Article published In:
Journal of Historical Linguistics: Online-First Articles

From oblique to core case in the Southern Min languages

The role of topic in the emergence of optional object marking in Sinitic

ORCID logo | Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l’Asie orientale

This study sets out to discuss the evolution from oblique to core case as a manifestation of overtly-marked nominative-accusative alignment in Sinitic languages. This is due to the emergence of a type of ‘optional’ marking on preverbal direct objects in a construction type that has become widespread in Sinitic (Chappell & Verstraete 2019). In particular, I examine spoken discourse data from Taiwanese Southern Min whose comitative preposition, ka7 , has grammaticalized into an optional object marker. It is argued that this marker is undergoing morphologization into a direct object index (doi) on the main verb in the predicate, subsequent to the omission of the resumptive pronoun it governs. The new index takes over this function of cross-referencing the lexical direct object, typically located in the immediately preceding discourse, if not in clause-initial position.

In an epilogue, I also briefly treat the evolution of local cases such as the allative and the perlative to optional object markers in the Southern Min languages of Shantou and Jieyang, situated in Guangdong Province, China. Both of these are extremely rare sources in the Sinitic family, yet common in Tibeto-Burman and Romance languages. The approach adopted is in harmony with recent diachronic studies which target source morphosyntax in order to explain the emergence of a variety of synchronic patterns, all bearing similar discourse and grammatical functions (Cristofaro & Zúñiga 2018).

Keywords: optional object marking, Southern Min, Sinitic, case, topicalization, topic continuity, direct object index
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Parallel semantic shifts and shared grammaticalization in Southeast Asia
  • 3.Sinitic languages
    • 3.1Conditions of use on the object marking constructions
      • 3.1.1Animacy of direct object noun
      • 3.1.2Telicity of the predicate
      • 3.1.3Givenness of direct object noun
      • 3.1.4Topicality
  • 4.Sinitic comitatives, their grammaticalization pathways into object-marking constructions
    • 4.1Southern Min object marking constructions
      • 4.1.1Type I: Common OM construction
      • 4.1.2Type II: Clause-initial lexical object with a resumptive pronoun introduced by the object marker
      • 4.1.3Type III: Clause-initial lexical object indexed by a proclitic object marker
      • 4.1.4Type IV: Double-marked object marking construction
    • 4.2Diachronic change and the comitative
  • 5.OMs in Taiwanese Southern Min discourse
  • 6.Epilogue: Allatives and perlatives as a source of oms in Shantou Southern Min
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Romanization
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 16 May 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.21038.cha
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