Supervisors: Ruprecht von Waldenfels and Uwe Junghanns Address: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Institut für Slawistik und Hungarologie Unter den Linden 6 10117 Berlin Germany
Clitic climbing, i.e. the realization of one or more clitics in a syntactic constituent hierarchi... more Clitic climbing, i.e. the realization of one or more clitics in a syntactic constituent hierarchically higher than the clitics' licensing predicate, has been accounted for in terms of a restructuring approach. The embedded infinitive the clitics are extracted from has been assumed to be structurally deficient-that is, a bare VP. Due to the lack of projections above the lexical V-head, clitics escape the infinitival domain to get their morphosyntactic features licensed in the matrix clause. However, the predictions of the restructuring approach do not withstand a corpus linguistic examination and are falsified by empirical data of Czech and Polish. Clitic climbing cannot be adequately accounted for by syntax proper and alternative accounts have to be taken into consideration seriously. It will be proposed to exploit information structure as a feasible explanatory account of clitic climbing.
Linguistische Beiträge zur Slavistik. XXVIII. JungslavistInnen-Treffen in Hamburg, 18.–20. September 2019, 2021
The humble goal of the paper is the evaluation of popular music (i.e. lyrics) as a data source fo... more The humble goal of the paper is the evaluation of popular music (i.e. lyrics) as a data source for linguistic research. A heavy metal album sung in the West Slavic variety of Silesian provides the basis for a small corpus that is enquired in terms of graphemics, lexis, phonology, morphology, and syntax. The lect under examination exhibits linguistic features prototypical for Silesian. It is concluded that popular music provides a useful type of data for linguistic research.
Linguistische Beiträge zur Slavistik. XXVI. und XXVII. JungslavistInnen-Treffen, 6. bis 8. September 2017 in Bamberg und 12. bis 14. September 2018 in Heidelberg, 2020
Historical linguistics aims at describing and explaining diachronic developments. Well-establishe... more Historical linguistics aims at describing and explaining diachronic developments. Well-established approaches to historical linguistics, such as the neo-grammarian paradigm, structuralism, generative grammar, and economy in language, account for language change in very different terms. When seeking for explanations of sound change, however, it turns out that the aforementioned approaches struggle with plausibility or causality. The present paper argues in favour of Ohala’s (1981) model of sound change, which is phonetically grounded and focuses on the listener as the main locus of change. The approach will be exemplified by a treatment of the Old Polish nasal vowel merger and the palatalization of velars in Slavic.
Linguistische Beiträge zur Slavistik. XXVI. und XXVII. JungslavistInnen-Treffen, 6. bis 8. September 2017 in Bamberg und 12. bis 14. September 2018 in Heidelberg, 2020
The paper gives a systematic overview of basic clitic climbing data of Czech, Slovenian, and Poli... more The paper gives a systematic overview of basic clitic climbing data of Czech, Slovenian, and Polish by examining the following structures: clitic climbing out of infinitival complements and adjuncts; climbing out of embedded clauses under raising, control, and exceptional case marking verbs; embedded clauses under future auxiliaries, modals, aspectual verbs, verbs of movement, and verbs of perception. In all three languages, clitic climbing works in the exact same manner. This casts the typologically exceptional position of Polish within Slavic into doubt. A brief comparison of Minimalist and HPSG analyses of clitic climbing reveals that no account is superior to the other. Different range of success in describing clitic climbing might be counterbalanced by the utilization of further theoretical equipment. However, none of the discussed approaches provides an answer to the question, what the essential factors are that actuate the local or non-local realization of a clitic. Hence, an explanatory analysis of clitic climbing remains a desideratum to date. The Slavic clitic systems still need principled study to shed light on how they function.
Linguistische Beiträge zur Slavistik. XXV. JungslavstInnen-Treffen in Göttingen 13.-16. September 2016, 2019
The paper examines the common opinion that Polish clitics are typologically peculiar within Slavi... more The paper examines the common opinion that Polish clitics are typologically peculiar within Slavic. A survey of data taken from both the Polish national corpus (NKJP) and the literature on Slavic clitics shows that this typological classification is not well-grounded. The data taken into consideration include clitic distribution, clustering, and ordering, coordinating conjunctions as hosts, reflexive haplology, and non-argument datives. It will be argued that Polish exhibits typically Slavic properties.
16th Annual Meeting of the Slavic Linguistics Society (SLS-16), 2021
It has been repeatedly proposed within the framework of Generative Grammar to account for clitic ... more It has been repeatedly proposed within the framework of Generative Grammar to account for clitic climbing (CC) in terms of a restructuring approach. That is, pronominal and reflexive clitics subcategorized for by an embedded infinitive move up to the matrix verb’s phrase, as the infinitive is a structurally deficient bare VP lacking the υP, TP shells responsible for case and φ-feature licencing. On the other hand, it has been suggested to account for clitic in situ positioning by assuming a true bi-clausal structures with the embedded infinitive being not deficient, but possessing the relevant functional heads. Recently, such an approach was put forward by Aljović (2004) for Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian and Rezac (2005) for Czech. Reconsidering the issue for Czech on the basis of empirical data from the Czech National Corpus (CNC), it will be shown that CC occurs in contexts, which are expected to exhibit clitic in-situ positioning and, hence, are unpredictable in the restructuring approach. The relevant contructions are passivized matrix verbs, binding phenomena and ambiguities calling for an embedded PRO, independent temporal reference of the infinitive, and split-clitic constructions. Furthermore, neither is dative > accusative inviolable, nor must Czech clitics obey the PCC, as has been proposed by syntactic approach to cliticzation. If syntactic notions do not account for CC, then we seem to be forced to refrain from syntax proper and look for explanatory accounts in other domains. One such alternative might be information structure.
Conference on Formal Description of Slavic Languages 14 (FDSL-14), 2021
Originally proposed for Romance languages, mono-clausal analyses have been adopted to account for... more Originally proposed for Romance languages, mono-clausal analyses have been adopted to account for clitic climbing in Slavic, namely the restructuring approach of defective infinitival complementation. According to a strictly dichotomic approach as proposed by Rezac (2005) for Czech and Aljović (2004) for BCS, clitic climbing does not appear in bi-clausal environments, but from restructuring infinitives, which as bare VPs lack functional structure (νP, TP). As a consequence, restructuring infinitives neither are capable of licencing case and φ-features nor do they contain subjects (PRO). Under restructuring, clitics unavoidably move to a higher phrase for feature licencing due to the infinitive’s defectiveness. Correspondingly, the lack of restructuring forces the clitics to remain in situ, since they check their features within the domain of the embedded infinitive. Thus, clitic in situ positioning and clitic climbing are two mutually exclusive syntactic configurations.
Using corpus data, it will be shown that predictions by the strictly dichotomic restructuring analysis are not borne out with regard to Czech and Polish. Clitics may climb from embedded infinitives, which show bi-clausal, i.e. non-restructuring properties: the infinitives are case-licensers, allow ambiguous pronominal binding, possess independent temporal reference, permit split-clitic constructions, or are adjuncts. If bi-clausality does not prevent clitics from climbing, then restructuring does not contribute to an understanding of clitic climbing and both phenomena should be regarded as independent from one another, at least in the languages explored here. If syntax proper cannot account for clitic climbing, it appears worthwhile to follow suggestions that draw attention to the role of information structure for clitic climbing and its ban across CP.
The talk briefly reviews instances of so-called "że"-support of auxiliary clitics (alternatively ... more The talk briefly reviews instances of so-called "że"-support of auxiliary clitics (alternatively known as mobile inflection) in Polish and compares it with a superficially similar phenomenon in Czech that has been mostly neglected in research on (West) Slavic cliticization yet.
The presentation gives a concise overview of some prominent linguistic features of the Polish var... more The presentation gives a concise overview of some prominent linguistic features of the Polish variety spoken in Silesia. Various linguistic levels of description are briefly touched upon: lexis (archaisms, common south Polish lexis, Bohemisms, Germanisms), phonology (raising of previously long vowels, labio-velar approximant epenthesis, denazalization of nasal vowels, retention of "i" after "rz"), morphology (old aorist ending "-ch" in 1sg past tense, nom/acc syncretism in the feminine declension, paradigm leveling), and syntax ("że"-support of mobile inflection, generalization of the preposition "do" under loss of "dla", accusative with infinitive, clause-final verbal placement, complementary occurrence of personal pronouns and verbal inflection).
The talk raises the question of whether popular music is a sufficient type of data source for res... more The talk raises the question of whether popular music is a sufficient type of data source for research into grammar. Utilizing song lyrics written in the linguistic variety of Upper Silesia, it will be shown that apart from lexical peculiarities the levels of phonology, morphology, and syntax can be studied in a principled way.
First, some major theoretical approaches to historical linguistics (of Slavic) are reviewed, i.e.... more First, some major theoretical approaches to historical linguistics (of Slavic) are reviewed, i.e. Structuralism, Generative Grammar, or economic reasoning. It will be shown that these face some serious problems in providing genuine explanations in the sense of the actuation problem formulated by Weinreich et al. (1968). Using the model of sound change by the listener as proposed by Ohala, the Old Polish nasal vowel merger will be explained on the grounds of acoustic phonetics.
Taking a look at basic Clitic Climbing (CC) data of Czech, Slovene, and Polish shows that CC work... more Taking a look at basic Clitic Climbing (CC) data of Czech, Slovene, and Polish shows that CC works in the same manner in all three languages. Therefore, CC may be analyzed identically for these languages - at least regarding the data considered here. Analyzes of clitic phenomena were done within both the Minimalist Progam (MP) and Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). Although a comparison of these frameworks reveals different degrees of succes in describing CC in Slavic, it turns out that none is superior to the other. Furthermore, all proposals reviewed are unable to provide an explanatorily adequate analysis of CC. Both MP and HPSG accounts fail in shedding light on why CC actually occurs, which the utilization of discourse structure might be needed for.
The talk is meant to give a systematic overview of basic clitic climbing data of Czech, Slovenian... more The talk is meant to give a systematic overview of basic clitic climbing data of Czech, Slovenian, and Polish. It turns out that clitic climbing works in the exact same manner in all three languages, at least regarding the data considered. This casts the typologically exceptional position of Polish within Slavic into further doubt. From this it follows that more principled research is needed, in order to shed light on the microtypology of the Slavic clitic systems.
The talk is concerned with the common opinion that Polish is typologically peculiar within Slavic... more The talk is concerned with the common opinion that Polish is typologically peculiar within Slavic with regard to its clitic system. An examination of data taken from both the Polish national corpus (NKJP) and the literature on Slavic clitics will show that this typological classification is not well-grounded. It will be argued that Polish exhibits typically Slavic properties.
To date the analysis of clitics poses a great many of problems for linguistic theory. This is due... more To date the analysis of clitics poses a great many of problems for linguistic theory. This is due to the various restrictions clitics are subject to on all levels of grammar. Accordingly syntax and phonology (and morphology) compete for being the adequate domain of analysis. Franks (1998/2010) and Franks and King (2000) proposed a syncretic approach to cliticization with a division of labour by Minimalist syntax and Optimality-Theoretic phonology. However, their suggestion has remained a draft. The aim of the talk is to review their proposal as well as to briefly compare the frameworks of Minimalism and Optimality Theory.
The comparison of Polish "księga" with its Czech and Russian cognates "kniha" and "книга" respect... more The comparison of Polish "księga" with its Czech and Russian cognates "kniha" and "книга" respectively - all meaning 'book' - reveals an unusual phonological correspondence: The Czech and Russian palatal nasal stop [ɲ] corresponds to the Polish voiceless alveo-palatal fricative [ɕ]. In my talk, I will focus on this matter of affairs and discuss, how [ɲ] and [ɕ] might be linked diachronically.
In recent years, the importance of phonetic grounding increased within phonological theory. For o... more In recent years, the importance of phonetic grounding increased within phonological theory. For one thing, phonetically grounded theories of sound change have a stronger explanatory capacity than mere grammar-theoretically-driven approaches. They are also doing away with teleology. I will focus on Ohala's model of sound change by perception errors. In particular, it will be shown that his approach accounts very well for the Old Polish nasal vowel merger ę > ą.
Clitic climbing, i.e. the realization of one or more clitics in a syntactic constituent hierarchi... more Clitic climbing, i.e. the realization of one or more clitics in a syntactic constituent hierarchically higher than the clitics' licensing predicate, has been accounted for in terms of a restructuring approach. The embedded infinitive the clitics are extracted from has been assumed to be structurally deficient-that is, a bare VP. Due to the lack of projections above the lexical V-head, clitics escape the infinitival domain to get their morphosyntactic features licensed in the matrix clause. However, the predictions of the restructuring approach do not withstand a corpus linguistic examination and are falsified by empirical data of Czech and Polish. Clitic climbing cannot be adequately accounted for by syntax proper and alternative accounts have to be taken into consideration seriously. It will be proposed to exploit information structure as a feasible explanatory account of clitic climbing.
Linguistische Beiträge zur Slavistik. XXVIII. JungslavistInnen-Treffen in Hamburg, 18.–20. September 2019, 2021
The humble goal of the paper is the evaluation of popular music (i.e. lyrics) as a data source fo... more The humble goal of the paper is the evaluation of popular music (i.e. lyrics) as a data source for linguistic research. A heavy metal album sung in the West Slavic variety of Silesian provides the basis for a small corpus that is enquired in terms of graphemics, lexis, phonology, morphology, and syntax. The lect under examination exhibits linguistic features prototypical for Silesian. It is concluded that popular music provides a useful type of data for linguistic research.
Linguistische Beiträge zur Slavistik. XXVI. und XXVII. JungslavistInnen-Treffen, 6. bis 8. September 2017 in Bamberg und 12. bis 14. September 2018 in Heidelberg, 2020
Historical linguistics aims at describing and explaining diachronic developments. Well-establishe... more Historical linguistics aims at describing and explaining diachronic developments. Well-established approaches to historical linguistics, such as the neo-grammarian paradigm, structuralism, generative grammar, and economy in language, account for language change in very different terms. When seeking for explanations of sound change, however, it turns out that the aforementioned approaches struggle with plausibility or causality. The present paper argues in favour of Ohala’s (1981) model of sound change, which is phonetically grounded and focuses on the listener as the main locus of change. The approach will be exemplified by a treatment of the Old Polish nasal vowel merger and the palatalization of velars in Slavic.
Linguistische Beiträge zur Slavistik. XXVI. und XXVII. JungslavistInnen-Treffen, 6. bis 8. September 2017 in Bamberg und 12. bis 14. September 2018 in Heidelberg, 2020
The paper gives a systematic overview of basic clitic climbing data of Czech, Slovenian, and Poli... more The paper gives a systematic overview of basic clitic climbing data of Czech, Slovenian, and Polish by examining the following structures: clitic climbing out of infinitival complements and adjuncts; climbing out of embedded clauses under raising, control, and exceptional case marking verbs; embedded clauses under future auxiliaries, modals, aspectual verbs, verbs of movement, and verbs of perception. In all three languages, clitic climbing works in the exact same manner. This casts the typologically exceptional position of Polish within Slavic into doubt. A brief comparison of Minimalist and HPSG analyses of clitic climbing reveals that no account is superior to the other. Different range of success in describing clitic climbing might be counterbalanced by the utilization of further theoretical equipment. However, none of the discussed approaches provides an answer to the question, what the essential factors are that actuate the local or non-local realization of a clitic. Hence, an explanatory analysis of clitic climbing remains a desideratum to date. The Slavic clitic systems still need principled study to shed light on how they function.
Linguistische Beiträge zur Slavistik. XXV. JungslavstInnen-Treffen in Göttingen 13.-16. September 2016, 2019
The paper examines the common opinion that Polish clitics are typologically peculiar within Slavi... more The paper examines the common opinion that Polish clitics are typologically peculiar within Slavic. A survey of data taken from both the Polish national corpus (NKJP) and the literature on Slavic clitics shows that this typological classification is not well-grounded. The data taken into consideration include clitic distribution, clustering, and ordering, coordinating conjunctions as hosts, reflexive haplology, and non-argument datives. It will be argued that Polish exhibits typically Slavic properties.
16th Annual Meeting of the Slavic Linguistics Society (SLS-16), 2021
It has been repeatedly proposed within the framework of Generative Grammar to account for clitic ... more It has been repeatedly proposed within the framework of Generative Grammar to account for clitic climbing (CC) in terms of a restructuring approach. That is, pronominal and reflexive clitics subcategorized for by an embedded infinitive move up to the matrix verb’s phrase, as the infinitive is a structurally deficient bare VP lacking the υP, TP shells responsible for case and φ-feature licencing. On the other hand, it has been suggested to account for clitic in situ positioning by assuming a true bi-clausal structures with the embedded infinitive being not deficient, but possessing the relevant functional heads. Recently, such an approach was put forward by Aljović (2004) for Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian and Rezac (2005) for Czech. Reconsidering the issue for Czech on the basis of empirical data from the Czech National Corpus (CNC), it will be shown that CC occurs in contexts, which are expected to exhibit clitic in-situ positioning and, hence, are unpredictable in the restructuring approach. The relevant contructions are passivized matrix verbs, binding phenomena and ambiguities calling for an embedded PRO, independent temporal reference of the infinitive, and split-clitic constructions. Furthermore, neither is dative > accusative inviolable, nor must Czech clitics obey the PCC, as has been proposed by syntactic approach to cliticzation. If syntactic notions do not account for CC, then we seem to be forced to refrain from syntax proper and look for explanatory accounts in other domains. One such alternative might be information structure.
Conference on Formal Description of Slavic Languages 14 (FDSL-14), 2021
Originally proposed for Romance languages, mono-clausal analyses have been adopted to account for... more Originally proposed for Romance languages, mono-clausal analyses have been adopted to account for clitic climbing in Slavic, namely the restructuring approach of defective infinitival complementation. According to a strictly dichotomic approach as proposed by Rezac (2005) for Czech and Aljović (2004) for BCS, clitic climbing does not appear in bi-clausal environments, but from restructuring infinitives, which as bare VPs lack functional structure (νP, TP). As a consequence, restructuring infinitives neither are capable of licencing case and φ-features nor do they contain subjects (PRO). Under restructuring, clitics unavoidably move to a higher phrase for feature licencing due to the infinitive’s defectiveness. Correspondingly, the lack of restructuring forces the clitics to remain in situ, since they check their features within the domain of the embedded infinitive. Thus, clitic in situ positioning and clitic climbing are two mutually exclusive syntactic configurations.
Using corpus data, it will be shown that predictions by the strictly dichotomic restructuring analysis are not borne out with regard to Czech and Polish. Clitics may climb from embedded infinitives, which show bi-clausal, i.e. non-restructuring properties: the infinitives are case-licensers, allow ambiguous pronominal binding, possess independent temporal reference, permit split-clitic constructions, or are adjuncts. If bi-clausality does not prevent clitics from climbing, then restructuring does not contribute to an understanding of clitic climbing and both phenomena should be regarded as independent from one another, at least in the languages explored here. If syntax proper cannot account for clitic climbing, it appears worthwhile to follow suggestions that draw attention to the role of information structure for clitic climbing and its ban across CP.
The talk briefly reviews instances of so-called "że"-support of auxiliary clitics (alternatively ... more The talk briefly reviews instances of so-called "że"-support of auxiliary clitics (alternatively known as mobile inflection) in Polish and compares it with a superficially similar phenomenon in Czech that has been mostly neglected in research on (West) Slavic cliticization yet.
The presentation gives a concise overview of some prominent linguistic features of the Polish var... more The presentation gives a concise overview of some prominent linguistic features of the Polish variety spoken in Silesia. Various linguistic levels of description are briefly touched upon: lexis (archaisms, common south Polish lexis, Bohemisms, Germanisms), phonology (raising of previously long vowels, labio-velar approximant epenthesis, denazalization of nasal vowels, retention of "i" after "rz"), morphology (old aorist ending "-ch" in 1sg past tense, nom/acc syncretism in the feminine declension, paradigm leveling), and syntax ("że"-support of mobile inflection, generalization of the preposition "do" under loss of "dla", accusative with infinitive, clause-final verbal placement, complementary occurrence of personal pronouns and verbal inflection).
The talk raises the question of whether popular music is a sufficient type of data source for res... more The talk raises the question of whether popular music is a sufficient type of data source for research into grammar. Utilizing song lyrics written in the linguistic variety of Upper Silesia, it will be shown that apart from lexical peculiarities the levels of phonology, morphology, and syntax can be studied in a principled way.
First, some major theoretical approaches to historical linguistics (of Slavic) are reviewed, i.e.... more First, some major theoretical approaches to historical linguistics (of Slavic) are reviewed, i.e. Structuralism, Generative Grammar, or economic reasoning. It will be shown that these face some serious problems in providing genuine explanations in the sense of the actuation problem formulated by Weinreich et al. (1968). Using the model of sound change by the listener as proposed by Ohala, the Old Polish nasal vowel merger will be explained on the grounds of acoustic phonetics.
Taking a look at basic Clitic Climbing (CC) data of Czech, Slovene, and Polish shows that CC work... more Taking a look at basic Clitic Climbing (CC) data of Czech, Slovene, and Polish shows that CC works in the same manner in all three languages. Therefore, CC may be analyzed identically for these languages - at least regarding the data considered here. Analyzes of clitic phenomena were done within both the Minimalist Progam (MP) and Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). Although a comparison of these frameworks reveals different degrees of succes in describing CC in Slavic, it turns out that none is superior to the other. Furthermore, all proposals reviewed are unable to provide an explanatorily adequate analysis of CC. Both MP and HPSG accounts fail in shedding light on why CC actually occurs, which the utilization of discourse structure might be needed for.
The talk is meant to give a systematic overview of basic clitic climbing data of Czech, Slovenian... more The talk is meant to give a systematic overview of basic clitic climbing data of Czech, Slovenian, and Polish. It turns out that clitic climbing works in the exact same manner in all three languages, at least regarding the data considered. This casts the typologically exceptional position of Polish within Slavic into further doubt. From this it follows that more principled research is needed, in order to shed light on the microtypology of the Slavic clitic systems.
The talk is concerned with the common opinion that Polish is typologically peculiar within Slavic... more The talk is concerned with the common opinion that Polish is typologically peculiar within Slavic with regard to its clitic system. An examination of data taken from both the Polish national corpus (NKJP) and the literature on Slavic clitics will show that this typological classification is not well-grounded. It will be argued that Polish exhibits typically Slavic properties.
To date the analysis of clitics poses a great many of problems for linguistic theory. This is due... more To date the analysis of clitics poses a great many of problems for linguistic theory. This is due to the various restrictions clitics are subject to on all levels of grammar. Accordingly syntax and phonology (and morphology) compete for being the adequate domain of analysis. Franks (1998/2010) and Franks and King (2000) proposed a syncretic approach to cliticization with a division of labour by Minimalist syntax and Optimality-Theoretic phonology. However, their suggestion has remained a draft. The aim of the talk is to review their proposal as well as to briefly compare the frameworks of Minimalism and Optimality Theory.
The comparison of Polish "księga" with its Czech and Russian cognates "kniha" and "книга" respect... more The comparison of Polish "księga" with its Czech and Russian cognates "kniha" and "книга" respectively - all meaning 'book' - reveals an unusual phonological correspondence: The Czech and Russian palatal nasal stop [ɲ] corresponds to the Polish voiceless alveo-palatal fricative [ɕ]. In my talk, I will focus on this matter of affairs and discuss, how [ɲ] and [ɕ] might be linked diachronically.
In recent years, the importance of phonetic grounding increased within phonological theory. For o... more In recent years, the importance of phonetic grounding increased within phonological theory. For one thing, phonetically grounded theories of sound change have a stronger explanatory capacity than mere grammar-theoretically-driven approaches. They are also doing away with teleology. I will focus on Ohala's model of sound change by perception errors. In particular, it will be shown that his approach accounts very well for the Old Polish nasal vowel merger ę > ą.
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Papers by Irenäus Kulik
Talks by Irenäus Kulik
Using corpus data, it will be shown that predictions by the strictly dichotomic restructuring analysis are not borne out with regard to Czech and Polish. Clitics may climb from embedded infinitives, which show bi-clausal, i.e. non-restructuring properties: the infinitives are case-licensers, allow ambiguous pronominal binding, possess independent temporal reference, permit split-clitic constructions, or are adjuncts. If bi-clausality does not prevent clitics from climbing, then restructuring does not contribute to an understanding of clitic climbing and both phenomena should be regarded as independent from one another, at least in the languages explored here. If syntax proper cannot account for clitic climbing, it appears worthwhile to follow suggestions that draw attention to the role of information structure for clitic climbing and its ban across CP.
Miscellaneous by Irenäus Kulik
Using corpus data, it will be shown that predictions by the strictly dichotomic restructuring analysis are not borne out with regard to Czech and Polish. Clitics may climb from embedded infinitives, which show bi-clausal, i.e. non-restructuring properties: the infinitives are case-licensers, allow ambiguous pronominal binding, possess independent temporal reference, permit split-clitic constructions, or are adjuncts. If bi-clausality does not prevent clitics from climbing, then restructuring does not contribute to an understanding of clitic climbing and both phenomena should be regarded as independent from one another, at least in the languages explored here. If syntax proper cannot account for clitic climbing, it appears worthwhile to follow suggestions that draw attention to the role of information structure for clitic climbing and its ban across CP.