Noun: clitic
- A word that is treated in pronunciation as forming a part of a neighbouring word and that is often unaccented or contracted
"Most languages can adopt theme-rheme structure idiosyncratically — as for English, we often use as for theme constructions — but topic-prominent languages use systematic changes in syntax or even dedicated morpological elements such as the Japanese clitic particle ‘-wa’ to mark themes and to set them apart from rhemes"
Derived forms: clitics
Type of: morpheme
Encyclopedia: Clitic