Mood swings : imperative verbs attract pronominal enclitics in Ngumpin-Yapa (Australian) and Southern European languages

The paper focuses on some similarities in variation within Ngumpin-Yapa (Ng-Y, a subgroup of the Pama-Nyungan family of Aboriginal languages in Australia) on the one hand; and, on the other, within Indo-European subgroups whose history is better attested (Romance, Greek and South Slavic). In Romance, Greek, South Slavic and Ngumpin-Yapa pronominal clitics are widely found, but their placement varies between different languages and dialects. Here I am mainly concerned with the behaviour of imperative and other non-indicative clauses. As well as exploring the history of clitic placement in these clause types comparatively, I also look at how the Ng-Y subgroup contributes towards debate about which theoretical approaches are best suited to explaining the observed variation and the patterns of historical change in the syntax.