Gradient Effects of Animacy on Differential Object Marking in Turkish

AbstractAnimacy is a pervasive cognitive category that is displayed in the grammatical behavior of the world’s languages through categorical or gradient effects. We argue in this paper that animacy is a crucial parameter for Differential Object Marking (i.e., the optional marking of the direct object) in Turkish. DOM languages are typically categorized according to their dependency on definiteness and animacy. Turkish has thus far been assumed to depend only on definiteness; however, we present the first set of empirical evidence based on perceived acceptability judgment measures that show a significant effect of animacy on Turkish DOM. Moreover, we show the gradient nature of this effect. This original finding provides further evidence for the assertion that animacy is a crucial linguistic parameter in Turkish DOM and illustrates how the conceptual category of animacy is deeply entrenched in the grammar of Turkish.

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Differential object marking and object scrambling in the Guaraní language cluster

Lingvisticae Investigationes ◽

10.1075/li.00028.roe ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 31-55

Author(s):

Eva-Maria Roessler

Keyword(s):

Differential Treatment ◽

Direct Object ◽

Functional Domain ◽

Differential Object Marking ◽

Base Position ◽

Case Marker ◽

Parallel Data ◽

Applicative Constructions ◽

Direct Objects ◽

Object Marking

Abstract The parallel data discussed in this article suggest that in Guaraní languages differential objects seem far from being exclusively highlighted in morphology. Instead, the Guaraní dom systems exhibit a differential treatment of certain direct objects within narrow syntax. Focusing on [+animate] direct objects, I supply evidence that [+dom] direct objects scramble out of their base position into a higher, vP-internal, projection, namely αP (following López 2012). This short DO scrambling is derived including data from simple transitive, ditransitive, and applicative constructions as well as from object conjunction. The short scrambling within vP is followed by further direct object dislocation into a higher functional domain, an operation described in literature as triggered by φ-feature under T° and targeting a specifier in an expanded functional domain (Freitas 2011b). DOs that move out of their base position may be marked with the overt case marker, homophonous with dat case. The homophony between dat and dom is conceived as morphological opacity in the Guaraní case. Syntactically, however, [+dom] DOs pattern together with their zero-marked acc counterparts, rather than with indirect objects.

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Humanness in the 3rd Person Singular Personal Pronoun in Alemannic Dialects

Journal of Germanic Linguistics ◽

10.1017/s1470542717000150 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 30 (4) ◽

pp. 307-334

Author(s):

Raffaela Baechler

Keyword(s):

Pilot Study ◽

Direct Object ◽

Personal Pronoun ◽

Differential Object Marking ◽

German Dialects ◽

Form Part ◽

Object Marking

This paper surveys the emergence of the categoryhumannessin the 3rd person singular personal pronoun in Alemannic (southwest German) dialects. The first part shows that some Alemannic dialects have developed a human/nonhuman distinction in the 3rd person singular neuter personal pronoun: a marked form encoding the human direct object has emerged. The emergence of this form can be explained by the differential object marking hypothesis. The second part reports on a pilot study of the 3rd person singular personal pronoun in Sense Alemannic on the basis of new data. In this dialect, humanness is distinguished not only in the neuter but also in the masculine and feminine. Additionally, some instances are observed that violate the differential object marking principle. Thus, both principles (humanness marking and the differential object marking) form part of the grammar, but the latter one may be violated.*

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Differential Object Marking, Case and Agreement

Borealis – An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics ◽

10.7557/1.2.2.2808 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 221 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Javier Ormazabal ◽

Juan Romero

Keyword(s):

General Theory ◽

Empirical Evidence ◽

Font Size ◽

Differential Object Marking ◽

Structural Relation ◽

Single Target ◽

Semantic Concepts ◽

Object Marking ◽

Pronominal System

In this paper, we present empirical evidence showing that Differential Object Marking (DOM)  in Spanish is determined by structural conditions related to Case and agreement. We also argue that semantic concepts such as specificity, definiteness, animacy, or topicality, tightly connected to the presence or absence of A, must be parasitic on the syntactic configurations where DOM is licensed. We also present some consequences of our analysis for the general theory of agreement. We argue that the same structural relation is involved in all cases of DOM, as well as in Dative Clitic Constructions, where the presence of the particle A preceding clitic-doubled datives is syntactically unified with DOM phenomena. The accusative/dative distinction traditionally attributed to the Spanish pronominal system does not correspond, in synchronic terms, to different case relations, but distinguishes between agreeing and non-agreeing arguments. Similarly, the distribution of DOM corresponds to a Case-checked/Caseless difference. We extend the analysis to account for well-known restrictions on the co-appearance of two DOM arguments, which  are analyzed as the consequence of a competition between two arguments for a single target.

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Differential object marking in Ibero-Romance languages: Explanatory models in domestic and Russian educational literature

Rhema ◽

10.31862/2500-2953-2019-2-61-76 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 61-76

Author(s):

N. Pakhmutova

Keyword(s):

Explanatory Models ◽

Explanatory Model ◽

The Other ◽

Direct Object ◽

Romance Languages ◽

Differential Object Marking ◽

Didactic Literature ◽

Educational Literature ◽

Direct Objects ◽

Object Marking

Differential object marking / dom is the term for the phenomenon of distinguishing two classes of direct objects, one bearing a special marker, while the other lacking it. In modern linguistics, the marker licensing is partially or fully attributed to the features of a direct object: Animacy/Inanimacy and referential status. Russian didactic literature generally contains a reduced explanatory model of Spanish dom, based on the grammar of the Royal Spanish Academy. For Catalan, the explanatory model is complicated by the usus/norm split, the latter reducing the phenomenon’s scope. The paper focuses on the improvement of dom explanatory models for Spanish and Catalan.

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Differential Object Marking in Spanish: state of the art

Borealis – An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics ◽

10.7557/1.2.2.2603 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 1 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Antonio Fábregas

Keyword(s):

Current Literature ◽

State Of The Art ◽

The Other ◽

Direct Object ◽

Font Size ◽

Differential Object Marking ◽

Internal Properties ◽

Object Marking ◽

Syntactic Properties

This state of the art tries to cover as much as possible about the properties, conditions and analyses of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Spanish. Starting with some considerations about the boundaries of the phenomenon, it considers its morphological, semantic and syntactic properties –with respect both to the internal properties of the direct object and to the wider context in which it appears–. It also reviews the other morphosyntactic phenomena that have been claimed to correlate with DOM, and finally goes through a number of analysis in different theoretical traditions to highlight the points of agreement and debate in the current literature.

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REFLEXÕES SOBRE A MARCAÇÃO MORFOLÓGICA DO OBJETO DIRETO POR A EM PORTUGUÊS BRASILEIRO | OBSERVATIONS ON THE MORPHOLOGICAL A-MARKING OF DIRECT OBJECTS IN BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE

Estudos Linguísticos e Literários ◽

10.9771/ell.v0i58.26807 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 83

Author(s):

Sônia Cyrino

Keyword(s):

Brazilian Portuguese ◽

The Other ◽

Direct Object ◽

Romance Languages ◽

Differential Object Marking ◽

Romance Language ◽

Other Hand ◽

Direct Objects ◽

Object Marking

Como é sabido, o espanhol é uma língua românica que requer que certos objetos diretos (OD) sejam morfologicamente marcados por a, a chamada Marcação Diferencial do Objeto (DOM). Em outras línguas românicas, tais como o português europeu e brasileiro, por outro lado, objetos diretos animados não são geralmente marcados. Contudo, vários estudos diacrônicos mostram que a marcação morfológica por a do objeto direto era possível nos séculos XVI a XVIII em português, e houve um declínio nesse uso a partir dessa época. Interessantemente, no português brasileiro a marcação do objeto direto por a é ainda possível (ou opcional) em alguns contextos restritos. Neste trabalho, observo o espanhol e o português brasileiro para mostrar que essas línguas são diferentes com relação à marcação por a do objeto direto, mas semelhantes com relação ao fato de que objetos diretos animados são computados externamente ao vP. O trabalho pretende contribuir para a discussão dos efeitos da animacidade do objeto direto na sintaxe.Abstract: As is well-known, Spanish is a Romance language which requires that certain direct objects (DO) be morphologically marked by the preposition “a” (to), the so-called Differential Object Marking (DOM). In other Romance languages, such as European and Brazilian Portuguese, on the other hand, animate direct objects are not generally marked. However, several diachronic studies show that the morphological a-marking of the direct object was possible from the 16th to 18th centuries in Portuguese, and there was a decline of that use from then on. Interestingly, in Brazilian Portuguese, DO a-marking is still possible (or optional) in some restricted contexts. In this paper, I look at Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese to show that these languages are different with respect to the occurrence of the a-marking of the DO, but similar in relation to the fact that animate direct objects are moved to a position above the vP. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion on the effects ofanimacy of direct objects in syntax.

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The Role of Semantic Type in Differential Object Marking

Belgian Journal of Linguistics ◽

10.1075/bjl.19.03ble ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 19 ◽

pp. 3-27 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Tonia Bleam

Keyword(s):

Direct Object ◽

Semantic Type ◽

Differential Object Marking ◽

Object Marking

Spanish, like many other languages (e.g. Hindi), exhibits differential object marking (DOM). It is well-known that DOM seems to be sensitive to the animacy and/or specificity of the direct object (Bossong 1985, Aissen 2003). It is argued here that the Spanish prepositional accusative, or a-marking, is a realization of the features [+accusative] and [+animate] within a nominal projection containing a determiner (D). Nominal projections lacking D are property-denoting and are not a-marked. I show that there is a direct map between the presence or absence of a-marking and the semantic type of the (animate) direct object nominal.

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Accessibility and word order: The case of ditransitive constructions in Persian

Proceedings of the International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar ◽

10.21248/hpsg.2014.12 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Pegah Faghiri ◽

Pollet Samvelian ◽

Barbara Hemforth

Keyword(s):

Experimental Evidence ◽

Word Order ◽

Relative Length ◽

Direct Object ◽

Corpus Study ◽

Differential Object Marking ◽

Object Marking ◽

Ditransitive Constructions

In a most recent corpus study on Persian, Faghiri & Samvelian (2014) found a significant effect of relative length in the ordering preferences between the direct and indirect objects in the preverbal domain corresponding to "long-before-short". They furthermore showed that the position of the direct object mainly depends on its degree of determination, and put into question the broadly accepted dual view based solely on differential object marking. In this paper, we provide experimental evidence in support of these corpus findings and further propose a unified account of ordering preferences between the two objects on the basis of conceptual accessibility.

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Tipos de MDO en los verbos psicológicos del español

Borealis – An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics ◽

10.7557/1.4.1.3154 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 79

Author(s):

Bárbara Marqueta Gracia

Keyword(s):

Empirical Evidence ◽

Argument Structure ◽

The Other ◽

Differential Object Marking ◽

Other Hand ◽

Person Features ◽

Semantic Value ◽

Object Marking ◽

The One

RESUMEN. En el presente artículo se pretende argumentar la necesidad de establecer una distinción entre diferentes instancias de Marcado Diferencial de Objeto (MDO) en los verbos psicológicos de sujeto experimentante en español. En algunos casos, la aparición de a es obligatoria independientemente de la estructura argumental del verbo implicado, y está vinculada a la presencia en la configuración de rasgos deícticos de persona. Dichos rasgos son inducidos tanto por la presencia de clíticos de dativo como de objetos que mantienen relaciones locativas y/o partitivas.En otros casos, la distribución del MDO es opcional y sensible a la estructura argumental del verbo, alternando con la rección directa -sin preposición-. Esta distribución supone la proyección de un rasgo conceptual de causa, identificado en la posición de objeto/causa de la experiencia psicológica por parte de la preposición a.ABSTRACT. In this paper, we present empirical evidence showing that a different kind of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Spanish “Psych” experiencer verbs can be distinguished. On the one hand, we found obligatory contexts of marking (regardless of the argument structure of the verb and the animacy/specifity of the object). These are connected with the presence of deictic person features, triggered by dative clitics or objects which bear a locative/partitive relationship. On the other hand, we can found optional marking, determined by the experiencer-subject/causer-object´s structure, which will be related to a default semantic value of causer in the object projection identified by the preposition.

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The acquisition of differential object marking in Spanish by Romanian speakers

Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1075/resla.17040.mon ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 32 (1) ◽

pp. 185-219 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Silvina Montrul

Keyword(s):

Native Speakers ◽

Judgment Task ◽

Language Transfer ◽

Differential Object Marking ◽

Written Production ◽

English Speaking ◽

Object Marking ◽

Advanced Proficiency ◽

Ultimate Attainment ◽

Acceptability Judgment

Abstract The obligatory use of the preposition ‘a’ with animate, specific direct objects in Spanish (Juan conoce a María “Juan knows Maria”) is a well-known instance of Differential Object Marking (dom). This study investigates the acquisition of dom by native speakers of Romanian learning Spanish. Spanish and Romanian have dom lexicalized in the prepositions ‘a’ (Spanish) and in ‘pe’ (Romanian). In the two languages dom is regulated by animacy and specificity. Thirty-two native speakers of Spanish and 36 Romanian-speaking learners of Spanish with advanced proficiency completed a written production, a written comprehension, and an acceptability judgment task. The results show that, in general, and unlike what has been found for English-speaking learners of Spanish, advanced Romanian learners of Spanish are successful at acquiring the feature specification and distribution of dom in Spanish. The findings are discussed with respect to the nature of ultimate attainment as a function of language transfer.

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