Article published in:
Bare Plurals, Indefinites, and Weak–Strong DistinctionEdited by Svetlana Vogeleer
[Belgian Journal of Linguistics 19] 2005
► pp. 3–27
The Role of Semantic Type in Differential 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.
Published online: 10 May 2006
https://doi.org/10.1075/bjl.19.03ble
https://doi.org/10.1075/bjl.19.03ble
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