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.

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 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.

scholarly journals From Proto-Hungarian SOV to Old Hungarian Top Foc V X

Diachronica ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katalin É. Kiss
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
Basic Word ◽  
Order Change ◽  
Direct Objects ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
Word Order Change

This paper argues that Hungarian underwent a word order change from SOV to Top Foc V X* prior to its documented history beginning in 1192. Proto-Hungarian SOV is reconstructed primarily on the basis of shared constructions of archaic Old Hungarian, and Khanty and Mansi, the sister languages of Hungarian. The most likely scenario of the change from head-final to head-initial was the spreading of right dislocation, and the reanalysis of right dislocated elements by new generations of speakers as arguments in situ. In Hungarian — as opposed to Khanty and Mansi — right dislocation was facilitated by the extension of differential object marking to all direct objects. The change in basic word order initiated the restructuring of other parts of Hungarian grammar as well, which is a still ongoing process. [As of June 2015, this article is available as Open Access under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 license.]

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.

scholarly journals The impact of information structure on the emergence of differential object marking: an experimental study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shira Tal ◽  
Kenny Smith ◽  
Jennifer Culbertson ◽  
Eitan Grossman ◽  
Inbal Arnon
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Alternative Hypothesis ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Language Typology ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
New Information ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
The Impact

Many languages exhibit differential object marking (DOM), where only certain types of grammatical objects are marked with morphological case. Traditionally, it has been claimed that DOM arises as a way to prevent ambiguity by marking objects that might otherwise be mistaken for subjects (e.g., animate objects). While some recent experimental work supports this account (Fedzechkina et al., 2012), research on language typology suggests at least one alternative hypothesis. In particular, DOM may instead arise as a way of marking objects that are atypical from the point of view of information structure. According to this account, rather than being marked to avoid ambiguity, objects are marked when they are given (already familiar in the discourse) rather than new. Here, we experimentally investigate this hypothesis using two artificial language learning experiments. We find that information structure impacts participants’ object-marking, but in an indirect way: atypical information structure leads to a change of word order, which then triggers increased object marking. Interestingly, this staged process of change is compatible with documented cases of DOM emergence (Iemmolo, 2013). We argue that this process is driven by two cognitive tendencies. First, a tendency to place discourse given information before new information, and second, a tendency to mark non-canonical word order. Taken together, our findings provide corroborating evidence for the role of information structure in the emergence of DOM systems.

scholarly journals DOM AND NON-CANONICAL WORD ORDER IN ROMANCE: THE CASE OF GALICIAN

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-31
Author(s):  
Brian Gravely
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Object Shift ◽  
Linguistic Data ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Object Marking

In this article, I investigate the link between VSO-VOS orders and differential object marking (DOM) via novel data from Galician. I present an analysis that sheds light on what may be required for a language to license DOM via movement, a requirement once thought necessary for licensing DOM that has recently been discredited on the basis of an overwhelming amount of cross-linguistic data (cf. Kalin 2018). I also show evidence for the variation regarding featural specification of DPs that must be differentially marked, adding to the highly variable factors that contribute to the appearance of DOM on nominal objects in natural language. Focusing on full DP objects, I conclude that licensing DOM in Galician is predicated on both the level of animacy of postverbal nominals and object shift in VOS configurations.

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.

The Syntactic Variation of Spanish Dialects

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Short Range ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Syntactic Variation ◽  
Differential Object Marking ◽  
Spanish Syntax ◽  
Object Marking ◽  
Spanish Dialects

This collective volume offers an up-to-date and comprehensive state-of-the-art presentation of the research that has been done in the syntactic variation of Spanish dialects, taking into account both European and American varieties. In so doing, this book seeks to set the boundary conditions for subsequent investigations on the different manifestations of Spanish syntax and its geographic contours, a very rich (though largely neglected) area of inquiry. Such investigations should ideally lead us not only to pin down the short-range microparameters of Spanish but also to explore its similarities with other languages (closely related or not) and, ultimately, to understand the variation margins that the faculty of language offers. The volume is divided into two parts, each of them dealing with varieties of Europe and America. Empirically, the different chapters cover a wide set of syntactic phenomena and constructions, such as agreement, clitics, doubling, expletives, word order, differential object marking, pro-drop, and more. All in all, this book represents not only an important contribution in the study of Spanish syntax, but also the beginning of a new wave of formal studies of dialectal syntax.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document