Objects and information structure

In many languages, the objects of transitive verbs are either marked by grammatical case or agreement on the verb, or they remain unmarked: this is differential object marking. This book is a cross-linguistic study of how differential object marking is affected by information structure, the structuring of the utterance in accordance with the informational value of its elements and contextual factors. Marked objects tend to be associated with old information or information that the sentence is about, while unmarked objects tend to express new information. The book also sheds light on grammatical patterning in languages with differential object marking: in some languages marked and unmarked objects have identical grammatical properties, whereas in other languages marked objects are more active in syntax. Finally, it provides a theory of the historical changes that lead to the emergence of various patterns of differential object marking.

Preface and Acknowledgements	p. 11
List of Abbreviations	p. 13
1 Introduction	p. 1
1.1 The phenomenon	p. 1
1.2 Previous work	p. 2
1.2.1 Markingas distinguishing arguments	p. 2
1.2.2 Marking as coding features	p. 5
1.2.3 DOM in transformational syntax	p. 8
1.3 Criteria for marking	p. 11
1.4 Our proposal	p. 13
1.4.1 Information structure	p. 14
1.4.2 Syntax	p. 17
1.4.3 Diachrony and grammaticalisation	p. 18
1.4.4 Limits of our analysis	p. 19
1.5 Structure of the book	p. 20
2 Syntactic assumptions	p. 22
2.1 Grammatical functions	p. 22
2.1.1 Grammatical function diagnostics	p. 23
2.1.2 Grammatical functions and semantic roles	p. 25
2.2 Objects	p. 26
2.3 Levels of syntactic representation	p. 28
2.4 Describing linguistic structures	p. 32
2.5 Grammatical agreement	p. 34
2.6 Agreement and pronominal incorporation	p. 36
2.7 Casemarking	p. 39
2.8 Nonsyntactic critera for casemarking patterns	p. 41
2.9 Conclusion	p. 44
3 Information structure in grammar	p. 45
3.1 The content of information structure	p. 4
3.2 Information-structure roles	p. 47
3.2.1 Focus	p. 47
3.2.2 Topic	p. 48
3.2.3 Topicality and topic-worthiness	p. 50
3.2.4 Secondary topic	p. 53
3.3Conclusion p. 57
4 Syntax and information structure	p. 58
4.1 Alternative views of information structure	p. 58
4.1.1 Tree-based representations	p. 58
4.1.2 Early work in LFG	p. 61
4.2 Information structure and its role in grammar	p. 65
4.2.1 Content of information structure: The LFG view	p. 65
4.2.2 Linguistic encoding of information structure relations	p. 67
4.2.3 Information structure in relation to semantics	p. 68
4.3 Our architecture	p. 71
4.3.1 Glue and the syntax-semantics interface	p. 71
4.3.2 Information structure features and relations	p. 75
4.3.3 Levels and equations	p. 78
4.3.4 A short text	p. 86
4.3.5 Information structure and its place in grammar	p. 90
4.4 Conclusion	p. 93
5 Topicality and grammatical marking	p. 94
5.1 Topical marking for different grammatical functions	p. 94
5.2 Grammatical encoding of topical subjects	p. 99
5.3 Subjects and topichood	p. 102
5.4 Conclusion	p. 106
6 Topical marking of nonsubjects	p. 107
6.1 Casemarking of topical nonsubjects	p. 107
6.1.1 Persian	p. 107
6.1.2 Tariana	p. 113
6.1.3 Topical nonsubject casemarking	p. 115
6.2 Agreement with topical nonsubjects	p. 116
6.2.1 Itelmen	p. 116
6.2.2 Tabassaran	p. 120
6.2.3 Topical nonsubject agreement	p. 122
6.3 Conclusion	p. 124
7 Topicality and DOM	p. 125
7.1 Objects as grammaticalised secondary topics	p. 125
7.2 Agreement with topical objects: Tundra Nenets	p. 127
7.3 Casemarking of topical objects	p. 132
7.3.1 Tigre	p. 133
7.3.2 DolakhaNewar	p. 137
7.4 Conclusion	p. 139
8 Primary and secondary objecthood and DOM	p. 140
8.1 Grammatical marking and grammatical function	p. 140
8.2 Object agreement and grammatical function: Ostyak	p. 142
8.3 Object casemarking and grammatical function	p. 150
8.3.1 Mongolian	p. 150
8.3.2 Chatino	p. 155
8.3.3 Hindi	p. 159
8.4 Objects and markedness	p. 164
8.5 Conclusion	p. 167
9 Multiple objects and grammatical alignment	p. 169
9.1 On the typology of multitransitive constructions	p. 169
9.2 No ditransitive construction	p. 172
9.2.1 Nenets	p. 172
9.2.2 Ostyak	p. 173
9.2.3 Mongolian	p. 175
9.3 Ditransitive constructions	p. 177
9.3.1 Chatino	p. 177
9.3.2 Hindi	p. 179
9.4 Other multitransitive constructions	p. 180
9.4.1 DolakhaNewar	p. 181
9.4.2 Tigre	p. 185
9.4.3 Applicatives: Upper Necaxa Totonac	p. 186
9.5 Topicality and goals	p. 191
9.6 Conclusion	p. 193
10 Semantic features, topicality and grammaticalisation	p. 194
10.1 Case studies	p. 194
10.1.1 Uralic	p. 194
10.1.2 Persian and the Iranian languages	p. 201
10.1.3 Hindi and the Indo-Aryan languages	p. 203
10.2 Paths of grammaticalisation	p. 207
10.2.1 Spreading of DOM	p. 208
10.2.2 Narrowing of DOM	p. 211
10.3 Towards a typology	p. 215
10.4 Conclusion	p. 217
11 Conclusion	p. 219
References	p. 223
Author Index	p. 240
Language Index	p. 243
Subject Index	p. 245

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