be''. On April 18, 2009, Minaj released a third mixtape and appeared in ''XXL'' magazine. She won the Female Artist of the Year award at the 2008 Underground Music Awards. Minaj released ''Beam Me Up Scotty'', another mixtape, in April 2009 under the label of ''Trapaholics Records''; it received positive coverage on both BET and MTV.

In August 2009, Minaj signed a record deal with Young Money Entertainment, with distribution from Universal Motown Records, after fellow American rapper Lil Wayne discovered her and secured the record deal. She then had a solo rap verse in their single "BedRock," which became a commercial success, reaching #2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Minaj also appeared on "Roger That", which charted at #56. The song, and in particular Minaj, received positive reviews from critics. Both songs were included in Young Money Entertainment's debut collaborative studio album ''We Are Young Money'', which was released in December 2009. The album charted in the top ten on the ''Billboard'' 200, reaching #9 and later receiving a Gold Certification by the RIAA. She was then chosen by Mariah Carey to be featured on her single and music video for "Up Out My Face". Critics praised her collaboration for helping to maintain Carey's feminine image and providing a polite track for the female R&B; singer.

2010–2011: ''Pink Friday''

After a major record label bidding war, Young Money Entertainment announced on August 31, 2009 that Minaj had been released from a 360 deal with the label in which she retains and owns all of her 360 rights – including merchandising, sponsorships, endorsements, touring and publishing. In an interview with 95.8 Capital FM, Rihanna stated that after the two collaborated on "Raining Men" from her album ''Loud'' that the duo would be teaming up together for a possible second collaboration on Minaj's ''Pink Friday''. Hip-hop rap artist and producer Kanye West was also confirmed for the album. On August 3, 2010 Minaj revealed on a Ustream.tv channel that the album's name would be ''Pink Friday'', in reference to Black Friday.

''Pink Friday'' was released on November 19, 2010 in both standard and deluxe versions. A buzz single, "Massive Attack", was released in April. In August, Minaj released "Your Love" as the first official single from her debut album. The single peaked at 14 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, 7 on the Hot R&B;/Hip-Hop Songs chart and topped the Rap Songs chart. Minaj became the first female artist to be included on MTV's Annual Hottest MC List and the first female artist to top the chart unaccompanied since 2002. In October 2010, Minaj became the first artist to have seven songs on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart simultaneously. Minaj released a joint single with The Black Eyed Peas front man, will.i.am titled, "Check It Out", which is Minaj's most successful single to date in Europe. "Right thru Me" was released September 24, 2010; the music video was released in late October. "Moment 4 Life" was released as the fourth single. The track featured Canadian rapper Drake and was released on December 7, 2010, becoming a success on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The single peaked at number 5 on the Hot Rap Songs. The album gained a Platinum certification in the United States a month after the release. It was hinted by Simon Cowell that Minaj would join the judging panel of the American version of the ''The X Factor.'' Starting in June 2011, Minaj will be supporting ''Pink Friday'' by serving as an opening act along with Jessie and the Toy Boys and Nervo on Britney Spears' sixth concert tour, the Femme Fatale Tour, in support of her seventh studio album, ''Femme Fatale''. She also was featured on the official remix of Spears' track "Till the World Ends" along with Spears and singer Kesha, which charted at number 3 in the US in April 2011. "Super Bass" was released from ''Pink Friday'' in May 2011, the single charted within the top 10 in many countries including; United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada and more. The song gained positive reviews from critics. Minaj will voice a character in the 3D animated film, ''Ice Age: Continental Drift'', as an unknown character. Minaj is also featured on French DJ David Guetta's 2011 album, ''Nothing but the Beat'' on "Where Them Girls At" and "Turn Me On". She was featured on Madonna's twelfth studio album, titled ''MDNA'', alongside M.I.A. on its lead single "Give Me All Your Luvin'", for which a music video has been directed by Megaforce. The trio performed the song for the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show. She was also featured on a song called "I Don't Give A", another track from the album.

2011-present: Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded

Minaj's second studio album, ''Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded'', was announced through Twitter in November 2011 and it was released on April 3, 2012. It spawned promotional singles such as "Roman in Moscow" and "Stupid Hoe", the first of which did not make the final cut of the album. "Roman Reloaded" and "Beez in the Trap" were the two urban singles. The album's first single, "Starships", was released on February 14. The album also had another single, Right by My Side. On February 12, 2012, Minaj debuted her song "Roman Holiday" at the 54th Grammy Awards. The exorcism-themed perfomance drew a mixed response online.

Musical style and image

Image

In an interview with ''Vibe'' Minaj discussed her sexual image stating, "[w]hen I grew up I saw females doing certain things, and I thought I had to do that exactly. The female rappers of my day spoke about sex a lot... and I thought that to have the success they got, I would have to represent the same thing. When in fact I didn’t have to represent the same thing." In an interview with ''Interview'', Minaj commented on her sexual image again stating, "I made a conscious decision to try to tone down the sexiness, I want people—especially young girls—to know that in life, nothing is going to be based on sex appeal. You’ve got to have something else to go with that.” Minaj has a tattoo in Chinese characters that reads "" (''shangdi yu ni chang zai'') on her left arm, meaning, "God is always with you."

Alter egos

While growing up, Minaj's home life was often chaotic, with her parents constantly fighting. As a means of escape, she would create characters and live her life through them. In an interview with ''New York'' she stated, "To get away from all their fighting, I would imagine being a new person. 'Cookie' was my first identity – that stayed with me for a while. I went on to 'Harajuku Barbie,' then 'Nicki Minaj'. Fantasy was my reality."

On November 18, 2010, Minaj assumed a different alter-ego named "Nicki Teresa". Wearing a colorful scarf around her head, she went around as the "healer to her fans" as she visited them at The Garden of Dreams Foundation at Fuse studios in New York City. Minaj made an appearance on ''Lopez Tonight'' on December 6, 2010 and presented a different alter-ego for the Spanish-inspired occasion, named "Rosa" (pronounced Rrrrrosa).

Roman Zolanski

For her debut album, Minaj created another alter-ego named "Roman Zolanski". She stated that in songs like "Bottoms Up" with Trey Songz it is not Minaj rapping, but instead Roman Zolanski, and claims that Roman is her "twin brother". She claims that he was born inside her, out of rage, and becomes him when she is angry. She has also said 'He is a demon inside her'. Roman has been compared to Eminem's alter ego Slim Shady, and on the song "Roman's Revenge" from ''Pink Friday'', Minaj and Eminem collaborate, using these alter egos. On the collaboration, she said "The new album is going to have a lot of Roman on it ... And if you're not familiar with Roman, then you will be familiar with him very soon. He’s the boy that lives inside of me. He's a lunatic and he's gay and he'll be on there a lot." Roman also has a "mother" called "Martha Zolanski", who also appeared on the song Roman's Revenge, with a British accent. Martha appears in the video for "Moment 4 Life" where she appears to be Minaj's magical Godmother. In songs such as "All I Do Is Win (Remix)" it is Minaj rapping. Minaj stated that on her debut album, fans will get to "meet" Nicki, Roman and Onika.

Influences

Minaj has stated that artists who have influenced her musical style include Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Lil Wayne, Lauryn Hill, Jadakiss, Natasha Bedingfield, Foxy Brown, Lil' Kim and Missy Elliott. She was also inspired by Janet Jackson, Madonna, Britney Spears, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Jones, M.I.A. and Cyndi Lauper.

Personal life

While some songs and interviews have implied that Minaj is bisexual, she has said that she does not date nor have sex with women, but added in an interview with ''Out'' magazine, "I don’t date men either." In an interview with ''Vibe'' she commented, "I just embrace all people of all lifestyles and I don’t tell them they are bad people. And I say girls are beautiful and girls are sexy and they need to be told that, and if they don’t have anyone to tell them that and mean it, I’m gonna tell them that. But I feel like people always wanna define me and I don’t wanna be defined." She reiterated her dislike of being labeled in an interview with ''Out'', saying: "The point is, everyone is not black and white. There are so many shades in the middle, and you’ve got to let people feel comfortable with saying what they want to say when they want to say it."

During an interview in the May 2010 issue of ''Details'', Minaj was asked if she felt hip-hop was becoming more gay-friendly. She responded, "I think the world is getting more gay-friendly, so hip-hop is too. But it's harder to imagine an openly gay male rapper being embraced, people view gay men as having no street credibility. But I think we'll see one in my lifetime."

In July 2011, Minaj's cousin Nicholas Telemaque was murdered near his home in Brooklyn, New York City.

Discography

''Pink Friday'' (2010)

''Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded'' (2012)

See also

List of awards and nominations received by Nicki Minaj

Notes

References

External links

Category:Nicki Minaj Category:1982 births Category:Living people Category:African American female singers Category:African American rappers Category:American musicians of Indian descent Category:American people of Trinidad and Tobago descent Category:Female rappers Category:Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School alumni Category:Hip hop singers Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Queens Category:People from Port of Spain Category:Rappers from New York City Category:Singers from New York City Category:Trinidad and Tobago emigrants to the United States Category:Trinidad and Tobago musicians Category:Trinidad and Tobago people of Dougla descent Category:Young Money Entertainment artists

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