Encliticize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To attach a clitic to a host word, forming a dependent unit in grammar; to merge a small grammatical particle onto another word without changing its position; to linguistically combine a unstressed element with a neighboring word for syntactic cohesion
2. To join a relatively independent clitic element to a preceding or following word in speech or writing, thus creating a phonological bond; to affix a function word to a host such that it loses its independence; to integrate a minor grammatical word that relies on others for full meaning
3. To bind a clitic morpheme onto a main word so that it behaves as a single unit during sentence construction; to conjoin unstressed pronouns or particles to a verb or noun; to perform the process of grammatically linking auxiliary or functional words onto a nearby word for fluent expression

Etymology: "Encliticize" is a plain technical formation: it combines "enclitic," a term from grammar, with the verbal suffix "-ize." An enclitic is a word that has no stress of its own and leans backward onto the word before it, so that the two are pronounced as one unit. English examples are the contracted forms "'s" in "it's" and "'ll" in "we'll." To encliticize a word is to make it behave this way, turning a free-standing word into a dependent clitic attached to its neighbour. The suffix "-ize," which carries the sense "to make into" or "to treat in a certain way," is the same one found in words such as "modernize" and "standardize." Joined to "enclitic," it gives a verb used mainly in linguistics to describe a grammatical process in which a word loses its independence and attaches to a host.

Synonyms: attach, affix, combine, join, enclitize

Antonyms: detach, separate, remove, split