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.

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.

Non-canonical case marking on subjects in Russian and Lithuanian

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-196
Author(s):  
Marco Magnani
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Nominative Case ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
Role Of Information

Abstract In case-marking languages with nominative-accusative alignment the subject of a sentence is usually marked by nominative case. In some of these languages, however, the subject of a number of verbs is either consistently or alternately marked by another, non-nominative case. Such non-canonical case marking has often been approached in the linguistic literature as a phenomenon at the interface between syntax and semantics. Yet the predictions of this kind of approach seem more probabilistic than regular. This paper offers a new perspective to analyse the phenomenon, which encompasses the role of information structure in case marking. Drawing on Silverstein’s (1976) theory of differential subject marking and Dalrymple & Nikolaeva’s (2011) approach to differential object marking, it is argued that non-canonically case-marked subjects can be better analysed as instances of either non-topical subjects or subjects lacking one or more semantic features typical of topicality. The approach outlined in the paper is tested on a number of constructions in Russian and Lithuanian. It is shown how, in both languages, the analysed instances of non-canonically case-marked subjects exhibit a complex interplay among grammatical, semantic and discourse-pragmatic factors.

scholarly journals Object and Subject Case Marking in Behdini

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 205
Author(s):  
Shivan Toma
Keyword(s):  
Study Data ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
Split Ergativity ◽  
The Way

Behdini, a variety of Kurdish, is known to be a morphologically rich language demonstrating both subject and object case marking in an unusual typological distribution. This paper reviews differential object marking (DOM) and differential subject marking (DSM) exemplified by a number of allocated languages, and then DOM and DSM are tested whether they apply on Behdini. This study is designed to answer whether Behdini shows DOM or DSM or whether the way Behdini argument structures are encoded in split ergativity completely governs the case marking of objects and subjects in Behdini. Therefore, ergativity in Behdini is tackled in this study. Data to be applied on Behdini in the process of analysing DOM and DSM are inspired from various studies, and my own linguistic knowledge of Behdini is used for the analysis. The results of the study show that the way split ergativity operates in Behdini entirely accounts for object and subject case marking, concluding that Beddini does not demonstrate DOM and DSM.

Person, case, and agreement

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
András Bárány
Keyword(s):  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Case Marking ◽  
Person Features ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
Object Marking

This chapter illustrates some of the data to be discussed in the book and introduces the grammatical notions and specific theoretical assumptions made. It provides examples of differential object marking in Hungarian and Hindi and argues for a dissociation of Case and agreement. Since in both Hungarian and Hindi, case-marking and agreement are not governed by the same grammatical principles and do not always appear together, they should not be analysed as reflecting a single grammatical operation. There is also discussion of the notion of person and the idea that it can grammaticalize properties such as definiteness or animacy in different languages. Person is treated as a complex category where each ‘person’ consists of a set of person features; these sets are ordered by subset/superset relations.

The processing of case in near-native Spanish

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Jegerski
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Case Marker ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
Case Markers ◽  
Ditransitive Constructions

This article reports a study that sought to determine whether non-native sentence comprehension can show sensitivity to two different types of Spanish case marking. Sensitivity to case violations was generally more robust with indirect objects in ditransitive constructions than with differential object marking of animate direct objects, even among native speakers of Spanish, which probably reflects linguistic differences in the two types of case. In addition, the overall outcome of two experiments shows that second language (L2) processing can integrate case information, but that, unlike with native processing, attention to a case marker may depend on the presence of a preverbal clitic as an additional cue to the types of postverbal arguments that might occur in a stimulus. Specifically, L2 readers showed no sensitivity to differential object marking with a in the absence of clitics in the first experiment, with stimuli such as Verónica visita al/el presidente todos los meses ‘Veronica visits the[ACC/NOM]president every month’, but the L2 readers in the second experiment showed native-like sensitivity to the same marker when the object it marked was doubled by the clitic lo, as in Verónica lo visita al/el presidente todos los meses. With indirect objects, on the other hand, sensitivity to case markers was native-like in both experiments, although indirect objects were also always doubled by the preverbal clitic le. The apparent first language / second language contrast suggests differences in processing strategy, whereby non-native processing of morphosyntax may rely more on the predictability of forms than does native processing.

Specific Features of Persian Syntax

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pollet Samvelian
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Studies ◽  
Complex Predicates ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
The Way

This chapter is devoted to three specific features of Persian syntax, namely, the Ezafe construction, differential object marking with the enclitic rā, and complex predicates, which have received a great deal of attention for more than thirty years. Each of these phenomena involves language-specific challenging facts which need to be accurately described and accounted for. At the same time, each constitutes a topic of cross-linguistic investigation for which the Persian data can be of crucial interest. The chapter is divided into three sections. Each section provides an overview of empirical facts and the way various theoretical studies have tried to account for them. While it was impossible to do justice to all influential studies because of the impressive amount of work on each topic, the article is nevertheless intended to be as exhaustive as possible and to maintain the balance between different theoretical approaches.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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