Differential Object Marking in Spanish: state of the art

Antonio Fábregas

doi:10.7557/1.2.2.2603

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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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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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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Morpho-syntactic Variation in Romance v: A Micro-parametric Approach

Probus ◽

10.1515/probus-2020-0008 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 32 (2) ◽

pp. 401-437

Author(s):

Ángel J. Gallego

Keyword(s):

Romance Languages ◽

Parametric Approach ◽

Syntactic Variation ◽

Differential Object Marking ◽

University Of Leiden ◽

Parametric Variation ◽

Syntactic Theory ◽

Auxiliary Selection ◽

Object Marking ◽

Syntactic Properties

AbstractThis paper discusses a series of morpho-syntactic properties of Romance languages that have the functional projection vP as its locus, showing a continuum that goes from strongly configurational Romance languages to partially configurational Romance languages. It is argued that v-related phenomena like Differential Object Marking (DOM), participial agreement, oblique clitics, auxiliary selection, and others align in a systematic way when it comes to inflectional properties that involve Case-agreement properties. In order to account for the facts, I argue for a micro-parametric approach whereby v can be associated with an additional projection subject to variation (cf. D’Alessandro, Merging Probes. A typology of person splits and person-driven differential object marking. Ms., University of Leiden, 2012; Microvariation and syntactic theory. What dialects tell us about language. Invited talk given at the workshop The Syntactic Variation of Catalan and Spanish Dialects, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, June 26–28, 2013; Ordóñez, Cartography of postverbal subjects in Spanish and Catalan. In Sergio Baauw, Frank AC Drijkoningen & Manuela Pinto (eds.), Romance languages and linguistic theory 2005: Selected papers from ‘Going Romance’, Utrecht, 8–10 December 2005, 259–280. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2007). I label such projection “X,” arguing that its feature content and position varies across Romance. More generally, the present paper aims at contributing to our understanding of parametric variation of closely related languages by exploiting the intuition, embodied in the so-called Borer-Chomsky Conjecture, that linguistic variation resides in the functional inventory of the lexicon.

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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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Ergativity and Differential Case Marking

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198739371.013.11 ◽

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.

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

Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca Julio de Urquijo ◽

10.1387/asju.20209 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 52 (1/2) ◽

pp. 381 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

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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The Syntactic Variation of Spanish Dialects

10.1093/oso/9780190634797.001.0001 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

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.

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Case Marking in Istro-Romanian

Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Philologia ◽

10.24193/subbphilo.2020.4.11 ◽

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.

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