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Differential Object Marking in Paraguayan Guaraní

Abstract Details

2009, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Linguistics.
Differential Object Marking (DOM), the marking of some but not all direct objects in a given language, is active in over 300 languages around the world. I examine the distribution of DOM in Paraguayan Guaraní by evaluating transitive clauses in a corpus of naturally-occurring Guaraní data with respect to several factor groups. I find animacy and topicality to have the strongest relationship with object-marking frequency and show that human topical objects are frequently marked, while non-human and/or non-topical objects are infrequently marked. I then examine a Guaraní corpus published in 1640, prior to substantial Spanish contact, and do not find any clear instances of DOM. This supports the hypothesis that DOM evolved in Guaraní as a result of Spanish influence, though I also show that DOM is not distributionally equivalent in Spanish and Guaraní today. The relevance of topicality to DOM in Guaraní is unaccounted for by the two main theories of DOM, what I call the "markedness approach" and the "transitivity approach," which only appeal to animacy and definiteness. Thus the current study motivates incorporating topicality into these theories.
Judith Tonhauser, PhD (Advisor)
Peter Culicover, PhD (Advisor)
Scott Schwenter, PhD (Committee Member)
155 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Shain, C. A. (2009). Differential Object Marking in Paraguayan Guaraní [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1243450139

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Shain, Cory. Differential Object Marking in Paraguayan Guaraní. 2009. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1243450139.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Shain, Cory. "Differential Object Marking in Paraguayan Guaraní." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1243450139

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)