This dissertation has three interrelated goals:
The main goal is an analysis of Czech clitics, units of grammar on the borderline between morphology and syntax with rather peculiar ordering properties both relative to the whole clause and to each other. We examine the actual set of clitics, their rather rigid ordering properties, and finally the properties of so-called clitic climbing. The analysis evaluates previous research, but it also provides new insights, especially in the position of the clitic cluster and in the constraints on clitic climbing. We show that many of the constraints regarding position of the clitic cluster suggested in previous research do not hold. We also argue that cases when clitics do not follow the first constituent are in fact not exceptions in clitic placement but instead unusual frontings.
The second goal is the development of a framework within Higher Order Grammar (HOG) supporting a transparent and modular treatment of word order. Unlike previous versions of HOG, we work with signs (containing phonological, syntactic and potentially other information) as actual objects of the grammar. Apart from that, we build on the simplicity and elegance of the pre-formal part of the linearization framework within Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar.
Finally, the third objective is to test the result of the second goal by applying it on the results of the first goal.