The Archive Vol. 6, No. 2 (2025)

Microvariation in the Clitic Doubling Parameter:
Comparative Evidence from the Sambalic Cross-Referent Pronouns

Abstract

This paper investigates the cross-referent pronoun (CRP) through a comparative study of its distribution in three Sambalic languages: Sambal (ISO 639-3 [xsb]), Botolan [sbl], and Bolinao [smk]. The CRP is a result of clitic doubling (CD), a phenomenon which has been extensively studied in the Romance and Balkan languages, but its manifestation in Philippine languages remains underexplored. The CRP is defined here as a pronominal-like element that co-refers with a nominal argument within the same clause. Data for this study were gathered through a sentence list elicited in real time with native speakers, followed by judgment tests. My analysis shows that the CRP is subject to distinct language-specific licensing conditions: in Sambal, the CRP is largely licensed for a semantic AGENT having competing arguments; in Bolinao, the CRP acts more like an agreement marker; and in Botolan, what was previously described as a CRP (see Antworth, 1979) is actually a resumptive pronoun. This demonstrates that even closely related languages may nevertheless differ substantially in realizing a common feature, as with a parametric approach. This also suggests that although the CRP can serve a pragmatic function in reference tracking, its variation among the three languages is driven solely by language-internal (i.e., structural) factors such as individual phonologies and morphologies. Ultimately, the findings deepen our understanding of the nature of language as they demonstrate how CRP distribution is shaped not by syntax alone but by the interaction of different components of grammar.

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