Differential nominal marking in Circassian

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 715-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Arkadiev ◽  
Yakov G. Testelets
Keyword(s):  
Structural Model ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Case Alternation ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Syntactic Position ◽  
Object Marking

Abstract In this paper we describe a peculiar pattern of case alternation from the polysynthetic Circassian (West Caucasian) languages, where specificity-driven differential marking of noun phrases is attested in all syntactic positions and with the absolutive and the oblique cases alike. We call this phenomenon differential nominal marking (DNM). We show that the presenсe resp. absenсe of overt case marking in Circassian fits in the two-level (DP vs. NP) structural model for nominal constructions and is in some ways similar to the phenomenon of pseudo-incorporation described for various languages with differential object marking. For instance, unmarked nominals in Circassian show number-neutrality and scope inertness with respect to negation and quantifiers. However, DNM in Circassian crucially differs from all known instances of pseudo-incorporation or case alternation in that it is not restricted to any particular syntactic position. We argue that this feature of the Circassian DNM calls all the existing approaches (both functionalist and generative) to the phenomenon of differential case marking in question.

scholarly journals Case-Marking Strategies

2008 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 565-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen de Hoop ◽  
Andrej L. Malchukov
Keyword(s):  
Optimality Theory ◽  
Theory Analysis ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Bidirectional Optimality Theory ◽  
Object Marking

Two strategies of case marking in natural languages are discussed. These are defined as two violable constraints whose effects are shown to converge in the case of differential object marking but diverge in the case of differential subject marking. The discourse prominence of the case-bearing arguments is shown to be of utmost importance for case-marking and voice alternations. The analysis of the case-marking patterns that are found crosslinguistically is couched in a bidirectional Optimality Theory analysis.

scholarly journals The Differential Object Marking of The Arborense Dialect of Sardinian in Language Contact Setting

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-56
Author(s):  
Daniela Boeddu
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Extensive Area ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Personal Names ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Mandatory Use

This paper focuses on the Arborense Differential Object Marking (dom) system, which in line with the typical Sardinian dom system marks the object noun phrases characterized by a high degree of animacy and specificity with the preposition a. This is why the Sardinian dom is also called prepositional accusative. Authors dealing with other Sardinian dialects agree in identifying three domains of distribution of the phenomenon: with personal pronouns and personal names the use of the preposition is mandatory; with inanimate common nouns it is excluded; with common nouns referring animate beings, strong variability occurs. On the basis of an oral corpus of contemporary Arborense, it can be stated that the area of mandatory use of dom is restricted in this dialect and that the optionality area turns out to be more extensive than assumed in traditional descriptions of this Sardinian phenomenon. Since all the Arborense speakers of the oral corpus are bilingual (Sardinian-Italian), the data reflect the situation of dom in a contact setting scenario where Sardinian and both Standard and Regional Italian interact. According to Putzu (2005) and Blasco Ferrer and Ingrassia (2010), the extensive area of optionality for the use of the Sardinian dom should be the result of the influence of Standard Italian. However, two facts must be considered that make this idea questionable: first, in the language contact scenario of Modern Sardinian not only Standard Italian but also Regional Italian (with a widespread use of the dom) play a role; second, the synchronic variation observed in contemporary Arborense replicates the same variation which characterizes historical data from texts of the 12th–19th centuries.

Differential object marking in Standard Turkish and Caucasian Urum

2015 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Böhm
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Strong Dependence ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Object Marking

AbstractDifferential object marking (DOM) is a common feature of many languages, including Standard Turkish and Urum, a Turkish variety spoken by ethnic Greeks in Georgia. This article investigates the interaction between case marking and word order in both varieties of Turkish. While Standard Turkish shows a strong dependence of the case marking possibilities from word order, i.e. bare objects may only appear in immediately preverbal position of a clause, the analysis reveals that bare objects in Urum may occur in any position of a clause. This provides evidence that the verb in Urum can freely move within the VP.

Differential object marking and topicality

2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 832-884 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Escandell-Vidal
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Discourse Functions ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
Formal Properties

The aim of this paper is to examine Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Balearic Catalan. While definiteness and animacy can explain the distribution of DOM in other varieties of Catalan, in Balearic, the split between marked and non-marked objects is not dependent on inherent or referential properties of the object noun phrases, but determined by topicality. A preposition is consistently used to mark a subset of topical objects, namely those occurring in clitic left- and right-dislocation structures, which correspond to two kinds of hearer-known topics: shifting topics and continuing topics. The preposition does not occur, however, with hanging topics, which introduce discourse-new topical entities. In this way, a correlation can be found between formal properties and well-motivated discourse functions that explains the distribution of DOM in Balearic. Similar patterns can be found in other Romance varieties as well, thus suggesting that topicality is relevant to account for both intra- and interlinguistic variation in DOM.

scholarly journals Person, Case, and Agreement

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
András Bárány
Keyword(s):  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Person Features ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
Ditransitive Constructions ◽  
The Way

This monograph discusses the interaction of person features, case-marking, and agreement across languages, and models the variation using parameters and parameter hierarchies. In both inverse agreement and global case splits, the subject and the object determine the form of the verb or case-marking on its arguments together. After proposing a detailed, novel analysis of differential object marking in Hungarian, it is shown that similar agreement alternations and case splits in other languages can be analysed in a uniform way since they both rely on person. Languages differ in the way they grammaticalize person, however, explaining why in some languages definiteness determines agreement and case-marking, while in others animacy does. In this book, both types are analysed as interactions of hierarchically organized person features and the verb. The approach to person features adopted here captures effects of so-called person or animacy hierarchies in syntax by treating different persons as sets of features with different cardinalities, ordered by subset/superset relations. The author relates this analysis to the interaction of Case and agreement, implements existing generalizations about the alignment of case and agreement and discusses a new one: the analysis predicts exactly the attested types of case and agreement alignment in ditransitive constructions, and rules out an unattested one. The book presents data from eight different language families.

Ergativity and Differential Case Marking

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrej L. Malchukov
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
General Constraints ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
The One

The present chapter discusses patterns of differential case marking in ergative languages, focusing on differential subject marking, which is more prominent in ergative languages (in contrast to accusative languages, where differential object marking is more prominent). It is argued that patterns of (differential) case marking can be accounted two general constraints related to (role)-indexing, on the one hand, and distinguishability (or markedness) on the other hand. This approach correctly predicts asymmetries between differential object marking (DOM) and differential subject marking (DSM) with regard to animacy, definiteness, as well as discourse features. I also show how this approach can be extended to capture a relation between case and voice alternation, as well as briefly outline diachronic scenarios leading to different types of differential case marking in ergative and split intransitive languages.

Differential Object Marking and the nature of dative Case in Basque varieties*

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ane Odria
Keyword(s):  
Exceptional Case ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Functional Head ◽  
Indirect Object ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Dative Case ◽  
Verbal Agreement ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
Secondary Predication ◽  
Ditransitive Constructions

This article analyzes the nature of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Basque varieties. It demonstrates that, despite their identical dative morphology, DOM objects display a different syntax to goal indirect objects. Based on the licensing of depictive secondary predication and on the absolutive marking of non-human and indefinite objects, it argues that DOM objects are generated in a direct rather than indirect object configuration. Moreover, given the tight relation between case and agreement in ditransitive constructions and the possibility to check Case in Exceptional Case Marking (ECM) contexts, it proposes that dative Case in DOM is structurally checked in an Agree relation against a functional head of the verbal agreement complex. The article thus identifies a different dative argument which has not been previously characterized in this manner: one that does not originate within an applicative or postpositional phrase and checks Case structurally.

scholarly journals Asimetrías gramaticales asociadas a la animacidad en la lengua vasca: una perspectiva tipológica / Animacy-based grammatical asymmetries in Basque: a typological perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iván Igartua ◽  
Ekaitz Santazilia
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
The Other ◽  
Case Assignment ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
The One

This study provides a typological analysis of two phenomena related to case-marking in Basque. In both of them, animacy —or the distinction between what is animate and what is not— turns out to be determinant: we discuss case assignment to direct objects, on the one hand, and marking of locative cases, on the other hand. We have compared the two phenomena with diverse typological parallels in order to account for the variety of possible morphological strategies and identify particular conditions and restrictions. Furthermore, we have argued that differential object marking in Basque is a recent phenomenon, induced by language contact, whereas differential locative marking has an intralinguistic nature. Finally, we have defended that the role of animacy in both types of differential marking is different: in the first example it conditions case assignment and in the second it operates as a grammatical gender.

Case Marking in Istro-Romanian

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-187
Author(s):  
Ionuț Geană
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Indirect Object ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Case System ◽  
Object Marking

Case Marking in Istro-Romanian. This paper focuses on the key elements of case marking in Istro-Romanian (IR). Similar to Daco Romanian, IR has a four-case system (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative), added by the vocative (not to be dealt with specifically in this paper). As a member of the so called Balkan Sprachbund, IR nouns oppose nominative-accusative to genitive dative. Pronouns, on the other hand, show a full paradigm, with specific forms for each case (in line with all other Eastern Romance varieties). For the oblique, IR has both stressed/strong and non-stressed/clitic forms, however they have a different distribution than in standard and sub standard Daco-Romanian. Differential object marking is virtually unheard of (with minor cases in northern IR). Indirect object doubling is rare(r), with possibly different pragmatic values than in Daco Romanian.

Between you and I

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-224
Author(s):  
Robert Prazeres ◽  
Stephen Levey
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Syntactic Position ◽  
Default Case ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽  
Comparison Of The Results

Variable case marking of pronouns in coordinate noun phrases (CoNPs) is a well-documented phenomenon which has elicited prescriptive censure for centuries. Drawing on the framework of variationist sociolinguistics, this study presents a detailed quantitative analysis of variable case marking in CoNPs in the Quebec English Corpus (Poplack, Walker and Malcolmson 2006), a massive compendium of vernacular speech. Operationalizing a number of extralinguistic and linguistic factors that are claimed to condition variable case marking in CoNPs, multivariate analysis revealed that speaker age and education as well as the syntactic position of the CoNP are key predictors in determining the case of pronouns in these constructions. An important finding is that case marking in CoNPs is highly variable for speakers, suggesting that the Sisyphean efforts of the prescriptive enterprise to impose uniformity on this area of the grammar have been to little avail as far as spontaneous usage is concerned. Comparison of the results with variable case marking in CoNPs in other varieties of English, as well as with diachronic patterns of variability, also raises the possibility that the accusative is increasingly assuming the role of default case in coordinate constructions.

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