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    Backwards conjunction reduction
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    Reduced subject clitics may take part in backwards conjunction reduction in cases in which their host is not reduced, whereas agreement suffixes may not.

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    Frisian pronouns may appear as clitics: the pronoun hy he has a clitic form er he, which exclusively occurs on the right-hand side of tensed verbs and complementisers. The 2SG suffixes -st and -sto may a priori likewise be analysed as clitic forms of the full pronoun do you. However, it turns out that several test results indicate that the 2SG suffixes do not behave on a par with subject clitics.

    Reduced subject clitics may take part in backwards conjunction reduction in cases in which their host is not reduced, as in the following example:

    1
    Kom.t en bliuw.t er hjir moarn?
    come.3SG and stay.3SG he.CL here tomorrow
    Does he come and stay here tomorrow?

    Agreement, on the other hand, may not take part in backwards conjunction reduction in cases in which the host is not reduced:

    2
    *Kom en bliuw.t er hjir moarn?
    come and stay.3SG he.CL here tomorrow
    Does he come and stay here tomorrow?

    The 2SG clitics -st and -sto behave like agreement in this respect:

    3
    *Kom en bliuw.sto hjir moarn?
    come and stay.you here tomorrow
    Do you come and stay here tomorrow?

    Interestingly, the sentence in (4) shows that it is possible to construct an example of backwards reduction:

    4
    Komst en bliuwsto hjir moarn?
    come.2SG and stay.2SG.you here tomorrow
    Do you come and stay here tomorrow?

    This seems to indicate that the suffix -st is an agreement suffix, whereas the suffix -sto is a complex suffix consisting of the agreement suffix -st and the clitic -o, a reduced form of do you. The clitic status of -o is confirmed by its ability to take part in backwards conjunction reduction, even though its host does not. For completeness' sake, it must be noted that the following is also grammatical:

    5
    Komsto en bliuwst hjir moarn?
    come.2SG.you and stay.2SG here tomorrow
    Do you come and stay here tomorrow?

    The clitic may, apparently, freely appear on non-reduced verbs, regardless of whether this is the first verb or the second verb of the coordination.

    If the host of the 2SG suffixes is the complementiser instead of the verb, the essential facts are the same. That is, reduction may apply to the third person clitic:

    6
    Hoe't en wannear't er hjir komt
    how and when he here comes
    How and when he comes here

    In contrast, it may not apply to the -st suffix, indicating that this is not a clitic:

    7
    *Hoe't en wannear't.st hjir komst
    how and when.2SG here come.2SG
    How and when you come here

    It may not apply to the -sto suffix:

    8
    *Hoe't en wannear't.st.o hjir komst
    how and when.2SG.you here come.2SG
    How and when you come here

    It may apply to the -o suffix, indicating that it is a clitic:

    9
    Hoe't.st en wannear't.st.o hjir komst
    how.2SG and when.2SG.you here come.2SG
    How and when you come here
    References
      About this article
      Author(s): Eric Hoekstra
      Category: Frisian Syntax
      Keywords: conjunction reduction
      Version: 1.0, December 2015
      Version history:
      version editor(s) date remarks
      1.0 Eric Hoekstra December 2015
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