No orthography distinguishes clitic boundaries from word and morpheme boundaries. If L1 is represented in conventional orthography, then the simplest solution for a morphological gloss is not to distinguish them either. Then French je le sais ‘I know it’ will be glossed as SBJ.1.SG DO.3.SG.M know.SG, while Latin itaque ‘and so’ will be glossed by ‘so:and’.
If clisis is important or the L1 representation is non-orthographic, then the clitic boundary is shown by an equal sign both in the L1 text and in the morphological gloss, thus: ita=que ‘so=and’.
If two morphs are joined by the equal sign, usually one is the host and the other is the clitic. If it is important to signal this, an additional blank is admissible beside the host, as in .
| . | ita | =que |
| Latin | so | =and |
| and so | ||
The blank will also be conserved if L1 orthography treats the clitic as a separate word, as in .
| . | je= | le= | vois |
| French | 1.SG= | 3.SG.M= | see\SG |
| I see it | |||
This does no harm, as clitics are words by definition.
Rule 15.
- A clitic boundary is shown by an equals sign (=) both in T and in the gloss line.
- If L1 orthography in T treats the clitic as a separate word, showing the clisis is optional. If it is shown, the equals sign may be combined with a blank space beside the host.