Case Marking

Surveying the encoding of the semantic roles of recipient, beneficiary, and recipient-beneficiary from a crosslinguistic perspective, the paper has two goals. First, by focusing on the encoding of the dual role of recipient-beneficiary, it tries to show that languages vary in the marking of this role: they either encode it the same way as they encode recipients or beneficiaries; in the case of recipient and beneficiary this variation is excluded. Second, current definitions of the label benefactive will be scrutinized, since this notion is split in a number of languages and the terminology proposed here is empirically more appropriate in some cases.

Finnish existential clauses are known for the case marking of their S arguments, which alternates between the nominative and the partitive. Existential S arguments introduce a discourse-new referent, and, if headed by a mass noun or a plural form, are marked with the partitive case that indicates non-exhaustive quantification (as in ‘There is some coffee in the cup’).  In the literature it has often been observed that the partitive is occasionally used even in transitive clauses to mark the A argument. In this work I analyze a hand-picked set of examples to explore this partitive A. I argue that the partitive A phrase often has an animate referent; that it is most felicitous in low-transitivity expressions where the O argument is likewise in the partitive (to indicate non-culminating aspect); that a partitive A phrase typically follows the verb, is in the plural and is typically modified by a quantifier (‘many’, ‘a lot of’). I then argue that the pervasiveness of quantifying expressions in partitive A phrases reflects a structural analogy with (pseudo)partitive constructions where a nominative head is followed by a partitive modifier (e.g. ‘a group of students’). Such analogies may be relevant in permitting the A function to be fulfilled by many kinds of quantifier + partitive NPs.

This paper examines the explanatory value of the transitivity scale of two-place predicates proposed by Tsunoda (1981, 1985, 1991) as applied to the ease or difficulty of the acquisition of the Japanese object case particle wo by Hindi speaking learners of Japanese as a foreign language. Tsunoda notes that predicates can be ranked cross-linguistically in the order of decreasing transitivity into the following types – Direct effect >> Perception >> Pursuit >> Knowledge >> Feeling >> Relation. The transitivity scale predicts that learners are more likely to analyze predicates highest in the hierarchy as transitive, and therefore mark the direct object NP with wo. Inversely, predicates lower in the hierarchy are more likely to be analyzed as intransitive, and therefore be marked by case particles other than wo. Acquisition data from 52 college-age learners divided into three proficiency levels bears out the predication in the case of predicates belonging t...

Wakhi (ISO: wbl) is a Pamir language of the Southeastern Indo-Iranian family that exhibits a rich case inventory. Although previous descriptions of the Wakhi case system posit a case inventory of up to six cases, this thesis proposes an inventory of eight cases: six main cases plus two additional subcases. This thesis describes the case markers / forms and the canonical uses for each case before turning to the issue of canonicity. When evaluating the Wakhi cases according to Corbett's (2008) model, it becomes clear that only one case, the second genitive, is fully canonical, while the remaining cases demonstrate varying degrees of non-canonicity.

In Afghan Wakhi, 1SG and 2SG subject pronouns may optionally appear in the accusative 1 (ACC1) case, rather than the nominative case, in the past and perfect tenses. This alternation in the case assigned to the subject of a verb in different contexts is a type of non-canonical case called differential subject marking (DSM) (Malchukov & de Swart
2009: 341). DSM is a dialectically conditioned feature of Wakhi: it is used less frequently in the lower dialect, with usage consistently increasing throughout the middle and upper dialects. Person is also a correlate of DSM, but emphasis is the most significant feature investigated. This thesis proposes that the primary function of DSM in Wakhi is to mark
three types of emphasis: contrast, accusations, and responses to accusations and / or unexpected events.

This paper revises the Standard Average European feature "Nominative experiencers" proposed by Haspelmath in 1998 and 2001. 22 non-SAE languages were examined, 19 of them show predominantily "nominative experiencer". The paper also reviews  method and data on which Haspelmath bases his claim and argues that his approach might not yield the desired evidence.
This paper comprises a typological study of experiencer marking in 22 languages.

Volumen editado en donde se examina la complejidad morfo-fonológica, sintáctica, semántica y funcional de elementos adposicionales en quince lenguas habladas en América: maká (mataguaya), chorote/manjui (chaco), lenguas de la familia je (macro-je), waimiri atroari (caribeña), kakinte (kampa-arawak), chamicuro (arawak), me´phaa (otomangue), mixe de Yacochi y mixe de Tamasulápam (mixe-zoque), tepehuan (totonaco-tepehua), huichol, tarahumara de Norogachi y yaqui (yutoazteca), seri y español.

This paper surveys the origins of the total of twenty-seven directional case markers in the European branches of the Uralic language family. In an attempt to resolve a number of mismatches between the traditional tenets of historical Uralistics and the contemporary typological knowledge of the development of cases, the study also addresses the relevance of diachronic perspectives in mapping the synchronic interrelations of the various semantic roles marked by directional cases across languages. The data obtained from a continuum of etymologically transparent and opaque cases within inflectional paradigms of various sizes not only corroborates but also adds to our understanding of grammaticalization of postpositions to suffixes, also leaving space for alternative paths of development of case markers.

This paper describes a number of selectors for grammatical relations in Yaqui. The main selectors discussed in the paper include case marking, word order, suppletion, passive and valency-increasing mechanisms, control and ana-phoric constructions. The study reveals two crucial aspects: Yaqui is a good example of a language where grammatical relations can be characterized as a construction-specific category, and the distinction between core and non-core arguments is essential to determine the selected argument in particular constructions.

"This dissertation is about the elements that build verbs, the elements that introduce arguments, and how these elements interact to determine the interpretation of arguments and events. A theory of argument structure is a theory how arguments are introduced syntactically, interpreted semantically, and marked morphologically, and how this information is linked to predicates and their morphological shape. Through a detailed empirical study of Icelandic verbal alternations, this dissertation contributes to a line of research in which much of the work of argument structure is handled by the syntax, the component of language responsible for combining elements into larger structures, rather than a pre-syntactic lexicon.

The major theoretical contribution of this thesis is a syntactic theory of argument structure which is much more syntactically autonomous than its closest relatives. The system proposed shares with construction-based approaches to argument structure the assumption that structures generate meanings independent of the lexical roots embedded in them. That is, lexical roots play a secondary role in effecting argument structures. However, it differs from most syntactic approaches in that the syntax is far less deterministic of semantics, much as late insertion theories of morphology take syntax to underdetermine morphophonology.

In the present theory, syntactic structure may underdetermine interpretation in three ways. First, a functional head may be compatible with multiple ‘allosemes’, or denotations, which are decided post-syntactically on the basis of surrounding material. The categorial v head, for example, may have the interpretation of an activity or a cause (among other possible interpretations), depending on the interpretation of its complement. Second, a DP may be interpreted as an entity, or may be type-shifted to be interpreted as a (stative) eventuality. Third, a lexical root is associated with a web of possible semantic contributions, but the selection from among them is made on the basis of surrounding structure, after such structure has been built."

This thesis examines the distinction between syntactic case and
semantic case, part of a broader distinction between lexical and
functional elements. Several tests, involving predication,
nominalization, and iteration are proposed for determining the
semantic status of particular case functions. The results of these tests
show that only subject and direct object markers are syntactic, all
other cases being semantic. Further, semantic cases behave like
adpositions, and should therefore be placed in the same syntactic
category as them. This enables one to defend a structural account of
restrictions on predication. The tests also indicate that English has
underlying semantic cases, which are related, but not identical, to
theta roles.
The small number of syntactic cases is consistent with my claim that their content consists of one binary feature value, while the content of semantic cases is not necessarily so limited.

Die Studie befasst sich mit dem Instrumental des Ortes und dem Instrumental der Zeit als zwei Verwendungsmustern des „reinen“, präpositionslosen Kasus in einem Funktionsbereich, der durch präpositionale Relationsmarker dominiert wird. Im Rahmen einer umfangreichen Korpusanalyse wird Material aus einer ostslavischen Sprache (Russisch), einer westslavischen Sprache (Polnisch) und aus dem südslavischen Sprachareal (Serbisch und Kroatisch) ausgewertet. Die genannten Kasusverwendungen werden unter dem Aspekt der Markierungsvariation nicht-präpositionaler und präpositionaler Relationsmarker dargestellt. Einzelsprachlich und im Sprachvergleich werden funktionale und lexikalische Beschränkungen des lokalen und temporalen Instrumentals beschrieben. Auf dieser Grundlage wird die markiertheitstheoretische Position und Produktivität des lokalen und temporalen Instrumentals im Vergleich zu konkurrierenden präpositionalen Konstruktionen ermittelt. Im Sprachvergleich ergeben sich hier deutliche Unterschiede, die in dieser quantifizierenden Darstellung erstmals umfassend plausibilisiert werden können.

Der erste Teilband umfasst die kasustheoretischen Grundlagen der Untersuchung sowie die Darstellung zum Instrumental des Ortes. Der zweite Teilband enthält die Darstellung zum Instrumental der Zeit, ein synthetisches Kapitel sowie die ausführliche Bibliographie der beiden Teilbände.

Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Burmese is usually analysed as directly related to the expression of information structure. Yet, this corpus-based study of DOM and the associated prosody finds that DOM is not based on information structure alone, but is also additionally motivated by discourse structure and content management.
The suggested analysis proposes that DOM in Burmese provides a grammatical structure of information PACKAGING: a system of separating information into units (PACKAGES) and establishing relations between them. Different configurations of PACKAGING are employed to create an array of context-dependent interpretive effects related to information structure, discourse structure and other factors. Hence, it is argued that information structure is not directly expressed in the language. Instead, it stems from an interpretation of the interplay between information PACKAGING and various pragmatic-semantic factors, and is but one of the possible effects created by PACKAGING.

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.

This paper describes non-standard case-marking patterns attested in the non-finite clauses headed by participles and infinitive in Lithuanian. Lithuanian data is compared with that of the languages of the same geographical area, as well as with similar patterns in typologically remote languages. I argue that “non-canonical” marking of subject and object in Lithuanian non-finite clauses can be treated as instances of “complementizing” and “associating” case-marking postulated for Australian languages. From the historical perspective it is shown that Lithuanian constructions with “non-canonical” marking of core arguments in non-finite clauses show convergent morphosyntactic development of patterns originating from different sources.

Die Studie befasst sich mit dem Instrumental des Ortes und dem Instrumental der Zeit als zwei Verwendungsmustern des „reinen“, präpositionslosen Kasus in einem Funktionsbereich, der durch präpositionale Relationsmarker dominiert wird. Im Rahmen einer umfangreichen Korpusanalyse wird Material aus einer ostslavischen Sprache (Russisch), einer westslavischen Sprache (Polnisch) und aus dem südslavischen Sprachareal (Serbisch und Kroatisch) ausgewertet. Die genannten Kasusverwendungen werden unter dem Aspekt der Markierungsvariation nicht-präpositionaler und präpositionaler Relationsmarker dargestellt. Einzelsprachlich und im Sprachvergleich werden funktionale und lexikalische Beschränkungen des lokalen und temporalen Instrumentals beschrieben. Auf dieser Grundlage wird die markiertheitstheoretische Position und Produktivität des lokalen und temporalen Instrumentals im Vergleich zu konkurrierenden präpositionalen Konstruktionen ermittelt. Im Sprachvergleich ergeben sich hier deutliche Unterschiede, die in dieser quantifizierenden Darstellung erstmals umfassend plausibilisiert werden können.

Der erste Teilband umfasst die kasustheoretischen Grundlagen der Untersuchung sowie die Darstellung zum Instrumental des Ortes. Der zweite Teilband enthält die Darstellung zum Instrumental der Zeit, ein synthetisches Kapitel sowie die ausführliche Bibliographie der beiden Teilbände.

This paper investigates the phenomenon of the substitution of the accusative case marking of the direct object of a transitive infinitive (or, rarely, participle) by the genitive when the non-finite clause is embedded under a negated matrix verb. Basing on the data collected from native speakers, corpora and the Internet, I show that the phenomenon of long distance genitive of negation in Lithuanian is acceptable (and often obligatory) with various kinds of matrix verbs: subject control verbs, object control verbs with dative, genitive and accusative objects, and some complex noun+verb predicates. In some of these cases, genitive of negation can affect more than one direct object. Besides that, the case marking rule is virtually unbounded in its application, being able to target deeply embedded direct objects, provided that there is a chain of infinitival clauses. The application of this rule shows considerable variation, which depends on the type of the matrix verb, on the degree of syntactic embedding, on word order and also to a large extent on individual preferences of speakers. From an areal perspective Lithuanian is shown to pattern with the more conservative Slavic languages (Polish and Slovene), Latgalian and the Baltic Finnic languages Estonian and Finnish, rather than with the closely related Latvian, which, like Czech, has abolished genitive of negation almost altogether.

La interpretación de la función semántica de los argumentos es un tema que ha estado presente desde los inicios de la Gramática Generativa, con trabajos tan influyentes como Gruber (1965). Posteriormente, ya en el modelo GB, se intentó formalizar el conjunto de estas funciones semánticas (los Roles Temáticos, o roles-θ) mediante la llamada Teoría Temática. En el presente trabajo nos disponemos a hacer una revisión de la naturaleza y  justificación empírica y teórica de la Teoría Temática y los Roles Temáticos, partiendo de las concepciones clásicas de GB hasta llegar a las últimas revisiones dentro del marco del Programa Minimalista. Por último, intentaremos proponer una nueva teoría de los roles temáticos que se nutre no sólo de la Gramática Generativa sino también de las propuestas de la Teoría de la Relevancia y el Funcionalismo norteamericano. Intentaremos derivar una teoría temática con la menor cantidad posible de estipulaciones en un plano metodológico y de primitivos en un plano ontológico, lo que requerirá una revisión profunda del concepto de Caso y la determinación del ámbito de pertinencia de cada uno, en la medida en que consideramos que hay una relación de proyección entre Caso y rol-θ.

This paper analyses the differential object marking in the Finnic
languages. The first part of the article describes the main principles of the Finnic DOM that is based on the superposition of two contrasts. The main contrast is the opposition of partial vs. total objects based on the semantic category of partiality. The other contrast is the opposition of total cases (nominative, genitive and pronominal accusative) that serves for the hierarchical marking of syntactic roles. The second part of the paper analyses deviations from the described system that are observed in various Finnic languages including the less described Votic and Ingrian. Four types of constructions are considered in the paper:
(a) constructions with pronominal objects;
(b) constructions with objects expressed by the “numeral + substantive”
group;
(c) sentences with impersonal forms functioning as personal;
(d) sentences with predications expressed by two verbs.
The paper shows that in spite of the common principles of the differential object marking system, every Finnic language demonstrates its own specific preferences in the distribution of the object cases. Sometimes the deviations can be explained by the influence of a contact language (first of all, Russian), but in most cases the changes do not have an obvious explanation.

This paper deals with the Udmurt, Komi-Zyryan and Meadow Mari non-finite clauses headed by the suffix-m. These non-finite clauses can be used in relative, adjunct and argument position in the matrix clause. According to previous studies, the subject of these non-finite clauses can be either in the nominative or in the genitive, and this case alternation has to do with semantic and, partly, with syntactic factors. It has been observed that in Udmurt, the subject must bear the genitive if the non-finite clause is in argument position. In this study, I present some counterexamples to this generalisation. However, I argue that these are deverbal compounds. I try to extend the compound analysis to Komi-Zyryan and Meadow Mari as well. Additionally, I suggest that the position of the non-finite clause determines the case-marking of the subject. Finally, I briefly discuss the notion of the so-called " juxtaposed possessive construction ". Most of the presented (Udmurt) data come from own fieldwork.

The Animacy Hierarchy (AH) is one of the most important generalizations in linguistic typology employed for the description and explanation of variations and splits in case marking and agreement in various grammatical domains. The AH is a combined person/ definiteness/ semantic animacy scale that gives clear preferences of certain morphosyntactic coding types over others. One claim of the AH is that proper names occupy an intermediate place between personal pronouns and common nouns. Despite the large body of research since its first extensive formulation in Silverstein (1976), it is astonishing to discover that there has been almost no empirical evidence published for this claim. The goal of this paper is to give an answer to the question whether the morphosyntactic coding of proper names in the languages of the world confirms or falsifies their hypothesized position within the AH. Since the AH has been formulated mostly on the basis of case marking and agreement phenomena in split ergative languages and languages with hierarchical systems, the authors compiled a sample of languages of this type (more than 30 languages) in order to find data that confirm or falsify the hypothesis. One of the results is that there are only a very few instances that confirm the hypothesis, and in addition that there are more instances that contradict the hypothesis. The authors came to the conclusion that proper names should be better taken out of the AH since this hierarchical position has no predictive value in typology.