Is "-wise" a clitic?

[2+3 clusivity]

Quick English question regarding clitics.

I understand that the following is a clitic: "The Queen of England's man."

Is the the following also a clitic? "Do we have sufficient supplies, food and drink-wise?"

I've never taken formal syntax so I am fairly unclear on terminology.

[linguoboy]

On balance I would say not. Here's Zwicky and Pullum's classic criteria as summarised by Luís and Spencer (2012):

1. Clitics do not select their hosts. That is, they are "promiscuous", attaching to whichever word happens to be in the right place. Affixes do select their host: They only attach to the word they are connected to semantically, and generally attach to a particular part of speech.

2. Clitics do not exhibit arbitrary gaps. Affixes, on the other hand, are often lexicalized and may simply not occur with certain words. (English plural -s, for example, does not occur with "child".)

3. Clitics do not exhibit morphophonological idiosyncrasies. That is, they follow the morphophonological rules of the rest of the language. Affixes may be irregular in this regard.

4. Clitics do not exhibit semantic idiosyncrasies. That is, the meaning of the phrase-plus-clitic is predictable from the meanings of the phrase and the clitic. Affixes may have irregular meanings.

5. Clitics can attach to material already containing clitics (and affixes). Affixes can attach to other affixes, but not to material containing clitics.

-wise fails 1 (it only attaches to nouns), 2 (e.g. "time-wise" but not *"day-wise", at least IMD), and 5 (e.g. "jobs-wise" but not *"England's-wise"). I think that's sufficient to call it an affix and not a clitic.

Affixes may be linked by conjunctions to reduce repetition. Cf. "Pre- and post-processing". You wouldn't call pre- and post- "clitics" rather than prefixs, would you?

[ol bofosh]

It's traditionally a suffix. But I think "-wise" can behave like a clitic in informal speech. The same as "-ish".

I struggle to come up with any examples. I'll give it some thought.

[linguoboy]

It's traditionally a suffix. But I think "-wise" can behave like a clitic in informal speech. The same as "-ish".

I struggle to come up with any examples. I'll give it some thought.

Do you have any examples for -ish?

[zompist]

I never thought about -ish before, but I can see it. I think any of the following would be OK (with stress on the -ish):

Charles is King of English -ish.
That show is "Breaking Bad" -ish.
That's TMI-ish.
That's more than I wanted to know -ish.
He's stupid as a bag of hammers -ish.

[Imralu]

A: What's the time?
B: I think it's twelve o'clock. [looks at watch] Yeah, it is ... ish.

[clawgrip]

-wise fails 1 (it only attaches to nouns),

's is considered a clitic, but does it attach to anything other than nouns? If so, can you provide an example, because I can't think of any. Anyway I don't think #1 means that it has to attach to multiple parts of speech, only that it attaches to whatever is in the right spot, as it says. The right spot for 's is always after a noun (unless you have a counter-example), as it is for -wise.

2 (e.g. "time-wise" but not *"day-wise", at least IMD), and 5 (e.g. "jobs-wise" but not *"England's-wise").

Respectfully disagree with day-wise. Some Internet examples:

A good restaurant with soothing environment for Indian cultured food. The menu being decided day wise.

Person A: hey loser. youre not online and my phones upstairs soo0o0o did you buy a ticket for both nights of dave? because im tryin to just go down for the tailgate on the second night.

Person B: yeah i have both nights now...when i figure out when everybody is going day wise. im probalby gonna sell one...which is most likely going to be the second day. but ill go tailgate too

This date feature has recurring dates that allows setting due dates on tasks and shows an overview of what needs doing, day-wise.

Seems to me it can be added to any noun, and carries the meaning of "with regard to"

[Particles the Greek]

Clitic-wise, I'm unsure-ish. (drum roll)

[Soap]

-wise fails 1 (it only attaches to nouns),

's is considered a clitic, but does it attach to anything other than nouns? If so, can you provide an example, because I can't think of any. Anyway I don't think #1 means that it has to attach to multiple parts of speech, only that it attaches to whatever is in the right spot, as it says. The right spot for 's is always after a noun (unless you have a counter-example), as it is for -wise.

Maytbe it only attaches to noun phrases. think of:
The blind girl's backpack
The girl who's blind's backpack

Some people would probably say it's grammatically incorrect because "blind's" isn't a noun, but that's precisely the evidence you'd need to establish that -'s is now a clitic. Also, double-stacked 's is possible.

As for -wise, it would probably not be seen as good grammar, but you could do the same things with noun phrases here too. And maybe gerunds (which are still technically nouns, I know) "sleeping-wise this is bad place to be" etc.

[linguoboy]

A: What's the time?
B: I think it's twelve o'clock. [looks at watch] Yeah, it is ... ish.

This example is an argument for -ish being usable as an independent morpheme, though, not a clitic.

Mark's "That's more than I wanted to know -ish" is the strongest evidence yet for -ish as a clitic. I'm still not convinced -wise can be used as freely.

[Imralu]

A guy I used to work with's girlfriend ...
A former colleague of mine's girlfriend ...

And yeah, ish is basically a word.

[linguoboy]

A guy I used to work with's girlfriend ...
A former colleague of mine's girlfriend ...

Those are the kinds of phrases I have no trouble whatsoever coming up with for 's, but elude me when it comes to -wise and -ish. A "guy-I-used-to-work-with-ish vibe/feeling/impression/etc."? Okay. But ?"guy-I-used-to-work-with-wise"? Yeah, not so much.

[Vuvuzela]

Constructed example:
It's just not a good crowd, people-I-actually-like-wise.
Admittedly, not the way I'd probably phrase that, but it sounds perfectly grammatical.

[clawgrip]

Thanks for showing me some non-noun 's examples. I was just unable to come up with any for some reason.

[sirdanilot]

I never thought about -ish before, but I can see it. I think any of the following would be OK (with stress on the -ish):

Charles is King of English -ish.
That show is "Breaking Bad" -ish.
That's TMI-ish.
That's more than I wanted to know -ish.
He's stupid as a bag of hammers -ish.

Sounds abominable to me.

Sadly I know some people who use this -ish thing even in Dutch... De rijst is wel gaar...-ish (the rice is cooked... ish)

[Ienpw_III]

Sounds abominable to me.

It's pretty handy, actually, and it's shorter than saying "Somewhat [like] x, but not too much."