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Differential Object Marking in Romance: Towards microvariation
Edited by Monica Alexandrina Irimia and Alexandru Mardale
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 280] 2023
► pp. 315–347

A micro-comparative approach to DOM in language-contact environments

The case of Catalan, Basque and Spanish

| University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
| University of Barcelona

This paper focuses on the interaction between Spanish DOM, on the one hand, and Basque and Catalan DOM on the other. We thus address the contact situation attested among these languages from a micro-comparative perspective and we base on both diachronic as well as synchronic data. In Basque the phenomenon is attested in Southwestern varieties, that is, in those varieties which are in contact with Spanish. In Catalan, it is widespread across most dialects, except for Roussillon Catalan (spoken in France), which aligns with Basque Northeastern varieties, also in contact with French. In both languages, the use of DOM has traditionally been considered by the prescriptive grammars as the result of the influence and pressure of Spanish, although several factors lead us to relativize the impact of such contact scenario.

Keywords: differential object marking, Basque, Catalan, Spanish, language contact
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The sociolinguistics of DOM in Basque and Catalan
  • 3.The morphosyntactic characterization of DOM in Catalan, Basque and Spanish
  • 4.Factors that trigger DOM in Catalan, Basque and Spanish
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • The following abbreviations will be used in the text
  • References
Published online: 27 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.280.12odr
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