A Study of DOM in Asturian (‘Dialectu Vaqueiru’)

Differential Object Marking in Romance, 2021

Recent research has shown that Differential Object Marking (DOM) is less frequent in some varieties of Latin American Spanish than in European Spanish. This is the case in Caribbean Spanish, which includes Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican Spanish. We will investigate whether these varieties have preserved an older language stage or, rather, whether this is a more recent development resulting from DOM retraction. In this paper, we will focus on DOM in Cuban Spanish. Following on from Alfaraz (2011), who studied DOM on the basis of sociolinguistic interviews, we will examine DOM both from a diachronic and from a synchronic perspective. The diachronic approach is based on a corpus analysis encompassing the 19 th and 20 th centuries while the synchronic approach is based on grammaticality judgment tasks. The corpus analysis points to a slight retraction which evolved with indefinite human nouns. The results of the grammaticality judgment tasks reveal that Cuban Spanish speakers accept the absence of DOM with definite human nouns, which is unacceptable in European Spanish. They also rate the absence of DOM with indefinite human nouns as highly acceptable, as opposed to their European counterparts. We compare the findings provided from the corpus analysis and the judgment task by discussing the importance of considering both production and acceptability data. Thus, this paper makes an important empirical and theoretical contribution to the patterns of DOM in Caribbean Spanish.

In: T. Parodi (ed.), Proceedings of the VIII NEREUS International Workshop: "Referential Properties of the Romance DP in the Context of Multilingualism". Konstanz: Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Konstanz (= Arbeitspapier 129), 25–61., 2018

Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, 2024

This article presents a case study on the differential marking of direct objects (DOM) in Balkan Judeo-Spanish, an endangered language (sub)group that still lacks detailed, systematic documentation of its (comparative) morphosyntax. Countering recent claims that the phenomenon is frequently absent in Judeo-Spanish, I demonstrate the robust presence of so-called a-marking as a highly systematic, multi-dimensional DOM strategy in early 20 th century fieldwork recordings from the understudied dialect of Monastir (present-day Bitola, North Macedonia). I show that, in our corpus, a-marking in transitive (S)V(S)O(S) structures is primarily regulated by (grammatical) animacy/person and (syntactic) definiteness, such that indefinite DOs are excluded and specificity plays no role. Theoretically, the empirical distribution of a-marking broadly conforms with, yetcruciallycannot be fully subsumed under, scale-based hierarchies that model DOM in terms of referential prominence. Rather, our findings support the conclusion that a-marking of the DO occurs if and only if the argument is syntactically specified for animacy/person and definiteness.

Amazonian Spanish, 2020

Direct object clitics in Spanish are morphological markers at the interface of syntax and phonology, morphology, semantics and information structure. We explore variability in direct object clitic doubling and argument marking in bilingual speakers of Shipibo-Spanish and Ashéninka-Perené-Spanish (Mayer & Sánchez, 2017b). We focus on the production of the dative versus the accusative forms of the clitic and on the expression of Differential Object Marking (DOM) (Aissen, 2003; Bossong, 1991; Dalrymple & Nikolaeva, 2011), in particular, on the extension of DOM to definite inanimate DPs and the lack of DOM with animate direct objects required in other varieties of Spanish. We analyze this variability as the coexistence of two different argument-marking systems in these contact varieties of Amazonian Spanish.

Proceedings of the workshop" Semantic and …, 2003

* I am grateful to the participants at the workshop "Semantic and Syntactic Aspects of Specificity in Romance Languages" (Konstanz, October 2002) for useful comments, and to Vicky Escandell-Vidal and Olga Fernández-Soriano for helpful discussion on an earlier draft. Thanks also to Begoña Vicente for patiently correcting my English. All remaining errors are exclusively mine. This research is supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología through a DGICYT project (PB98/0707 "Gramática e interpretación en la teoría de la relevancia"). 1 See Bossong (1997) and Aissen (2000) for an overview.

In this presentation, I present a variety of data from Galician informing the debate on whether preverbal subjects of transitive verbs are canonical or non-canonical elements in Iberian Romance and other null-subject languages. Syntactic research over the past twenty-plus years has arguably left the field of Generative syntax at an impasse on this issue, with some researchers arguing that preverbal subjects are non-canonical, non-argument (A’) constituents (e.g. Barbosa 1996, 2000, Ordóñez and Treviño 1999, Uribe-Etxebarria 1992, 1995), and others maintaining an analysis of preverbal subjects as canonical argument (A) constituents (e.g. Costa 2004, Goodall 2002). This debate is of great theoretical importance, as purported indications been claimed to have implications for the universality of the EPP and its associated feature(s). I show that standard syntactic tests of A- versus A’-status are inconclusive for preverbal subjects in Galician as well, and discuss an experimental methodology utilizing an Acceptability Judgment Task common in SLA research (e.g. Hertel 2000). This AJT incorporated a contextualized discourse context based on López’s (2009) calculus for CLLD elements following Segmented Discourse Representation Theory (SDRT) notions in e.g. Asher (1993), Asher and Vieu (2005), Busquets et al (2001), accompanied by response triads (Kallestinova 2007). The experimental data, in conjunction with post-hoc consultations with native, habitual speakers of Galician suggest the existence of discursive and syntactic asymmetries between preverbal subjects and objects – evidence strongly suggesting that preverbal subjects in the contexts examined are not left-peripheral, A’-elements in Galician, but rather canonical A-elements.

2014

In this paper we use a minimal cartography to show that DOM constructions in Spanish have special properties that make them syntactically and semantically dierent from non-DOM constructions. First, a-marked DOs have a dierent underlying structure. In their structure there is a relational projection (RelP) which is modied by Disjoint, giving the interpretation that the DP complement is a recipient of the action of the verb. Second, a-marked objects occupy a dierent position in the structure from non a-marked objects: while the former occupy the complement of proc(ess), the latter occupy a modier position. By establishing these two dierences, we provide a unied explanation for the special properties of DOM constructions that have been pointed out in previous works, like the presence of a or aectedness, specicity and animacy of the DO.

This is a corpus-illustrated investigation in which I explore DOM in two different varieties of Spanish, i.e. Mexican and Peninsular Spanish. This paper not only focuses on the differences in DOM between these two varieties, but also assesses possible semantic implications of the presence/absence of DOM with all types of Direct Objects (both animate and inanimate) in similar environments. Finally I should mention that this is a slightly revised version of a final paper written for an Advanced Master's course.

Caplletra. Revista Internacional de Filologia, 2023

This article undertakes a descriptive overview of the variation in the distribution and licensing of differential object marking across a wide range of dialects of the south of Italy. It is shown how variation in this area is not random, but follows patterns of structured variation which can be modelled in a scalar fashion in terms of four broad splits based on grammatical person, and on pronominal–nominal, head–phrasal and animacy/specificity oppositions. These four broad dimensions of variation are, in turn, demonstrated to conceal a number of more subtle differences of a microvariational nature. This microvariation, it is suggested, can be read not only horizontally as synchronic variation across the dialects, but also vertically to provide some key insights into the diachronic development of (Italo-)Romance DOM.

This article deals with the ways in which non-lexical core arguments can be expressed in various languages. It tries to devise a typological hierarchy for the different types and endeavours to place Romance within this hierarchy. An analysis of Basque verbal markers as cross-reference morphemes introduces the subject with a language radically different from central IE. Using Nichols’ (1986 & 1992) typological differentiation between head-marking and dependent-marking languages as its basis, a typological sub-parameter of “clausal head-marking vs. clausal dependent-marking” is suggested which is shown to correspond to two radically different types of clausal co-reference: (1) agreement (concord) and (2) cross-reference. This terminology is then used to describe and explain an ongoing syntactic change in which Spanish object clitics have evolved into obligatory verbal markers closely resembling those of Basque. Their conventional analysis as “agreement markers” is questioned and Spanish is shown to be moving towards a clausal head-marking language in which all core-arguments of the sentence have to be expressed by verbal affixes, while nominal and pronominal argument realisations become mere appositions outside the sentence core. The traditional concept of an emerging new paradigm of “object conjugation” is rejected. In: Detges, Ulrich and Richard Waltereit (eds.), The Paradox of Grammatical Change: Perspectives from Romance . 2008. vi, 252 pp. (pp. 181–214)

This article deals with the ways in which non-lexical core arguments can be expressed in various languages. It tries to devise a typological hierarchy for the different types and endeavours to place Romance within this hierarchy. An analysis of Basque verbal markers as cross-reference morphemes introduces the subject with a language radically different from central IE. Using Nichols’ (1986 & 1992) typological differentiation between head-marking and dependent-marking languages as its basis, a typological sub-parameter of “clausal head-marking vs. clausal dependent-marking” is suggested which is shown to correspond to two radically different types of clausal co-reference: (1) agreement (concord) and (2) cross-reference. This terminology is then used to describe and explain an ongoing syntactic change in which Spanish object clitics have evolved into obligatory verbal markers closely resembling those of Basque. Their conventional analysis as “agreement markers” is questioned and Spanish is shown to be moving towards a clausal head-marking language in which all core-arguments of the sentence have to be expressed by verbal affixes, while nominal and pronominal argument realisations become mere appositions outside the sentence core. The traditional concept of an emerging new paradigm of “object conjugation” is rejected.

The present study aims to show that Basque Differential Object Marking (dom) is the result of intense contact with the Basque-Spanish Leísta Dialect (bld) and to determine the process by which Basque dom is a contact feature. Following theories of contact-induced phenomena in variationist sociolinguistics (Poplack and Levey, 2010), theories of dom (Aissen, 2003) and grammaticalization theory (Heine and Kuteva, 2005), the speech of 29 native speakers of Gernika Basque are examined, stratified by age and language dominance. Results from oral data show that animacy and specificity are the strongest predictors of Basque dom, followed by person and number. In terms of language specific constraints, the use of Spanish borrowed verbs and the null object character of the language strongly favors dom in Gernika Basque. It is proposed that Basque dom involves a complex process of 'replica grammaticalization' , explaining the intertwined relationship between typological factors, contact-induced forces and language-specific constraints.

2017

The null object/overt pronoun split in Brazilian Portuguese has been assimilated to differential object marking in some functionalist accounts (Schwenter and Silva 2002, Schwenter 2006). This paper examines further arguments for this connection; we evaluate a battery of more formal diagnostics under which the Brazilian Portuguese data pattern similarly to canonical instances of prepositional marking across Romance (Romanian, Spanish etc.). The application of other tests weakens the assumption of a unique licensing position for differentially marked objects in Romance languages.

Isogloss. Open Journal of Romance Linguistics, 2023

This paper is about a clitic-like form lo that appears in two under-studied dialects of Mexico in the context of transitive clauses. The distribution of this clitic-like form in these dialects is at odds with Standard Mexican Spanish which does not allow it in the same context. This clitic-like form resembles the singular, masculine, accusative object clitic of Standard Spanish, but it differs in that it does not show the agreement pattern expected for object clitics. In this paper we argue that this clitic-like form is better understood as an object marker that is triggered by the lack of a positive [Participant] feature in the direct object as part of the extended projection of the Object-DP. We also propose that this marking strategy is not the result of linguistic transfer or interaction with a different language, but rather a possible development Isogloss 2023, 9(2)/5 Renato García-González & Fernando Chapa-Barrios 2 within the grammar of Spanish. This marking strategy is, in fact, an inherent strategy of Spanish, but it gets blocked by normative pressure. The fact that this strategy flourishes in dialects apart from normative/academic contexts could be an indicator that the explanation we offer is on the right track.

Differential Object Marking in Romance

The existence of Differential Object Marking (DOM) is well-established in a number of Romance languages and varieties, such as Spanish and Romanian, where its use extends to several types of direct objects. For other languages in the Romance family, like Catalan, DOM is often considered to be absent, except for personal pronouns and a few other cases-at least from the perspective of normative grammar. However, in most varieties of Catalan, DOM applies to human direct objects generally, including proper names, definites and some indefinites, and even occasionally extends to bare plurals or inanimates. Although an exhaustive dialectal survey on the exact prevalence of DOM has yet to be carried out, it is clear that it is widespread and features in many dialects. While one might initially assume that this is the result of the influence of Spanish, such instances (at least partially) might in fact have arisen from the internal evolution of Catalan. Crucially, instances of DOM were remarkably abundant in Old Catalan, although this has sometimes gone quite unnoticed. That is, instances of DOM with proper names and human NPs are found in earlier Catalan texts (in the 13 th to 15 th centuries), and increase quite significantly from the 16 th century on, reaching very high percentages of occurrences in some texts. The aim of this paper is to offer an account of the emergence and development of DOM in Catalan over time, showing the commonalities with neighbouring Spanish, as well as the important differences that distinguish these two languages. This is a large corpus study, based on the Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic, and comprising the period from the first written texts to the 16 th century, with some notes on the 17 th century too.