Talk:Clitic doubling

The second example depends on word order, one can say also: Siempre ofrezco café a mis invitados, with no doubling. This is similar to the occurrence of double negation, Nadie lo sabe vs No lo sabe nadie.

In the third example, No des comida a los animales is perfectly grammatical.

So the assertion 'Indirect object clitic doubling is compulsory in Spanish when it refers to a person or another animate entity' is false. Also, the last two examples are clearly the less preferred forms. 62.203.45.76 17:57, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

As a native speaker, I whole-heartedly agree with that: As you say, with indirect object the doubling is not compulsory; and with direct objects the doubling sounds very convoluted (to me, I'd even say it sounds nigh on ungrammatical; at least I can't remember having ever heard, let alone said, something like the examples given). 213.37.6.65 15:10, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

The second example can be viewed as Left Clitic Dislocation, which is different from clitic doubling. I guess that's why it depends on word order. We should use examples that do not involve topicalizations.