This book deals with some of the major theoretical and descriptive concerns of the historical linguist. The author presents a variationist analysis of weak object pronoun placement in Greek during a transitional period of the language when these elements exhibited both clitic-like and affix-like behaviour. The statistical analysis of the data, providing the first accurate description of the pattern of variation, is used in showing that existing accounts fall short of a full explanation. An alternative approach forces re-evaluation of the role of generalizations in linguistic explanation.
'...likely to remain the standard reference work on the subject for the foreseeable future...meticulously documented and researched...[its] scholarship [is] always displayed selectively and appropriately. The comparative sections are highly illuminating for those interested in clitics from a more general perspective. Undeniably a major scholarly contribution to its field.' - Professor Geoffrey Horrocks, St John's College, Cambridge