Set-anchored anaphora in Rioplatense Spanish: Direct object clitic doubling

Abstract

This paper analyzes accusative clitic doubling in Rioplatense Spanish as an anaphoric device: the clitic presupposes a uniquely identifiable discourse set, and the doubled DP refers to or quantifies over it, rendering clitic doubling truth-conditionally superfluous. A DRT implementation models clitic doubling as a redundant update step and derives the attested distribution: licensing with regular definites (including kind- and collective-denoting nominals), exclusion with narrow-scope nominals, and clitic doubling of indefinites only under wide scope or proportional readings. Number and gender mismatches between the clitic and the doubled DP further indicate that clitics function as anaphoric devices on a grammaticalization path from pronouns toward agreement-like morphology.