proclitics

Proclitics are clitics that attach to the word immediately following them, forming a single phonological word with the host. They are typically unstressed and cannot occur independently; their placement and form depend on the language’s phonology and syntax. Most often they are function words, such as pronouns, prepositions, determiners, or conjunctions.

In many languages proclitics precede their host word. A well-known example is French, where pronouns commonly appear as proclitics before the verb: Je me rappelle, Je m’en vais. By contrast, enclitics attach to the preceding word. The distinction between proclitics and enclitics helps describe how bound morphemes distribute across sentence structure.

Proclitics interact with prosody and word order. They must form a unit with the host for phonology, can influence the placement of the main stress, and may participate in clitic clustering or doubling in certain constructions. Some languages allow limited variation in the order of multiple proclitics, while others enforce a fixed sequence.

Typologically, proclitics are studied as a subtype of clitics that reveal how languages balance economy of form with syntactic clarity. Their behavior is often compared with enclitics to map cross-linguistic patterns and to account for phenomena such as clitic climbing, attachment to verbs, or attachment to other host words within a clause.